Surfless Road Trip

Heeere's Lizzie, my new 2008 MINI Cooper S surf-chariot (surf-mobile sounds too slow and stodgy, and she's fast and soooo cute). Watching the kites fly at Waddell.

For the last week or so, the spring winds have returned with a vengeance, crapping out the western-exposure breaks, so the only choice today was sheltered Santa Cruz. I decided to have a funner drive in my new car by taking winding Highway 84 through the mountains and then 1 along the coast. We were having a blast on 84's curves until Skyline Drive, when a Chevy SUV pulled out in front of me. It was going at a respectable speed, but not as fast I could and would like to go. Unfortunately the jerk driver refused to use the turnouts though he damn well knew I wanted to pass. Yo, dude, maybe you're jealous, or pissed off that you have to be driving a stupid butt-ugly Chevy thing instead of a totally cute MINI with racing stripes, but why are you holding me back?!! After ten or so miles there was finally a passing lane and I left him in the dust.

When I came in view of the coast at San Gregorio, I could see serious whitecaps on the ocean. I kept driving south, stopping at Waddell and Davenport to check the surf, which was both empty and messy.

The dinosaur of Davenport.

Unfortunately, I badly misunderestimated (Bushism) the extra time the coast road would take to Santa Cruz, when I had to be back up in Half Moon Bay in the early afternoon for a meeting. This caused me to create an exception to the Tyrfing rule: The surfboard does not have to get wet if, for whatever reason, water time would be less than time spent changing, and the conditions are such that the odds of scoring at least one wave are nearly nil. It's just not worth it if it takes longer to struggle into and out of the wetsuit than I'd be surfing without real hope of reward. Unregrettably, the surf was infrequent and only waist high at the Slot, and crowded for the conditions.

We had the perfect door-ding-safe spot overlooking Cowells.

At least I had nice drive in the new car, but to make the trip at least partly worthwhile, I stopped at a parking lot sale at the Surf Outlet and bought an itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie little pink Ripcurl bikini. I definitely won't wear it when I'm surfing in Hawaii in a few weeks. Pros can, but I'd run a serious risk of surfacing without it after a wipeout. A naked paddle-in would be entertaining for the lineup but not my idea of fun!