Packing six girls and one guy in two vehicles—a van and a car—with all of our boards, tents, sleeping bags, bags, and coolers of food was the biggest challenge of the weekend. We arrived at about 10 PM on a Friday night. Annie and I were the more experienced campers of the group (Annie brought two tents) and the rest followed our leads. Stef hadn't camped since she was a kid and bought a battery-operated lantern on an impulse but forgot to buy batteries for it. The nice guys in the camp to the left of our site let us borrow a lantern while we set popped our tents and rolled out our sleeping bags. We were camped out on the dirt between the nice but noisy frat boys and the stay-up-until-4-AM-doing-shots crowd. (Guess they weren't surfing in the morning.) There was time to start a fire and sip one glass of wine before we fell into bed. Not sure if it was the drunk college kids or the Surfline train roaring through that kept us awake, and before we knew it we were up at 6 AM to pack up the car and drove down to Old Man's.
San Onofre is such a popular spot for its long rides, but parking is a bit of an issue. Space is limited and there's usually a line of cars waiting to drive in. After the spots are filled early by the dawn patrol surfers, you have to queue up and wait your turn until a car exits. Because we were already down there early, we drove right in and set up camp. We claimed two big picnic tables under the leafy palapas right near the outdoor shower and bathrooms.
We made up for the sleep the next day on the beach, when we napped between surf sessions and meals. There's really nothing like napping on a blanket in the sand. We spent the whole day at the beach, with no reason to rush back to the campsite. The surf was great. We got a little southern swell and had the occasional head-high set. Everyone took some great long rides and I won't go into the story of how I hit my friend Maria on the head with my board on a late take-off. Oops! (She was fine and a very good sport about it!)
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