If you can surf it on a board you can body surf it. There's a famous place in Newport Beach called The Wedge. YouTube it and you can see some hellacious booogie boarding, though I'm not sure if anybody tries to body surf it.
*** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@...> wrote: > > Hey does anybody know if it's possible to body surf anywhere on the west > coast? I grew up near DC, body surfing in waters off Ocean City, MD.  > Thanks, > surrounded by an ocean of land in Iowa 9-: > > > > ________________________________ > From: marekreavis <reavismarek@...> > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 10:14 PM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Surf report (kind of long) > > >  > A couple of buddies of mine have started getting in early morning sessions > before work at the North Jetty on the Samoa peninsula that separates Humboldt > Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It's only a 15-minute drive from Eureka where we > all live but it's a place I've only surfed a half-dozen times and it's mostly > a short board break and there's occasional attitude directed at longboarders. > Plus, you need a four-wheel drive to get to the beach on the deep-sand > covered track through the beach grass. I haven't developed much familiarity > or liking for the break, consequently. > > But anyway, yesterday I was in court waiting for a case to be called and I > texted my friend Ric and asked him how it was that morning. "Epic!" he texted > back and "sorry, I didn't want to tell you." It's funny but the idea that > people I know are out catching waves at the same time that I'm not . . . It > just creates a dissonance in my mind unlike any other emotion. Not envy, but > a sense of loss. . . maybe lost opportunity. Something like that. That text > motivated me. > > So the alarm goes off this morning at 3:45 and I get up and do my routine > before Ric comes over at 5. He arrives, I load up my stuff, we go over to > Jackson's, he loads up his stuff, and then we drive over the three bridges > that connect Eureka with the peninsula via Woodley Island. > > It's all foggy and still dark, and when we crest the dune to park on the > beach we can't see the waves for the fog and the dark. There's a fog horn > behind us sounding off every 15 seconds. And every few minutes there's an > answering horn from some boat far away and lost to any sight. We walk down to > the water and peer out, straining to make out something, but except for the > little waves breaking just a few feet away, we can't see anything. > > We suit up, wax our boards, and walk into the surf. There's a rip that goes > right along the rocks of the jetty and you can ride that out as far as you > want and then paddle out of it to where the waves are breaking. It's a real > time and energy saver since the waves are forming up maybe 300+ yards from > shore and even though you still do a lot of paddling, you get twice the > distance with each stroke. > > So at first we're just sitting on our boards, rising and falling on the > swell, straining into the murk to catch the first sight of waves that appear > suddenly and then roll on underneath us to disappear again in the fog. Seal > heads pop up right next to us occasionally and check us out. As the fog > lightens with the early morning sun there are gaps here and there where a > window to the ocean a hundred yards away reveals a hundred brown pelicans > rocking on the same swell as we. > > Another surfer joined us and nodded in silent acknowledgment of our > commonality. After we figured out where we wanted to be we paddled out to > where the waves started to break. We posted up in a haphazard line and waited > for a wave. The first wave of the day, everyone paddled for it and we all > caught it. A party wave! We were pretty spread apart so there was no issues > about anyone taking someone else's wave. It was perfect. > > And if it was shy of "epic", it was, nonetheless, as fine a morning program > as I've ever had. >
