On Crowds, Surf Cams and Bad Attitudes

This morning, I finally pulled the trigger on a surf cam. In other words, I recognized that I could no longer live my life without having access to a cam. In the past, I've made do with the free cams, both through the County of L.A. and Surfline, and use of a friend's username and password for a different cam. The latter was working just fine for me. Just fine.

Alas, this last swell has seen an increase in the use of that cam under that friend's name. I think our entire crew has used this guy's access to the cam. And finally, it happened. A message began popping up advising that this cam had been accessed under that name way too many times from way too many computers.

With that, I decided my time had come. As cheap as I am, I could no longer act like I could live my surfing life without a cam. During the winter, I use the cam to watch the waves. I rarely look at the surf report that accompanies it. Those reports are virtually useless. All I want is to see the water. You can see swell direction, tide and everything else by just watching the water.

But it isn't winter, is it? It's summer now. The cam is more important than ever. In the summer, I don't need to see the water. I know when there's a swell. Everyone knows when there's a swell. In the summer, the need for the cam is not about the water. It's about all that's wrong with this picture:
When I see this, regardless of the swell, I know to look for surf elsewhere. In the summer, the cam is what tells me where not to go. And guess what? You won't see me here until September. My attitude in crowds is not what it used to be. My patience is not what it used to be. Therefore, I choose to surf away from the masses. That's hard to do in L.A. since June, even with all of its gloom, brings out the surfer in everyone. And let's face it, not everyone is a surfer. But I'd like to think I get that everyone needs some time in the water. They just don't need to spend that time in a great, big kooky bunch around me. So I look for the breaks with fewer people and smaller waves. See, it's like this. I don't believe you can surf in a crowd. When there are too many people in the water, your concentration is on not running into or over people. Your focus is on out-paddling the four other people on either side of you who are going for "your" wave. That's not surfing as we'd like to think we know it. That's surfing as contact sport. Some people get a kick out of that. I do not.

So, I've finally gone and paid for a surf cam. I guess the time had finally come.