Road Trip: C St./Surfer’s Point, Ventura CA

Me and the Mrs. rolled into Ventura last night about eight, unloaded and headed straight to the Aloha for grunts. Famished, downed a couple beers, all the bread and gobbled the entrees when they arrived. Whew! Blood sugar back up, time for bed.

I'm up at 0500 this morning thinking there can't be very much going on, maybe I should just sleep in. Wrong! Irony of ironies, I checked the surf cam on line and it was attached to the hotel where I was staying! Got a tide reading and a not half bad surf report before I checked the models. Four feet on the wave heights, but 16 second periods from a fading south. Hello! I'm out the door and down to the car to suit up (3/2 full) and shoulder carry the new Angulo 10-2 "Perfect Wave" down to the cement stairs.

I proceeded to surf for the next two hours in very consistent and fun waist to shoulder high clean waves, in light and warm offshores and in water temps hugging near the mid-60's. Life is good!

C St. is home to fossils like me and newbies. Fun soft waves in a near perfect setting. Pier to the right, mountains in the background, and the Channel Islands filling the landscape out to sea. The sunrise was drop dead perfect…does it get better than this? I suppose it does if it's really firing, but this morning was good, good enough for me.

I was the only guy on a SUP and I expect to get hassled. But, the crowd was pretty mellow. They either didn't say anything, or they were friendly. Cool! The only negative was an old lady who, as I was paddling back out to the line-up through an incoming set, paddled right in front of me to take off on an incoming wave; stopped, pivot turned on her butt, and told me to get out of the way…"please." Lady, I was getting out of the way before you stopped in front of me! No problem, no hassle. I paddled down toward Surfer's Point.

This is a great spot to surf and it holds a pretty big crowd because there are so many little reef, sand bar breaks from the point down through the s-curve south towards the pier. I didn't go out to the point itself, there being a number of shortboarders there. But I found a nice little shifting A-frame peak put up some nice steep take-offs and fast walls down the line into these little channels that were all over the place. It was a blast! Did that for two hours, caught a shizizit load of waves and I was done.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel is a great place to stay. We weren't sure where we'd end up that night 'cause we had no reservations. I pimped them for the cheapest rate and they offered AAA at $152. I said can I get the internet rate? The concierge gave me a computer room key card and said go make a reservation. Long story short, I couldn't do it online because of short notice, so…she gave us the room for $118. For future reference the place is dog friendly so we can bring the Cloudy-Boy. Also, you can't beat the location. Close to everything. Surf, pier, beach, fairgrounds, jogging, walking, Main Street, it's got it all.

Plenty of time to check out after a nice walk, and shower. Hit the road about 11:30, bound for Encinitas and the Moonlight Beach Motel. Arrived around 3:30P and absolutely no hassles checking in. Chin gave us (and I was hoping for this) one of the ocean view rooms of Moonlight Beach! Unpacked and headed over to the Leucadia Pizzeria, which is across the street, on the corner. Couple drafts and two really good salads and we were set for our afternoon nap.

The units in the Moonlight have little kitchenettes, so after a quick snooze, we're off to Trader Joes to stock up on a few items for the next couple days. Ed and Andy are enroute after working late last night, and then making some drop-offs in Pismo and Santa Barbara today. We meet up tomorrow at San-O. So far, this trip is 110% and getting better.