SoCal

Manhattan Beach

No trip is complete without a little mishap, right? In town for a wedding, I decided to extend my trip for a little bit of surfing in Sunset beach. I borrowed a board and drove down early morning, the fog still huffing along thick as goose down over the ocean. I paddled out on the miniature breaks for an hour before the chill got to me and the shortcomings of the board (no pun intended) became so very apparent. I reached my car and saddled up to find a longboard and before I hit the highway, I was hailed aside by some construction workers who noticed my flat tire. I was wondering what that sound was.

Later, my host suggested it might've been a turf thing. Or a race thing. That Orange County was very unfriendly toward outsiders. Which kind of made sense when you consider how else does a person get a flat while parked?

After the mechanic switched out my tire, I figured I might as well drive down to Huntington and check out that beach as well. It was still a little flat out, but I got a couple in before the chill got to me again. Cali beaches are not warm, which I guess I knew, but was somehow in denial about.