Eric Wolfinger '04 in trim and hanging five in Baja.

Surf Southern California
By Janice Kang
Sports Editor

If you are reading this article, then you are probably at Pomona College, and if you are at Pomona College, then you are in Southern California. It follows that if you’re in Southern California and haven’t tried surfing, then you are missing out on a sport that has created its own unique culture in the SoCal coastal region due to the abundance of beaches, sun, and, to a certain extent, teeny bikinis. Even a style of music, deemed the “surf guitar” by legendary musician Dick Dale has emerged from the waves. The intricate stylings of Dale can be heard in hits like the ever popular “Wipe Out,” and in the words of Dale, "My music is a sexual sensual drive...that low rumbling sound, when I started surfing, you'd hear this neat rumbling sound when you take off and go for the drop and when the wave is lipping over the top of you it makes this hissing sound."

In addition to the music, countless movies have been made about surfers. From the ultra-classic movie The Endless Summer by director Bruce Brown to the more recent documentary film, Step into Liquid, people have always been crazy about surfers and their seemingly laid back but wave hungry lives. Pop culture has recently experienced a boom in surf interest, with ’tween movies like Blue Crush fueling Roxy sales and increasing female interest in the sport.

So now that you’ve seen the action and you want it, how do you get a piece? It may be difficult to find other surfers on campus, as they seem to be of a secretive type. Pomona surfers can be caught sneaking off campus at the witching hours of 4:00 or 5:00 am in order to beat rush hour traffic, get in a good surf, a Pedro’s burrito for the belly, and be back in time for an 11:00 am class with no one the wiser. They’re an elusive bunch, but you can probably spot them by the salt crystals that have formed on their eyelashes as they fall asleep in your morning classes.

You too could be a sleep-deprived, burrito-fattened, salt lick of a human being who understands the glory of being “so stoked.” To guide you along your way, here are some helpful bits of information.

To surf, you must have the right equipment. First of all, you need a board. If you are a beginner, you may want to consider renting a foam board, as these make it easier to paddle and catch waves. You can rent boards at any of the local beaches, notably Huntington Beach at the HB Pier, which is lined with surf shops. The employees of these shops are usually local surfers who will kindly point you in the right direction—usually west, towards the beach.

If you are particularly averse to walking into a surf shop green, then you should at least be able to identify what kind of a board you would like to rent or buy. To help with this, you can turn to La Jolla native Eric Wolfinger ’04, who has been surfing since the age of nine. There are pretty much two types of boards: longboards and shortboards. To help us understand the difference between the two, Wolfinger says, “It’s like describing the difference between a pelican and a seagull on a windless day. Both are birds, yet one of them is graceful while the other flaps around, steals your food, and shits on your car.”

For those of you who are still pretty lost, he elaborates, “think about a pelican’s approach to flight. With a giant wingspan, a pelican can fly inches above the water; it uses updrafts created by waves to keep itself aloft and propel itself forward. With little physical effort, pelicans make subtle changes in their flight paths to maintain their glide.” He continues, “Now think of a seagull’s approach. They can glide a bit, but they must constantly push their comparatively small wings against the air to maintain momentum of flight. Yet gulls are naturally more acrobatic.”

To any who are just plain metaphorically challenged, Wolfinger says, “For beginners, longboards are more forgiving. You’ll catch more waves and get a feel for what waves do. If after a few months you find yourself frustrated that you can’t whack the hell out of the lip, pick up a shortboard.” Lip? Whack a what? Are the pelicans fighting the gulls? (Only down at Trestles…we’ll go over some surf terminology later)

Your next piece of equipment is a wetsuit. In Accra, Ghana, you may be able to get by in just board shorts, but for most of the year in Southern California, the chilly Pacific demands a wetsuit. These impossibly tight rubber body sleeves keep you from being mad fun of by local old men surfers who coast around in their plush 4/3 wetsuits and playfully christen you and your chattering teeth “the paper shredder.” In short—don’t try to be a badass. Put on a stupid wetsuit. Besides, they make your butt look hot.

Now that you’ve got your board and wetsuit, you’re ready to jump in, right? Not quite. First let’s review some surf terminology starting with descriptive words for a wave. I’d like to first point out that “Humongo” is not an official surfing term but rather a term made up by Michaelangelo, the late eighties, early nineties star of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whose voice and diction were reminiscent of a stereotypical Southern California surf bum.

So now it’s time to learn surfing lingo proper. “Double overhead” is the appropriate term for enormous waves that will just eat you alive should you get caught “inside.” Inside means that you are in the unfortunate position of being between the break and the beach and are probably getting pounded by a “set,” which is the name for a group of waves coming through in succession. A “perfect left” is to die for, and describes a wave that breaks leftward if you are facing the beach from the ocean. On a perfect left, you may find many “aggros,” which are aggressive young surfers who usually have filthy vocabularies and will not hesitate to swim over and try to drown you if they feel that you cut them off.

Speaking of cutting people off, the proper surf etiquette is that the surfer who caught the wave first and closest to the peak gets right of way. As a beginner, always remember to look left and right before getting up on a wave lest you cause a mid-wave collision which could not only ding up your board (or someone else’s), but can also injure yourself, since surfboards are quite hard and their fins are quite sharp. Tom Krebs ’04 offers his advice to beginners: “Drop in on locals as much as possible and yell ‘Cowabungaaa!’ to let them know you’re a beginner.”

This brings me to my final topic, surf safety. The ocean is a treacherous place, with rip currents, underwater rocks, and more recently at San Onofre, great white sharks. Three great whites have been spotted and endearingly named Sparky, Fluffy, and Archie, yet beach officials say that there is nothing endearing about the toothy, six-foot plus, cartilaginous beasts. I went surfing just north of San O about a week after the first shark sighting. Personally, I’d be more worried about seals. Since the sightings, there have been no shark attacks and one seal attack in which an irate seal bit a passing surfer who had spent his morning getting mistakenly picked up by the CHP and then was fired from his job when he showed up late. He decided to go surfing to pick up his spirits when he was bit by a seal that was being harassed by some rock-throwing children. The whole point of this anecdote is so that you understand before you go that surfing is a risky sport.

With all that said and done, you are now ready to talc up your schnozz and hit the waves. Concerning the sport of surfing as a whole, Wolfinger concludes, “Ever walked on water? It’s pretty fun.”