Surfs up in Cayucos
December 20, 2020
Editor’s Note: The following series, “Life in Radically Gentrifying Cayucos by the Sea,” to be posted biweekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of an original American voice:
By DELL FRANKLIN
There’s a gleeful palpitation in the air when the surf’s up, and the curl stretches yards and yards, and a big one crests up and up toward 15 feet and crashes down in a thunderous boom, and the spray splashes the top rails of the pier, where onlookers jump away.
All along the seawall, vans, pickups and SUVs with surfboards on top are pulling up this morning. Already around 10 surfers in wetsuits are out there clamped to their boards, riding the waves. Between these parked vehicles, surfers are donning their wetsuits. An older model SUV pulls up and I recognize the person stepping out, a 60-something surfer and ex-college tennis coach named Hugh, a sort of institution in the local culture who takes trips abroad as far as New Zealand to find great surf.