The call came the night before. “Get down here tomorrow…offshore…overhead…80 degrees….” said my buddy Steve who lives in San Francisco. It was a quick conversation and although I had a million things going on there was no way I was going to miss it.

It was going to be a classic Ocean Beach day. One of those days that you always here about siiting in your car with the heat blasting, looking out at a foggy mess of an ocean trying to talk yourself into paddling out. Forever this is what Ocean Beach meant to me. So many times I had made the 3 hour drive from Tahoe in the heat of the summer full of surf stoke as I fight my way threw the 100 degree heat with visions of perfect waves waiting for me. The closer you get to the beach, the more the anticipation builds. The moment of true is approaching fast but seemingly out of nowhere you run into a wall of fog, the temps go from 85 to 50 as you pull inot the parking lot.

There is no visible sign of life on the beach and just getting out of your car is scary. After a while you talk yourself into getting wet. This is Ocean Beach most of the time. People who call OB there home break are hard core. There is always surf, in fact it is often too big to surf. In the winter you watch the surf reports waiting for the surf to come down to a ridable size.

Four years ago I final caught one of the fabled OB days. I had been in Mexico for a month and had very low expectations when I came over the hill and saw a sea of perfectly formed feathering A frame peaks. It looked like Indo and it was three hours from my house.

I had seen the light. A couple of times a year OB holds some of the best surf on the planet. There are so many peaks and the swell is so consistent that every one gets waves. The comradery that is formed in the line up on those cold grey days shines threw on days like today. People are hooting and hollering for strangers as they stroke into a bomb.

This is one of the reasons I live in Tahoe. I went to Indo for the day and was back at home at 9:30 at night.

jeremyjones.net

Thanks for the call Steve….I will return the favour this winter when Squaw is pumping.

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There is always current at OB. You think you are in position for the lefts when a perfect right pops up.

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The off shore winds kicked up as the swell built in the afternoon turning a good day into an epic one.

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If you made the drop there was a good chance you were getting barreled.

jeremyjones.net

Scotty is often my go to guy when I need a wing man for a surf or snow mission. He runs his own business and is super busy but he is not afraid to drop it all if nature calls.

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It took one of these waves to make the drive worth while.

jeremyjones.net

I would love to tell you how my last wave was one of these bombs but after a full day of surfing, OB felt my weakness and pounced on me. I got caught in a rip, eventualy made it back to the line up, missed my drop, took five on the head and washed up on the beach with hardly enough arm strenght to carry my board. Non the less the drive home that night was full of shock, awe and stoke. Coming over Donner and dropping into Truckee Scotty and started to wonder if it was all a dream or not.