Thursday, January 26, 2006
As hard as it was to drag ourselves away from perfect Rincon the South was calling so Thierry and I hit the freeway at 8pm. THe intention was a nice and easy 2 hour drive to Hermosa Beach LA but we missed our turn off and had to circumnavigate a lake which really wasn't all that scenic in the dark. 4 hours and a jalpeno burger later we were checked in to a dive hostel with no locks and assorted bed linen to accompany the loony tunes tourist towels you got. If love at first sight is possible then so is hatred.
I learned a lot sitting behind Thierry, the surf board not allowing the passenger seat to be used, such as the ying and yang of the continental European. How someone can be tres philosophique about snapping two boards in a month, talking about seaguls and trawlers, then get behind the wheel and come over all Selhurst Park when undertaken. No matter we got we where going which was LAX to change a ticket.
I have always been quite sceptical about the whole gangster image of rap music bringing out criminal tendencies but am now reconsidering. Having parked in the strictly no waiting zone I was left with the car which I kept saying would be there just 2 more minutes, well past the point that even i believed it. Eventually the bicycle-mounted police were called and said move it leaving me with little choice to do so or else it would be towed, probably detonated and I would be in Guantanamo Bay by bed time. 12 hours in LA and I was already stealing a car and driving without insurance. 3 excruciatingly careful laps of the departures loop and I decided to park up and get an ice cream.
We made it to San Diego without drama and found a spot called Swarmis with a wave running. The only boards available to us were 6'4" tourist specials which I gladly paddled out on but Thierry was lacking the famous french sense of humour about he whole affair. His loss, I got to surf with a pod of dolphins at sunset which felt for all the world like being on the cover of an easy listening album. With that image in my brain I had no trouble getting to sleep instead of being plagued by the essential right or wrongness in absolute moral terms of driving illegally.
I learned a lot sitting behind Thierry, the surf board not allowing the passenger seat to be used, such as the ying and yang of the continental European. How someone can be tres philosophique about snapping two boards in a month, talking about seaguls and trawlers, then get behind the wheel and come over all Selhurst Park when undertaken. No matter we got we where going which was LAX to change a ticket.
I have always been quite sceptical about the whole gangster image of rap music bringing out criminal tendencies but am now reconsidering. Having parked in the strictly no waiting zone I was left with the car which I kept saying would be there just 2 more minutes, well past the point that even i believed it. Eventually the bicycle-mounted police were called and said move it leaving me with little choice to do so or else it would be towed, probably detonated and I would be in Guantanamo Bay by bed time. 12 hours in LA and I was already stealing a car and driving without insurance. 3 excruciatingly careful laps of the departures loop and I decided to park up and get an ice cream.
We made it to San Diego without drama and found a spot called Swarmis with a wave running. The only boards available to us were 6'4" tourist specials which I gladly paddled out on but Thierry was lacking the famous french sense of humour about he whole affair. His loss, I got to surf with a pod of dolphins at sunset which felt for all the world like being on the cover of an easy listening album. With that image in my brain I had no trouble getting to sleep instead of being plagued by the essential right or wrongness in absolute moral terms of driving illegally.
