Related Links
Life on the swells
The high surf encountered this year along the Sonoma County coast has pushed some surfers to Doran Beach, where the water is calm and the waves break quickly.
KENT PORTER / PDPublished: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 10:43 p.m.
The North Coast is dramatic, the Pacific Ocean crashing over towering rock stacks and against steep cliffs, the surf welling up and pushing into coves.
Noisy, dangerous, breathtaking and harsh, those conditions shape the sport of surfing, which during the past two decades has taken a firm hold north of the Golden Gate.
The winter of 2010 has been particularly rough, with January storms stirring up swells that have made some memorable days for experienced surfers, but the raw nature of the North Coast remains daunting.
“The water is cold and it is rough and it is not Southern California and there are sharks,” said Mike Frey of Rohnert Park, a longtime surfer.
“Those are what keep people out of the water,” said Frey, chairman of the Sonoma Coast Surfrider Foundation, a group dedicated to protecting beaches and the waves that crash over them.
Nick Marlow, owner of Northern Light Surf Shop in Bodega, said the Sonoma County coast breeds surfers who are independent and strongly individualistic, but at the same time part of a tight-knit network that often marks the weeks by the tides and the size of the swells.
“Our coastline up here is definitely more exposed than a lot of surf communities, like Santa Cruz, which everyone compares us to,” Marlow said. “There are a lot of surfers up here, but because the spots are spread out, it is not as concentrated. Surfers tend to be not as aggressive.”
There is no accurate count of the number of surfers in Sonoma County. Some say there is a core of 100; others guess 1,000.
On the West Coast, surfing was a $2.4 billion business in 2008, according to the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, a slight dip from 2004, even though most surfers feel the surf boom of the 1990s is continuing.
Marlow, who has owned Northern Light for 16 years, has a different measure: “It used to be you recognized everyone who comes through the door, but now you see a lot more unfamiliar faces. There are a lot of surfers up here.”
North Coast water temperatures are in the 50s year-round, making wetsuits a necessity. With the rough surf, it is a physically demanding sport.
“If it looks big and rough, it is usually rougher and bigger than it looks,” said Brit Horn of Cazadero, a lifelong surfer and part-time Sonoma Coast State lifeguard. “It breeds a heartier surfer. They get stuck going out in conditions that change pretty rapidly.”
The surf spots are spread out along a sparsely populated coast. Some are well known, such as Bolinas, Dillon Beach, Doran Beach and Salmon Creek. Less known are RCA, Goat Rock, Jenner, El Griffo's and Sneaks.
There are secret locations north of Jenner that are jealously guarded by the few who have found and pioneered the spots.
Particularly in Sonoma County, the ocean in those spots can be rough and the waves steep.
“You learn surfing up here and you go other places in the world and you are well prepared,” Marlow said. “It's a give and take. It is definitely harder to learn, but it prepares you for any type of condition.”
The surfing crowd is diverse: doctors, lawyers, judges, police officers, firefighters, violin makers, teachers, insurance company executives, advertising salesmen and construction workers.
For some, surfing is what you work your life around, taking jobs that provide the flexibility to head to the coast when the conditions are best, while others are the weekend warriors balancing work and family.
“For the most part, it has become a pretty mainstream thing,” said Megan Halavais of Bodega Bay, who works at the Bodega Bay Surf Shack.
North Coast surfers tend to be an older crowd, unlike in Southern California where the beach is within walking or bicycling distance, said Jamie Murray of Santa Rosa, a surfboard shaper and a teacher at Sonoma Academy.
“Here, it demands a time investment to even get to the ocean, and then driving north and south to find a spot that is working,” said Murray, 36.
“Surfers tend to be on the older scale. It's like ‘Cocoon' out there,” he said, referring to the 1985 film featuring senior citizens.
Murray, who grew up surfing on the East Coast, said the other defining aspect of the North Coast surf culture is a civility missing from many of the crowded Santa Cruz and Southern California spots.
“There is a respect for people in the water here. You have to overcome a lot of hurdles to even get wet here,” Murray said. “At Bodega Bay, it is difficult for beginners even to get out. It is a self-selecting crowd.”
Surfing didn't take off on the North Coast until the 1990s, said surfing historian Matt Warshaw of San Francisco, author of the “Encyclopedia of Surfing.”
“San Francisco has always had a bit of a surf culture, going back a ways,” Warshaw said. “North of the bridge was a different deal. There were not a lot of guys traveling across the Golden Gate Bridge.”
What changed was a realization that Bolinas, the reclusive Marin County town, had waves that were gentle and consistent enough for beginners.
“Suddenly, there were a lot more people putting on boards and driving over there instead of Pacifica, the other beginners' place,” Warshaw said.
Dave Ehreth, 60, of Healdsburg had surfed Bolinas since he was a teenager and returned there three years ago. Instead of the usual three dozen surfers in the water, which he considered a crowd, he counted 130.
“I don't know what happened, but everybody in the world decided to go surfing,” he said. “I am happy to see it, but I feel squeezed out.”
Ehreth said he was bitten by the surf bug when, as a teenager, he saw a movie by surfing pioneer Bruce Brown.
“In the early '60s, there was this surf craze and I was attracted to the scene, the ocean,” he said. “What was cool was watching Greg Noll come spitting out of the tube at the Banzai Pipeline. I just thought ‘holy crap, that is really cool.'”
Ehreth became an avid surfer, even using waves and surf as part of the design of the logo and the building housing Westwave, his former high-tech company.
Like most surfers, he talks about the sport's attraction reverentially.
“Surfing is not like any other sport. It is not like playing tennis; it is not like skiing,” Ehreth said. “Surfing brings you in touch with natural forces in a way no other sport comes even close. The consequences to surfing on the psyche are irreversible ... it affects the way you see everything.”
Frey, a Dillon Beach regular, said surfing makes you forget everything else.
“The ability to jettison everything else in your life for just this one moment; you have a 10-foot wave bearing down on you at Shark Pit and you don't think about work,” Frey said.
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.
com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.