North San Diego Introduction
At the southern perimeter of San Diego County, you'll find an army of customs agents, the U.S. Border Patrol and a walled and fortified barricade (la frontera, en espanol) stretching from the Tijuana rivermouth to Tecate. On the northern end is 17 miles of coastal California chaparral bustling with the troops, tanks, helicopters and jets of Camp Pendleton's U.S. Marines. Bisecting Camp Pendleton is a checkpoint that stops every car and truck northbound on the Interstate 5. In the east, among other natural boundaries, is the Anza-Borrego desert and, past that, the Salton Sea. Given this information, a reasonable person might suspect there is something worth defending in San Diego County.
There is, and it's not just the 28 locations of Roberto's taco shops. Old-timers might tell you it all has to do with the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, in a bidding war between Los Angeles and San Diego, being awarded to L.A. -- which helped make L.A. the megatropolis that it is, and SD a sleepy backwater. Others might say it has to do, in the shadow of San Francisco and Los Angeles, with the development of a youngest-sister or Cindy Brady-type complex in San Diego. But there is an amiable quirk of character to San Diego County that, despite its obvious resources, occurred because it was allowed to simmer in its own juices a bit longer than the other great cities along El Camino Real.
From a certain annexed sand point at the northwestern corner of the county to the enigmatic Tijuana sloughs stretches one of the most varied, hodge-podge collections of breaks on the California coast. As Skip Frye said, "There are not so many places on the coast that are so bent around as it is here." The godsend of San Diego's geography is exposure, and not the kind that can get you a citation at Black's these days. Although San Clemente Island blocks a wide range of west swell, northwestern and southwestern windows allow the jutted nooks and crannies of the county to receive waves year-round. Santa Ana winds are usually stronger in L.A. and Orange counties. Yet, dispersed cliffs and bluffs along the county can create vacuums that allow for relatively glassy conditions on the water surface below them. Intermittent kelp beds, too, can smooth the bump out of westerly winds. But these miles of beachbreaks peppered with reefs, jetties and piers are not without their crowds. Members of the loose and eclectic federation of beach towns each lay claim to breaks within their jurisdiction, and each lump in the ocean will have a group of guys that sits on it with troll-like dedication.
Add to this lovely picture some of the worst air and water pollution in the state, an exploding population, a decaying sewage infrastructure, numerous border issues, mass immigration, freeway congestion, skyrocketing real estate, a polarization of classes, the disappearance of small farms, development of the backcountry, an over-fished ocean, El Nino, La Nina, a sucky baseball team, a suckier football team, no basketball and a coffee-shop job waiting for every graduate of San Diego's four universities, and you get something approaching a clear illustration.
But, as Steinbeck described another California town, it is "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia..."
Crowds
The key conditions in San Diego are as follows: wind, swell, tide and crowd. This is the most temperate region in the West -- its climate is continually compared with that of the Mediterranean -- which means more people in the water, more days out of the year. Added to this, the city -- 1.2 million people -- is home to four universities and several colleges, which import surfers with each new semester. Groms learn to paddle around you before they learn to duck dive. If you can't take off deeper than the next guy in San Diego, you won't be taking off.
Hazards
With only three shark attacks in the past 50 years (none involving a surfer), there isn't much to worry about.
Pollution
In the first five months of the new century, 40 million gallons of waste and sewage were released or spilled into the waters off of San Diego. Combined with this, Mexico's treatment facilities continue to be woefully inadequate, and spring and winter currents have recently been proven to draw Mexico's pollution north into San Diego. Naval and industrial waste continues to plague San Diego Bay. On any given day, several sections of Mission Bay will be closed to human contact. Del Mar, San Diego and Tijuana rivermouths are habitually closed due to high bacteria count.
The Seasons
Summer
The world, it seems, lives at the beach during San Diego's summer. Those who forget during winter months that this is a desert, become likely victims of spontaneous combustion as summer's inland temperatures tip past the 90s and into the 100s. The predominant onshore winds, though, keep anything within a couple of miles of the coast in the 70s. This simple attribute brings thousands of people pouring off of the freeways and onto the county's beaches, where they carpet the sand and bake in the sun like over-stuffed rotisserie chickens.
There are a few essentials the San Diego surfer needs during summer months: proximity to the coast, a bicycle and an alarm clock. Driving sucks and onshore winds are sure to be kicking in by 11 a.m. Most surfers won't be trunking it until July, which makes a springsuit a good option, too.
Fall
There is an Indian summer every year in San Diego, which means an extension of summer's hot, dry conditions and a continuing run of southwest swells -- often the best southwests of the season. Later in fall, the change to colder water and north/northwest swells could happen overnight. One day, you may notice the subtler, raking light of winter, and the next day, you're surfing in a fullsuit. But, best of all, school is back in session, so the population of Arizona has retreated back east, kindly leaving their daughters at local universities.
Winter
This is the time of year San Diego surfers like to pretend they're in Central California: they wear booties, sometimes hoods, grow neck beards -- OK, you're right, goatees -- and get girlfriends. At some point, all of this posturing is put to shame when some fat guy paddles out wearing trunks.
Water temperatures hover in the low to mid-50s, but at times, the water is certainly warmer. The absolute beauty of winter is the number of northwest swells that truck on down from Alaska. At the beginning of the season, local surfers are chomping at the bit, dropping in on each other and running each other over for a couple of waves at the premier winter spots. Mid-season, though, lineups slim a little as surfed-out wave warriors choose to spend mornings in a warm bed -- with their goatees and girlfriends.
Spring
With the offshore cloudbank, vibrant wildflowers and the greening of California chaparral, spring is easily the most beautiful time in San Diego. It's a shuffling of winter and summer. Alternating days of wind, rain and fair weather produce some of the best sandbars local beaches are likely to see all year. Northwest swells continue to slip down the coast, and the insipient south swells of summer begin to show their quick-tempered ways. Windswell is also common this time of year, and, with underlying groundswell, two days of weather are often followed by three of fun surf. Yet, it's anything but predictable. Just when you think the water is beginning to warm up and summer is on the way, a new storm will bring upwelling and your testicles will crawl back into your body cavity, wedging themselves so tight, even global warming won't bring them out again.
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