Surf’s Up

Looking for a little Friday night fun?  Here in Laguna, we have free entertainment from the sea and the Surfers, thanks to the big swells that will hit our beaches this weekend.  Profiting from an early end to the day, I went to Rockpile Beach, which is close to our house and gets some good swells when the surf is up~

Rockpile is so-named for a good reason; it is studded with rocks in the surfline, and once the waves break you are in an area of a few feet of water and a very rocky bottom, so it’s adequately dangerous~

On a busy day like today, you have surfers stacked up; look out below~

The rocks make the surf tricky; this is generally surf for locals and experienced surfers~

The guys all looked to be having a good time in the water; I do not surf, but I know it’s a great rush and a great way to de-stress, especially in this big surf~

Who needs yoga when you are out doing this~

and this, cleanly over the lip and down the back side~

The force of the waves as they come in is tremendous~

In many years of watching the surfers at this beach I have never seen anyone sandwiched between the wave and the rocks; locals know this particular rock is 10 ft high in average surf, so we use it to tell how high the surf is~

Today, among the crowd of onlookers, we guessed between 10 and 15 foot surf;  beautiful lines~

Rockpile has one small cove between it and Main Beach, the “tourist” beach which had much flatter surf and definitely no swimmers today; the lifeguards would be sure of that~

So the focus in North Laguna was on Rockpile; we all stood around and watched, even the birds seemed rapt~

The surfers were all still in the water when I left, save one.  We have a large contingency of graying yet very fit surfers; more power to you; I could not do it!  I am not watermarking any of these images in case any of these surfers find themselves in this post and want the images. Not to mention I am a little l a z y today~

Seems a small price, a few photos for the enjoyment of watching you all surf.  I will be down at the beach at some point over the weekend to check out the scene.  Bon week-end a tous~