Sur la plage – Seignosse Le Penon, South West France.
- Yea mate, we were gonna fly to LA, drive south and base ourselves in Encinitas. Then we were heading up through the Mojave desert to Vegas for a few days. Last time I was in the states we stayed with mates in San Clemente and SAN Diego. We scored trestles, salt creek, Swamis, Cardiff, La Jolla … sick!!
- We then drove back up to LA and lucked into some nice waves at El Porto. The next day was so funny – we got up early, it was raining and onshore so we decided to keep heading North. We stopped at Walmart and picked up a tent and then checked Malibu. By the time we got to Ventura we were starving so we stopped at Denny’s and loaded up on lumberjack breakfasts with extra pancakes and gallons of coffee. Then we stopped at In and Out burger and I had a Double Double with fries: I was so stuffed !!
- We hit the road again and when we got to Carpinteria it was still raining and windy. The state park was open so we put the tent up and headed into town. We found a bar, there were some empty stools at the counter so we ordered beers and started chatting to some cool local dudes – next thing we were on a bar tour of Carpinteria,,rad !!
- It was real late when we got back to the tent, we were smashed. I unzipped the front, got in and we lay down but it was weird because both of us had our feet sticking out the door, it was like the tent had shrunk. Me and my mate both looked at each other and started laughing – we’d bought a kids tent, so funny!! and guess what – it rained all night. When we woke up our feet were fully submerged in a puddle!!
- We went straight to Rincon, the wind had fully dropped, there were head high sets and it was super clean. I paddled out on my 5’8 bonzer and started talking to this lovely old dude who had long hair and a massive beard. He was riding a green and white single fin with an Apache indian sprayed on the deck. A perfect set came in – the old dude went for the first one and was a bit deep, he took off under the lip and got stuck behind the first section. I turned and caught the wave real late. I had to angle my take off and as I slid sideways down the face I felt my centre fin dig in and then my board just took off; the wave was sick – it peeled all the way down the point and when I kicked out I was almost on the highway. Santa Barbara is so cool.
I called Guy initially to let him know that the Take 5 series will end this Summer. His response was ”No worries mate, it’s been wicked. Thanks for involving me. What have you got lined up?”
I told him and he asked “do ya think you could keep writing my Website news updates for me?”
“of course” I replied, “how exciting !!”
So, onwards we travel. I’ll catch up with you all again soon, as soon as Freedom has returned to the Free World … in the words of Neil Young (and Guy), “keep on Rockin in the Free World”
Ciao, Lucia