Last weekend I went to LA with a friend to visit my girlfriend, who was doing a Yoga teacher training, fly on the trapeze on the Santa Monica Pier and surf Malibu.
Meatloaf said two out of three ain't bad but Jake and I had it better for having missed out on surfing Malibu! We ended up surfing Topanga instead and it was just short of epic. Great waves, great weather and nice people. One guy said it was as good as he'd ever seen it.
After getting shacked -- yes -- tubed right in California -- we ran up the coast to see the Bu and make sure we weren't missing anything. We weren't. It was not terribly crowded but the waves were smaller and slower at Malibu and we had a much better time at Topanga.
Here are some photos.
Topanga canyon has a creek that runs out to the sea. It was stopped up so no sand bar action.
This break, just to the North is called Boomers and it was bigger, steeper and better than the sandbar. So that's where we surfed. Our guide said that on winter swells, you could connect a ride from her to the sandbar but that wasn't happening when we were there. We did get a number of big, steep lefts and rights that broke right onto a rocky beach.
Jake got blooded at Topanga. One of the rocks got him as he was dismounting after a wild ride.
I was luckier. I got a few bumps but no bruises or blood.
And I got tubed!
It's just like everyone describes. It looked like the films you see but 100 times more fun.
Suddenly, it gets dark. That's because the wave has folded over on you, blocking out the sun, sound and all but a circle of light that you are racing towards. Once I figured out that I wasn't having tunnel vision (I have been tubed before but not by a wave that I could stand inside), I got equal jolts of excitement and relaxation. This is what I blame for wiping out shortly thereafter...
The rest of the trip was fun and rewarding. No photos of flying at TSNY LA but I hope to go back and get you some. Suffice it to say that all the people at the trapeze school in LA were nice, cool, good fliers and fun to hang out with., Even if they all were too hung over to surf on a Sunday morning.
