Hank's Bodysurfing Blog: Back in the Park ... Feelin' Good!

Seems like an age since I've been out where I consider my "home" stomping grounds, San Clemente State Beach, a/k/a "the Park" (for San Clemente State Park, which sits right above it). I guess that's because it's been six weeks since my last session in the Park, and another month since the one before that. Nonetheless, it still feels like home.

In actuality, when I went to bed last night, I figured the chances were slim that I'd be heading south early today: most wind models had 12- 16 mph winds out of the southeast for the morning, enough to severely mess up the 2-4 foot swell anticipated. Nonetheless, it was worth a check of the cams in the morning, since there'd be at least some swell and the tides were benign.

Ah, the cams! Some decry what they've done to surfing, removing that "all in" if you commit to surf, and getting there, or depriving the true local of the advantage wrought by the ability to wake up and personally check the surf. I understand the viewpoint, but can't share it. Left to the forecasts, I'd have been deprived of a nice little session this morning, and it's not like the Park was overrun - it was a pretty modest gathering of sticks and sponges out, throughout the morning.

So, what I saw on the cams was completely clean conditions. Until a couple walked by on the beach to provide some scale, it looked pretty small - like, knee high - but with the human bodies to measure against, I could see that the wave height, as forecast, was up around shoulder-high. So, I hauled myself out of bed, downed a first cup of coffee (with a roadie to go) and some Kefir, and jumped in the car for the drive south. I was not to be disappointed.

A thin grey overcast kept the sun struggling to peak through, but what little wind there was came from offshore. A thin line of sticks, with a few sponges interspersed, stretched from LG1 to the south up through the main peak area.

The waves were chest and shoulder high, and peaky, with a bowl working inside at the main peak (above) and sandbars creating a variety of shifting peaks.

Amazed that I could still be surfing in my shortie, in 66-degree water, in November, in a rare solo session, I swam out to an empty area just north of Main Peak, and remained there throughout an hour and a half session, with an occasional stick (surfboard) or sponge (bodyboard) drifting through.

My first two waves were classic Park. One a right, the other a left. Both at least shoulder high, and with a great corner that presented a fast, hard slide, followed by a pitching lip that closed over me to enclose me - for the first of many such this morning - in a shimmering crystalline tube.

These may have been the best two waves of the day, but as the session evolved, it was about those few seconds in the tube...some just pure crystal, while others ranged from luminescent cyan to glittery sapphire. The beauty of bodysurfing: while some of these cylindrical enclosures may have been of sufficient size to embrace a surfer on a board, there were those this morning, inaccessible to board surfers, that were sized only to the bodysurfer.

I did strap the GoPro to my wrist before swimming out. Today's shots are more oriented toward the scenery and environment - the gestalt, if you will - of being out there in a shimmering, glassy morning with the sun peaking through, than really of the surf conditions. I hope you enjoy!