Is a better SoCal surf spot too much to ask for?

[Zooport]

   Actually, the crowd at La Jolla Shores doesn't bother me in the least.  There's always a corner somewhere to be had.
   On a positive note, I had my best session of the trip today, by paddling out to the point at Tourmaline.  Finally, a wave that doesn't close out.  Yay!  Because it directly faces cliffs, there was a good bit of backwash but it didn't bother me as much as it normally does, no doubt because the waves were so much better than the junk i've had to deal with these past two weeks.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a repeat performance.
   Folks here been telling me waves are coming this weekend but so is a ton of rain and you don't want to surf places that catch the runoff.  Maybe wait a day or two.  Okay, I can do that.

I surf in the rain, but I wear a *nose plug, ear plugs and surf where there are few outlets for runoff.  Great fun, sometimes good waves and rarely any crowd.  Never had a problem in 35 years.


*Yes, a nose plug.  https://www.amazon.com/Kayak-Plugs-Sinus-Saver-Sports/dp/B01N2QITIZ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481769307&sr=8-3&keywords=sinus+saver

[SlatchJim]

During a rain isn't so bad.  It takes some time for urban runoff to make it's way into the lineup. Kinda like biking in front of a bus.

[Tom]

The first big rain of the year is the worst. We've had 9 months of crap resting in the arroyos just waiting to be washed to our beaches. I'll not go near the water below of any canyon for 2 or 3 days after the first big rain, especially Tourmaline and La Jolla. The rest of the rains, I'll wait a day, unless the surf is really, really good.

[seadart]

Speaking of should have been here yesterday - this morning was a lot of small short period stuff but when the storm started to blow through there were some really nice shoulder high waves for about 40 minutes.

San Diego has a dirty secret and it is that the City and County are in violation of clean water laws.   It's usually not a big problem surfing when the storm starts, but it's not a real good idea to surf after street run-off is coming into the water.  In the last few years a handful of surfers have died from bugs they caught in the water off San Diego.   I've never had  a problem surfing in the more posh neighborhoods of Lajolla - Rich people and their dogs  tend to have their nasty viruses and bacteria treated, but stay away from the storm drain outlets.   We used to have lots of migrant workers camping in the open spaces and leaving human waste in the watershed near lagoons in Delmar and North county, development has cleared a lot of these folks out and a lot have not come looking for work because of better times in Mexico.   You don't want to get near Imperial Beach during or after a storm.  Also Cardiff Reef is a notorious spot still.  Sewage overflows in Escondido make their way down the watershed to the lagoon at Cardiff, sometimes you can smell and taste nasty stuff in the water.  About 12 years ago I got really sick after surfing at Cardiff two days after a storm and spent a day in the emergency room, the ER doctor called me up and told me they had several people come in with the same intestinal symptoms who had been surfing Cardiff the same time --- I only go there when I am sure the lagoon area has been clean for several weeks.

[digger71]

In the last few years a handful of surfers have died from bugs they caught in the water off San Diego.

I know of 1 in late 2014.  Any others in that handful?

[SUPcheat]

Doppler is showing massive rain all over California down into baja. SoCal is getting a rinse cycle.

[seadart]

In the last few years a handful of surfers have died from bugs they caught in the water off San Diego.

I know of 1 in late 2014.  Any others in that handful?

I looked around online and just found news stories about Barry Ault who died Christmas Day 2014 and it may have been a heart valve infection issue, not everyone is going to have.  The others I have heard of I don't have names and did not find any evidence of  anyone dying. One of those was a friend of a coworker.  I did find a lot of infection and illness stories where people claimed to have "almost died." Not quite the same is it though, however my own case of the "Cardiff Crud" was pretty unpleasant.

[Tom]

In the last few years a handful of surfers have died from bugs they caught in the water off San Diego.

I know of 1 in late 2014.  Any others in that handful?

I looked around online and just found news stories about Barry Ault who died Christmas Day 2014 and it may have been a heart valve infection issue, not everyone is going to have.  The others I have heard of I don't have names and did not find any evidence of  anyone dying. One of those was a friend of a coworker.  I did find a lot of infection and illness stories where people claimed to have "almost died." Not quite the same is it though, however my own case of the "Cardiff Crud" was pretty unpleasant.

Barry was a friend of mine, not only was there a paddle out here at Sunset Ciffs, but I spread his ashes at San Carlos in Baja where we windsurfed together. His issue was more complicated than water pollution combined with recovering from open heart surgery. To me there a a lot of unanswered questions.

What I do know is he, another friend Dave Lucus (recent cancer survivor), and a third person I do not know, were surfing at a break called New Break just after a rain and they all got so seriously sick they were hospitalized for days. It was not the first rain of the season, many others went surfing that day at a number of near by breaks, others surfed that break at different times that day, and New Break is far from any run-off except for an outfall that comes from a secure Navy research facility.

[TallDude]

River mouths are not the only worry. If we have big down pours, the municipal sewer systems get inundated. The untreated sewer water overflows, then gets mixed into the storm drain system which has multiple outlets to the ocean that are not related to any river mouth. Even the sewage treatment plant discharge pipes which are for the most part 'grey water', extend out into the ocean at various spots along the beaches.  Mexico on the other hand, just pumps and/or just lets drain untreated waste directly into the ocean. The closer you get to TJ, the closer you are to the crap.
The dirtiest place I ever surfed was K55. So much fun though. 

[yugi]

I sailed daily in Boston’s Charles River Basin for 4 years. You all know the song “Love that dirty water”. When it rained exactly that ^ was what was going on. The sewage spilled big time into the river. I spoke with a Biology major who had done water samples and the e-coli count per cm3 of water was over a hundred times more than the count to be considered raw sewage.

In dinghy racing one regularly uses ones teeth to hold the mainsheet (line controlling the mainsail). Which lies in the bottom of the boat in water. So basically regularly putting the water in ones mouth. Kind of worrying but racing is racing.

Well. I’m still alive. There’s that. But the thing is I’ve hardly ever been sick since then. Really. I think it was a massive immunisation boost or something.

I’ve been skiing in India. Drank tap water from day one. No problems. I’ve biked through Africa, drank water from wells unfiltered or treated the whole trip. No problems. Now when I SUP in our lakes I hardly ever take water with me, I just kneel down and drink the lake water. I’m no longer phased by that stuff.

[TallDude]

Well, looks like it's going to clean-up. No wind to speak of. Tomorrow could be nice,  but cold. This is DoHo from the look out by my house this evening.

[SUPcheat]

I'm really surprised how lame the waves and conditions have been around Santa Cruz lately.  I haven't been out for a while.  I would think with all the storms there would be turbulence in the water that would translate into some real wave action.

Tides are now weirding, too, but because it is clear and sunny tomorrow I will probably go out about 3PM just to see if I forgot how to surf or not.  With all this overcast, I have been sleeping and slumming to excess, so out of shape, too.

[TallDude]

Wind picking up strong on shore.  Not looking good for tomorrow.

[PonoBill]

Crap. The only forecast on the horizon that looks decent and there's crap and it's crap.

[surfcowboy]

Good to note that SD is way worse than LA or OC for runoff.

I wanna try Coronado soon, just for the scenery but my hopes are not high.