Kook Zone

Since my face met my board hard the Sunday before last, I'd only surfed once, the very next day and very carefully at the reef break, where I could mostly avoid having water splash against my painfully swollen left cheek. Then the groundswell faded to nothing and I literally couldn't face the whitewatery splashiness of short-period surf at a beach break.

Just when I could almost face the water again, hurricane Delores brought steep-angled swell (that mostly passed by San Diego) and also rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain.

At Pride last Saturday, before almost enough rain fell for them to swim down the street

With the water dirty from copious amounts of first-flush runoff, I had to wait some more - and it had already been so very long. 48 hours after the deluge, I was finally at the beach on a warm sunny afternoon, in my sleeveless 2-mil long Jane with Rocket under my arm.

In the summer, the lifeguards block off five blocks south of Crystal Pier as a swimming-only zone. 5 blocks! (I looked up the municipal code and found that it authorizes the lifeguards to set up activity zones however they please in the interest of public safety. No way to effectively quibble with that.) I went in a bit farther south of the yellow-and-black checkered flag that marks the swim-surf boundary, trying to avoid a surf school massing on soft-tops, and was dismayed to see the next checkered flag wasn't all that much farther down the beach.

Briefly I had a peak to myself and rode a couple of fun waist-high lefts. They weren't much but I was glad to have them. Then another pack of surf-schoolers came out, and a dozen tourists messing around on Wavestorms - kooks were everywhere. I found another peak that, when not encroached upon by beginners, was sort of a haven for me and the three others who knew how to surf. Then I got to thinking: Wouldn't it be nice if there were three zones - swim, kooks, and real surfers?

My bad attitude melted under the warm sun as I rode more fun little waves. It's hard to stay grumpy in the ocean.