Epic Waves at Linda Mar

Linda Mar is a popular surfing beach just south of San Francisco in Northern California. It’s one a few great beaches in and around Pacifica including Rockaway and Montara. I actually used to live there and surf daily, now I make the short commute from Mountain View, which is in Silicon Valley near San Jose, on a weekly basis.

I went out surfing twice this weekend and the first day had a bunch of close outs with frequent intervals which made it a challenge just to get out. Today the sets actually had shoulders and the water was a bit warmer. Something about Linda Mar keeps the fog away despite being called “the foggy city” and today was no exception. We had a nice pocket of blue sky overhead and everyone was super friendly.

I was borrowing Dave’s new fish which came out of a small shop in Santa Cruz and he was riding a new Al Merrick Channel Islands board called M16. I got to ride both, but in the end I preferred the fish as I’m fairly light and the M16 rode more like a mini gun or a long board… hence the M16 name. While surfing we met a girl from Minnesota (Linda Mar attracts a lot of newbies and groms) and shared a few stories before dropping off by Nor Cal Surf Shop where my New Zealand Hughes Performance Thruster was getting it’s tail cancer checked out by Brian Tognozzi, one of the guys you see surfing on the homepage images.

All in all, great day – best of the week. If you’ve never tried a fish then I highly recommend doing some reconnaissance work or borrowing a friend’s if you can. They catch waves super easy but end up being maneuverable because of the swallow tail design and the short length. My back foot slipped off once because I’m used to riding with a stomp pad but otherwise it was great. If you live around San Francisco and have Monday off or can duck out early then cruise on down and check out the waves!