Tuesday surf story: Bird Rock in La Jolla, California (San Diego)

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 22:31:49 0800
From: Rocky Contos 
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Subject: SURF'S    Hurricane Juliette rocks S Calif
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Bird Rock is a nice surf spot for kayaks in San Diego because the breaks are huge and well formed, and there are ways out past the breakers without going through them. It sees few board surfers because of the dangers posed by the reefs/rocks underwater. The Bird Rock is a small sandstone island (about 20 ft high and 20-40 ft in diameter) isolated from mainland La Jolla by a channel of water about 20 yds wide. There are usually a bunch of black coumorants and pelicans on the rock. Two breaks are commonly surfed there: "North Bird" and "South Bird", you can figure out where they are yourself. North Bird has large waves and requires the tide to be in the middle (1-4 ft) usually for the common storm swells we get here in La Jolla (3-6 ft swells). When the swells are bigger, the waves will break at higher tide. The break there is best with swells coming in from both south and west. These tend to superpose near a reef (that's ~80 yds from shore) and make an awesome point-type break that spreads out to either side. The waves sizes are 5 ft to about 14 ft (biggest I've seen). The break will usually die back into a swell before getting to the "inside" area and then can break again. South Bird doesn't require swells from both directions, but is still a nice large break (appx same size as North Bird). It is a more linear break but still starts in a point and spreads out nicely. It is not out quite as far as N Bird, but still about 50 yds. This spot usually has a handful of surfers when it's firing. S Bird is best at middle to high tides. On a good wave in both spots, one can ride it all the way in, which makes for a great long ride. This is one of my favorite surf spots, and I've surfed there maybe 40-50 times since moving to San Diego a couple years ago. When it fires, it's really great. But often it is just a total DUD! With Hurricane Juliette off the Baja coast sending 6 ft swells into Southern Califonia, it was the right time to go back to Bird Rock.

THE STORY

I was out at Bird Rock from about 7:30am to 11:15am (unintentional delay). The surf was epic. North Bird was dying as I got there, since it was mid-tide and goin' up to 6' at 10:30 am. But they were still classic rides for about half an hour. I then paddled down to South Bird Rock - really great rides. Sets were coming in all the time - you don't have to paddle out through the breakers. There were no surfers, except one later. The faces on the waves were 8-12 ft, and really nice clean rides. There's somewhat of a red tide around the rock, making the water murky.

I decided to try and land back at North Bird at high tide. Then I ran into trouble. I waited a long time right near the steps, observing the crashing waves going into the sandstone rocks and cliffs. The sand beach was only exposed very briefly between waves making that landing impossible. I tried landing on the sandstone flat rock that comes right off the steps. This involved following a breaking wave right into it to get up on it. This I managed, at one of the most opportune times. However, my boat started falling off a little as I popped my skirt. I did get out of the boat and grab it as quickly as possible to try and get up higher before the next wave - I didn't make it. That wave took my boat 20' away from me into the cauldron of white. I ran up to my car to get my helmet, then came back down to retrieve my boat, which was washing into the rocks 30 yards south. In that area there was also this huge tree stump floating around - perhaps it came from somewhere hundreds or thousands of miles away - looked like a tropical palm. I climbed up over slippery dirt to get over there. I was going to jump in and pull the boat to shore (not a pleasant thing to do when rocks are all you can land on). But I waited long enough (20 minutes?) for one wave to push it up on another flat sandstone rock, where I could quickly (before the next wave) grab it, empty some water out, and pull it up. The front pillar was knocked out of place, my Tevas were gone, but the float bags were still in. The duct tape on the front nose was mangled. I pulled the boat up to my car over a precarious area, sustaining in this ordeal a large cut on the palm of my hand and banged up feet. I almost went back into the water with my kayak to retrieve one of my Tevas I saw floating around, but managed to get it when it was stuck in some rocks in between waves (that took another 15 minutes of waiting). I didn't find the other Teva. I plan on going back later this afternoon around 5 or 6 pm to look for the other Teva washed ashore around there (after low tide).

I did go back, but not until it was dark. I didn't spot my Teva with a flashlight. Wednesday morning I went out again there to surf. It was dying quite a bit, but the rides were still good. I didn't find the Teva still, but I posted a little sign there asking anyone who found it to call me.

James "Rocky" Contos
Neuroscience PhD program