It’s officially Spring and surf conditions are at their worst, which means it’s ear surgery season for surfers suffering from exostosis or surfer’s ear. Surfer’s ear is when bone grows in the ear canal to protect the eardrum from exposure to cold water and wind. The bone can eventually completely block the canal which results […]
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I really struggled after I left my mom’s house at 14. I had nightmares and would wake up everyone in my dad’s house because I was talking and shouting in my sleep. I was having dream after dream all night, every night. Sometimes they were about blue water and tropical islands but mostly they were […]
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One day this summer, at low tide on a waveless day, I was walking parallel to shore in the shallow water to rehab my injured knee. A lobster wandering the sea floor startled me enough that I let out a tiny, little wee scream but he left me alone and I went on my way. […]
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Years ago I went to a Surfrider talk given by a shark specialist that had been studying Great Whites around the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco for twenty years. He had tons of fascinating information about sharks and left us with some tips on how to know if there is a shark […]
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This Fall, when the water temperature dropped suddenly, I went to go buy my usual 5/4 (stands for 5 and 4 mm thick) hooded wetsuit from my favorite wetsuit company. I scrolled through the women’s section and became panicky when I couldn’t find any hooded 5/4 suits for women, just men. Having a great winter […]
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Every California surfer lives for October. The bigger swells start to roll in, the weather is beautiful, offshore winds arrive holding up each peak perfectly and summer crowds go home. But for the past few years October has become a fiery hellscape for all Californians as every year we wake up one morning smelling smoke […]
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While jogging on the beach last week I noticed a seagull standing alone, further up on the beach than the other seagulls that were all eating big crabs left over from high tide at the water line. As I ran past I realized that he was holding his foot up, just resting his toe on […]
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So tomorrow tiny magical elves will sneak into my ear canal and chip away all the bone growth that has formed because I’ve surfed in cold water for 30 years. JK, actually it will be Dr. Gupta but it seems way less scary to just think I’m going to take a nap and magical elves […]
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On New Year’s Day, my husband Britt and I drove our dogs out to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. We parked next to a guy that was about to go surf the jumbly, stormy waves. Out of the back of his truck he pulled out an orange soft top board. Britt and I exchanged eye rolls. […]
Read more »Two weeks before my wedding day I went surfing at Montara Beach. I came up under my board on my first wave and sliced my forehead open with my surfboard’s fin. It didn’t feel bad but blood began pouring into my eyes. I climbed back up the sandy path in between the cliffs and I […]
Read more »A few years ago an historically huge swell hit the Bay Area. It was too massive for us to surf anywhere but Britt and I wanted to witness it. We drove along the coast oohing and aahing as giant mountains of water collapsed and rolled over on themselves, exploding into the shallower water inside. Highway […]
Read more »Because my dog ReRe is an innovative go getter she made the decision early on that when she has to poop at the beach it’s best to wade knee deep into the ocean and let the waves immediately dissolve and wash away any evidence of it. This makes people furious. They like to lecture me […]
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