Line Up Surf Australia
Travel Reports
Surfing with the Enemy
While in California for a series of contests with Line Up team riders Alex Carrasco and David Zimmer, my wife Donna and I were introduced to a guy called Scott Elison. For an American, Scott was cool, hospitable and seemed much more adventurous than most Americans I had met. I put that down to the fact that Scott had travelled fairly extensively outside the United States, and had tasted a different slice of goof ol' apple pie.
One lazy afternoon while we were hanging at Scott's place in Huntingdon Beach, I commented to him that it must be a pain in the arse surfing with such out of control crowds on a regular basis. "You get used to it after a while.", was all he said, and mentioned that there were places close by where you could surf good waves without any crowd worries. Being a typical wave hungry Aussie I dug a little deeper, and set up an early morning surf at one of these unknown secret spots. Two of Scott's friends Dana and Micj also put their hand up, and we instantly had a good little crew to surf with.
At dawn, we met up, and set off down the main highway from Huntington to the San Diego county border, before turning off onto a dirt road. Scott stopped our convoy and gathered everyone around. "O.K. listen up. We're almost there," he said. " When we get to the fence of the military base there will probably be some Mexicans who have crossed the border illegally. Don't be scared of them. I'm going to split their party up by telling them that I'm from immigration. That will ensure that our cars will still be here when we get back."
"Illegal Mexicans?", I asked. "Military Bases? What's going on here Scott?"
After a short conversation, Scott filled me in on a minor detail he had left out the previous night. His secret spot was actually inside Camp Pendleton, a restricted military area due to the military exercises held regularly inside it's boundaries. We were entering a restricted military area for a surf! I looked at my wife and three year old daughter Tara and smiled in disbelief at what we were about to do.
Scott quickly unveiled the plan. I was to set up my telephoto lens to keep an eye on any military presence while he took several of the boys inside to check the surf. Deciding that I didn't want to miss any of the action, I let Donna do the spotting while I joined the others for the 300 metre dash across open ground to the nearest cover. I took the whole thin as a bit of a joke, but Scott, who is an ex U.S. soldier warned us that it wouldn't be funny if we were caught.
After watching a procession of tanks and army trucks go by for a few minutes, it was time to make a run for it. We made it to the safety of the bushes without problems, and saw that the surf was a good 3-4 feet with clean lines and no-one out. Scott showed us the way down the cliff face, and despite my initial doubt, I decided it was possible.
After getting a signal from the crew at the fence, we hurried back to the cars to get the boards and other gear. Donna was a bit concerned, but after some reassurance she felt O.K. about the surf and destroy mission. As she reached the edge of the cliff however she changed her tune dramatically and freaked out.
"You're going to take your three year old daughter down there?" she half asked, half accused. " Yeah, the waves look good don't they" I replied. It only took the sight of a couple of tanks doubling back towards us to encourage her to start the climb.
Scott took some of the gear down and made the 80 metre climb look like child's play. As I quickly discovered, it wasn't. After climbing only 10 metres, fear gripped me and I froze. Right behind me, Donna also freaked out. Scott saw what was happening and climbed back up to grab Tara. Donna and I watched with horror as he calmly descended the cliff face with our daughter in one hand. It was serious stuff; one mistake and good night.
Alex and David slowly made it down to the beach, while Scott helped Donna and Mick as well. It felt great to be at the bottom. Once there we set up camp under the cliffs hoping no U.S. personnel would spot us, The surf was great, not all time, but clean and fun. Dolphins played in the waves almost as if to welcome and congratulate us after our ordeal. Alex and David got straight into it, and after surfing Huntington for two weeks they really appreciated the extra room to move.
I surfed for about 40 minutes before coming in to take some photos of the session. After snapping away for a while, I decided to hit the water again where Alex told me we had visitors. Several soldiers stood on the clifftop watching us. Dana and Mick bailed straight away. David took the "If they want me they can come and get me" approach, while I worried about Donna and Tara on the beach.
As we watched, more soldiers appeared, and trucks with armed soldiers approached from the north and south ends of the beach. I decided to hit the sand where Dana and Mick attempted to stash themselves and their equipment under the cliff. The first patrol jeep caught them quickly, thanks mainly yo Donna'a flouro pink board cover. The second jeep was getting closer to Donna and Tara when Alex said, "You'd think we were Russian spiesor something". Scott looked worried and replied "Don't laugh, these guys don't mess around".
The patrol group finally caught us, and the soldiers thoroughly checked us out before leaving with Dana and Mick. We continued durfing for 30 minutes until the military had disappeared, before making our way to the top of the cliff. We climbed slowly, expecting a welcoming commitee but there was no-one there waiting for us. We quickly jumped into the cars and headed back to the craziness of Huntington. Dana and Mick didn't make it home that night, and the next day we left for Hawaii. I have often wondered what happenedto those guys, and I recently heard an ironic rumour that they had joined the army and were based at Okinawa, Japan!
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