SURFIN' SAFARI SUMMER ONE - DAY TWENTY-ONE September 2, 2019



Blackjack. From the June 10 launch to Labor Day, the last of summer, we got out to the beach 21 times, keeping a pledge and ensuring that Surfin’ Safari Summer wasn’t just some empty logo. We’d plans to take the train and get off at San Clemente. There’s no actual station there so that you are dropped off in the sand and it’s just very cool, but the Amtrak Surfliner does not make that stop after 11.45 a.m. and we like to sleep in.


We tried to take up Ed Schwarz on an offer to surf his corner of Orange County (Echo Beach), but he went skeet shooting, unawares that Surfin’ Safari Summer is a deadly serious wave-hunting outfit. So, on Sunday, we headed off to Marina del Rey, where it all started (see Surfin' Safari Summer Day 1). As it was the aforementioned holiday, there was no place to park and none of our local surfer secrets were of any help. We coughed up $15, figuring it’s free the rest of the year, What the hay! We were joined by an old friend and relation, Christine Skaglund who was in from Austin, Texas.



It was gorgeous out there. The waves were very good. I surfed three sessions over a three-hour period and ran to the Venice Pier and back in between the first two. There’s a shot of me closing out a wave. It was a perfect way to sunset the summer: my arms steely, lungs elastic, skill level at something of a peak given the prior 20, concentrated safaris. The $15 parking fee blew a giant hole in the Surfin’ Safari Summer per diem, so we went to the $1 taco stand at Sepulveda and National, which we were going to anyway, because it won our hearts as the best tasting "al pastor" on the beach side of town. Will return with a recap once I have thought about this charming chapter in my life and, hopefully, my wife's, too.



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