Rincon Classic

I spoke to Mum and Dad on Sunday and heard they'd had sleet back home.

*Sigh*.

Not quite as gloomy over here. This weekend we decided to head out to see the Rincon Classic, a surf competition being held on a famous break just outside Santa Barbara. It was beautiful weather, so here, mostly for Daffodillly, are some sunny quintessentially Californian weekend photos:

























I'm not sure quite what I expected in a surf competition, but when we arrived it was the 'teeny wahinis' (young girls) surfing, and it had the bizarre feel of a soccer tournament transposed to a rugged stretch of coastline.

Things soon picked up with the Mens Open, which I was able to appreciate only slightly more than mens luge at the Olympics courtesy of LK being a surfer and me picking it up through, well, osmosis probably.





Our little klepto with approximately 45 shells she 'hunted' at the beach (look closely at her pockets....)

They stank to high heaven. I think one of them was carrying a carcass.







And finally, because even surfers can get a little put out by bad manners, here's a little education in surf etiquette. Not that you didn't already know this of course, but just in case you wanted to surf the left at Mavericks and weren't quite sure of the protocol:



















If you're anything like me (and God I hope for your sake you're not) just reading this will be enough of an education in why I shouldn't be surfing at Rincon -

This reads like the surfers Highway Code, you mustn't 'drop in' or 'snake', the 'furthest inside and closest to the peak' has the right of way, 'paddle with commitment' (too right) and I'm assuming at the bottom it says 'danger, while you're floundering around snaking and dropping in we're up top at the car-park torching your car because these are our waves dudes.

Have a nice day.