My boxes of green pins are staring at me asking why they are
still claustrophobically cooped up in their box. They seriously want to replace those gloating red pins and say, "Booyah beotch I went there". I sadly look at them and in inanimate item
language I telepathically tell them ‘because it is raining’.
Rain is great for surfing in some
ways, especially heavy storms because it flushes tons of soil and sand into
lineups sculpting some of the best sandbar and bottom-contour conditions. San Diego needs it because the huge waves we
got in early January really messed up the bottoms and the waves have been
pretty poor.
The only problem with rain for
surfers is the storm water pollution. When rain falls onto an urban landscape
it flows through the streets and drainage systems and is flushed into the sea
untreated. The very same principle that allows rainwater to carry sand and soil
into the lineup also allows for storm drainage systems to carry the discarded
detritus and wayward pollutants of mankind. This untreated rainwater,
pollutants and all, is known to experts as urban storm water, and as you can
imagine, it’s disgusting.
Allowing the untreated urban
run-off into the ocean is like letting your neighbor hose down his driveway,
wash the bathroom floor, spray out the bottom of his garbage pails and then
dump the dirty water into your pool.
I could risk it, I could paddle
out and pretend that my fellow mankind hasn’t broken any environmental laws and
washed the oil off their driveway or all the dog pee from downtown isn’t being
crashed all over my face each time I turtle under a break. I don’t like being sick so I guess my green
pins will have to wait for another day.
