The beginning of the wave quest

The most sacrilegious words came out of my mouth the other day: I love surfing more than baseball. I never thought I would love anything more than baseball, it seemed impossible. But there you have it: surfing is better.  Now I am on a wave quest, which has put my stadium quest on the back burner.

I guess you could say this quest started some years back.  I would watch my two amazing kids, Santi and Victoria, pop up again and again with amazing style and grace. I wanted to surf like them but I resemble a trained monkey with a stance that says I need to loosen up. I wondered how long it would take me to surf like them and where would be the best spot in order for me to develop my skills?

A couple of weeks ago I went surfing with Santi at 15th street in Del Mar and he had never been there.  What?  A kid who grew up in SD surfing his whole life had never been to a spot so local to him?  That got me thinking about how many spots there are and how many I hadn't surfed.  I was instantly inspired to research all known spots and find the unknown.

I compiled a list of 110 spots staring at Boca Rio just inches north of the Mexico border to San Clemente.  The list was good but I needed something visual.  I searched online for maps to buy but nothing seemed to highlight the coast and be of the size I wanted.  So I went to google, put the map in photoshop enlarged it and printed it, 48 sheets in total.  A few hours later I had the 8x11 pieces of paper cut and taped together.  That wasn't enough, I needed to go further.  I ran over to Micheals (which kills me, that place is like a safe haven for people who have lost all touch with the outdoors).  I got some foam core boards, spray adhesive and red (haven't surfed)/green (have surfed) pins.  The results was two  36x48 wall mounted maps of all the spots.  It isn't pretty or in color but all quests start a little rough.

After all the work was completed I mounted them on the wall in Victoria's room, which is now surf mission central.  

North San Diego Map Beginning, cutting and taping

South San Diego spots identified, labeled and pinned and wall mounted

Close up of pinned spots

As I lay back in Victoria's bed staring at all the red pins I can feel the green ones begging to be let out of the box.  I decided not to color code green the spots I have already surfed because I want to start fresh.  Though I am not looking forward to Rockpile, no surf, osprey and avalanche again. Though one on a quest must be open to the experience even if the prior ones sucked. I am working on my surf journal now, making sure I remember to capture all the right information each time I head out.  Who knows how long it will take or what I will discover but I am stoked beyond my head space to get started.