San Onofre, California: the surf history, the gentle rolling waves, the nuclear power plant. Stef, Annie, and I decided to take a much-needed camping adventure down to San-O. It takes less than two hours to drive there from Los Angeles and we've made plenty of day trips before, but there's something about spending extended time down there—from sunrise to sunset—that's pretty incredible. San Onofre Surf Beach is located just north of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which provides power to about 20 percent of the people in Southern California. When you're surfing at the beach at San-O, you can see the reactors in the distance. If you've never been there or never seen a picture, here's a picture for you: they look like two boobs. Really! And we pretty much surf out in front of it. Great. But we do it because San-O is one of California's greatest surf beaches. At spots called Old Man's and Dogpatch, the waves break far out and you can get some of the longest rides in California. It's definitely a longboard spot (shortboarders head up the beach to Trestles), so we each came armed with the longest board in our quiver.
Camping usually brings to mind images of woody, quiet areas that are ideal for connecting with friends and quietly meditating. Well, not this particular camp site. It runs parallel to Highway 5, about half way between Los Angeles and San Diego, so you're actually on the side of the highway. You're close to the beach but you don't get to camp on sand; instead the campgrounds are at a place called "Cliffs," about two miles south of the surf beach. Car camping, of which we are always fans, is taken to a whole new level. We had two parking spots, eight people, and a 10 square foot dirt patch to call our own, so there was nothing at all luxurious about the camping experience for us this weekend. The toilets flushed-that's about as cushy as it got. We actually worried about the running water situation when we were driving down and learned that there were news reports of toxic runoff from the nearby nuclear power plant, but we were assured that we would not be affected. Thankfully, the water in the sinks and bathrooms was running when we arrived and set up camp.
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