When it was announced that Rip Curl would hold a search event at Ocean Beach in San Francisco it created quite a buzz in the surfing community, both locally here in San Francisco and world wide. The San Francisco vibe can be considered the antithesis of the Pro Surfing vibe so many locals frowned on the whole idea while others were stoked. Internationally many frowned on the location – mainly because the idea of the Search, is framed as the world’s best surfers in the world’s best waves. Just the fact OB is a beach break disqualified it as a worthy destination in the eyes of many. Also few people know the potential OB holds for quality surf. Rumor had it many pros were stoked, some said they were tired of competing in perfect reef breaks but also because they were looking forward to hanging out in San Francisco which is better known for its nightlife than its surf.
As time went on many blogs and chats were full of locals looking forward to seeing the pros get ruded by the infamous paddle out and currents of OB. When the park service decided not to allow jet skis to tow the pros back out during their heat many locals cheered –“make the pros work for it!” and others complained that it was going to lower the wave count and make for boring heats. The only chat comment I ever made was to counter the idea the pros were going to get worked. Hell, If I can surf big OB, they can! These guys surf the world’s heaviest waves – OB is not that heavy. Well in the end I think the pros dominated beyond the expectations of most locals. These guys killed it in some big challenging conditions at OB – they made it look easy, like they were playing in little surf. The floaters and barrels these guys were pulling off in powerful less than perfect OB conditions were unreal. But I get ahead of myself.
I do not follow pro surfing and before they came to my town I did not know most the names on the tour – I know the guys who have been around for 10 years or so. So my excitement prior to event was not huge. Like many locals, however, I love Ocean Beach and am very proud of our local surf spot. I love to share places with visitors and this is especially true of the scene in San Francisco as well as the surf. So knowing these legends would be visiting my turf, I definitely wanted OB to turn on for them and I also hoped they would get a good taste of the life of the city. As it turns out I think they were impressed by both. I talked with many of them who had tons of fun surfing and partying in San Fran and I also heard from many locals that they were seen all over the city as well as surfing the best waves all over the beach and they were even seen surfing all time epic spots in the area – some of them fairly secret.
The first day of the contest had sizeable conditions, I think the bouys were about 13 @14. Not ideal conditions for OB. The short interval makes for an especially brutal paddle. I watched the contest online a bit at school. Turns out my students were working on a research project so I could sneak a lot of peaks at the live feed on the Rip Curl website. The surfing was impressive and I was instantly hooked. Watching these guys compete at my home break was epic! These guys were killing it in pretty gnarly OB surf. After that first day I had the bug. The following day I knew the conditions were as good as they would get so I left work for a few hours and watched a bit of the contest live from the beach. The day was as good as it gets –hot, offshore, the swell was only coming in about 7@12 but it seemed bigger. I saw double overhead peaks in the middle of the beach. It really does not get any better than that day at OB. It was good the entire beach all day long. Light offshore, clean, hollow, right and lefts, peaks everywhere. It killed me to drive back to work without surfing. I am still regretting not taking the entire day off and getting in a surf that day. It was an epic day in surfing history – the one year anniversary of Andy Iron’s death and Kelly won his 11th world title (of course it turned out they made a mathematical miscalculation and he actually needed to win one more heat, so he did not really win that day).
The contest and the pros made me feel like a grommet again. I was taking photos and totally wanted to get some autographs. I have always thought autographs were a little silly but I love surfing memorabeila and this event – the only time in my life most likely the pros will be here – was a key event from which I wanted to collect some memories.
I really wanted a poster but the surf shops ran out. The only way to get one seemed to be to go to Wise Surfboards on Saturday when the Rip Curl team would be signing posters. So I hatched a plan to take Noah and Anke to Wise on Sat and to hopefully watch a little contest before hand. They ended up not holding the contest Wed, Thur, Fri, or Saturday. The weather was sketchy – turns out they missed some of the best surf but from what I hear the boys were actually not missing it at all, being spotted up and down the coast at a variety of spots. So Sat we went to Wise and waited in line to meet the Rip Curl Team and get some autographs. Noah was very excited by the idea of meeting the world’s best surfers. It was actually pretty cool. The guys were very cool and were obviously loving San Fran. Noah got his photo with them all as well as a poster and hat autographed. The Rip Curl team includes Mick Fanning, Owen Wright, Taylor Knox, Matt Wilkinson, Gabriel Medina, Dillon Perillo and Dean Brady. All legends – some from my generation (Taylor), the world number two – Owen Wright, Matt – one of my favs with his classic style and tie dyed wetsuit, and of course wonder kid Gabriel Medina from Brasil who won the event at 17 years of age.
Noah went to bed that night reading surf magazines and looking for photos of his new heros. We made a plan to return with the family to the contest after work on Tuesday but then they ran the contest Sunday with hopes of finishing on Monday. I figured it would be lame if Noah’s only memory of the contest was getting autographs so I called in sick Monday morning for myself and Noah and the family went to watch some of the contest on the final day. It was another gorgeous day for weather and surf. Noah was the classic grommet and chased down the pros as they exited the water to get their autographs added to his hat. He also got a picture signed for his teacher who is also a surfer. (it was the least he could do since he was missing class)
The pro tour coming to San Fran in the end was a good thing. San Fran was a great host and the guests all had a great time. The locals were impressed beyond their expectations, I think, at the level of surfing that happened. I know I was inspired watching them and my first couple sessions after seeing them surf felt really good. I was channeling some of what I witnessed for sure. And I am guessing the world surfing community may have increased its respect for OB as a reasonable place to surf. I have not seen any discussions regarding this but there was one great video of some of the pros free surfing OB that was titled “OB doesn’t suck”.
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