Depending where you looked, swell forecast was 1-2 or 2-3 feet for South San Clemente. Super high tide, over six feet at 6:45. Not a recipe for a great session. Taken at face value, through most of the morning we'd see a barely-breaking surge sweeping up the sand.
Something made me doubt it - there were two west swells coming in, both over 2 feet...they could combine for some reasonable surf. Well, it appears that most of the surfers in South Orange County believed the forecast, as, on arrival at 8:15, there was only a scattering of long-weekend surfers down from the SC State Park Campground above, south at LG 1 and a couple of locals out at Riveria to the north. Main Peak was empty as shoulder-high, peaky and bowling waves shimmered under the semi-overcast morning.
I was anxious to get in, lest word get out. I was half-suited up by the time Mark Ghattas arrived in the lot, and was swimming out at the Main Peak area moments later.
Even before Mark was in the water, I'd caught two hollow rights, both with barrels glowing turquoise in the filtered sunlight.
For over an hour, we had the long stretch from the steps to the rocks entirely to ourselves, save a couple of marines from Texas that were out on surfboards for the first time ever. Any wave we wanted was ours, and there were plenty of fun ones.
For most of a half hour, the life guard on duty parked where we were surfing and watched from her truck. We had occasional audience from the strollers drawn to the beach on a warming winter day as the sun burned through the high clouds.
The water was a little cooler - the San Clemente pier has yet to register under 60, but it seemed barely that today. It was fun with the GoPro today. I got a lot of clips of Mark, the better of which are in the video below. A great first session in the Park for 2015!
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