Since freshman year of college at Azusa Pacific University, my roommate Ben Hansen and I had a dream of both surfing and snowboarding in the same day. With the surf only an hour away and the snow an hour and a half away, we decided that being in Azusa, CA would provide the optimal opportunity to accomplish our goal. Within the last two years we have acquired a taste for the game of golf, and decided that we would like to add golf to the list of activities in our day. While we had done each activity separate from the others, we were prepared to find out how awesome it would be to complete them all in one day. April 23, 2010 was our day....
5:15am – It’s time to wake up…if there is any way we are going to fit everything in today it is going to involve an early start. The sun rises at 6:12am, so we are up and running an hour before. I honestly cannot remember that last time I was up this early in the day.
5:13am – No, it is not a mistake, even though the alarm is set for 5:15am the excitement of the day to come brings me early to wake. It’s funny how this works when surfing and snowboarding are on the agenda, but when it is time for school or work it is impossible to get out of bed.
5:40am – With everything packed up and ready for the first adventure of the day, we load ourselves into the truck and head off to surfing. Upon leaving the house we realize how cold the morning is, and just how early the day has started for us. Even as we drive, we discuss how unfortunate it is for everybody else on the road who is heading off to work, while we are on our way to take a dip in the ocean. I didn’t even know that life happened this early in the morning.
6:30am – We make our arrival at Sunset Beach, just north of Bolsa Chica. Once we arrive we make our way to the beach in order to take a look at the waves and see how our day shall begin. At first glance we can only see small waves that could only be caught by a 15’ longboard; while small waves can be fun they don’t do a whole lot when you are riding a 5’8” Lost… Round Nose Fish. But at this point, we are committed to this, we don’t have a choice, we are getting in the water whether its 6 inches or 6 feet.
6:45am – We are all suited up and ready for the water. We get to the water’s edge, taking a closer look at the waves that we had seen from afar about 10 minutes prior, and what we saw as very small and runt like in the wave family before had grown quite big very quickly and are now becoming a major challenge just to paddle out into. It’s like our little 1-2 foot waves had gotten on some steroids and hit the gym in about 10 minutes cause they had grown to a lean 3-4 feet, without regular sets. After struggling to paddle out into the surf for about 10 minutes we finally made it out past the break, but needed a rest immediately due to our arms being filled with lead. After about a wave each, with a break that is showing as an eternal wave that breaks only 4 feet from the shore, we decided to switch boards and I set out to get a wave on the 9’ foamie. With a couple of waves caught in not the most ideal conditions, we decided to pack it in and head home to prepare for the next stage of our grand adventure.
7:45am – Ben and I were out of the water and on our 4 block hike back to the where the truck was parked. When we got in the water we had drifted a few blocks down the beach and had to carry our boards from where we got out back to the car. It’s funny how this always happen, yet every time it does I get out of the water and wonder how I moved so far down the beach; it’s like being on that long conveyer belt in the airport, just a slow drift.
8:02am – All packed up and ready to go we pulled out and took off. Ben made a point of stating that we were on schedule to get everything that we wanted to get done. This is an important thing to remember that Ben made a point of noting that we were on schedule.
8:22am – On our way home and all of a sudden Ben has a crazy realization that his wetsuit is not in the truck and in fact is nowhere to be seen. We turn around and Ben figures out that he left his wetsuit on the grass right by where the truck had been parked. The operation has begun; it must be done with military precision. Finally all the times we played Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: 2 will be put to good use, I knew that was all for a good cause.
8:37am – Back at Sunset Beach, we locate and recover Ben’s wetsuit. This swift operation takes place in a matter of seconds. So fast that we were there and almost don’t believe that it happened. This could not have been done any better with a trained Seals team and helicopter.
8:52am – After a 35 minute excursion we are finally back on track and moving toward getting home and getting snowboarding. See I told you it would be important to note that Ben noticed our being on schedule. I love it when irony works out like that....
9:30am – After all the shenanigans we have experienced we are finally back in Azusa, one adventure done and a third of the day complete. I guess I can’t give Ben that hard of a time for forgetting his wetsuit at the beach, because our day began much too early to even be reasonable.
10:00am – Wetsuits soaking and snowboards loaded into the Camaro, we are all set for the second Act in our play to begin. All the stories we had heard about how these days go had told us that fatigue would be setting in about now, but we are still feeling good at this point. Here goes nothing....
10:15am – It’s 10:15 in the morning and we have already done so much, but realize that for once in our lives we are awake early enough to get some McDonalds breakfast. Honestly though, if McDonalds would just have breakfast available a little bit longer they could make so much more money off of those college students like us who are never awake early enough for their 10:30am cut off time. It’s funny how a little McDonalds breakfast just really hits the spot, it’s such a treat because I am never awake for it.
12:00pm – After our brief little stop at McDonalds we are on our way to the snow. We have had such a long season for snow in Southern California that even here April 23, 2010 we can still head on up for a fantastic day in the snow. We now find our self at Snow Summit, and as much as you would expect it to be cold upon arrival to the snow, on our epic day of adventure as we get to the snow it is hot. Only in Southern California….
12:20pm – The adventure is on, we are shredding the gnar, or should I say the sticky icky. I guess that’s just what we get for going snowboarding on the last day possible, but this snow is slower than molasses. We are just aiming ourselves down the mountain and going all out, otherwise we just can’t seem to get enough speed to make it worthwhile. Nevertheless it’s hard to complain that much when it’s gorgeous and bluebird for your last session of the year. Regardless of how the snow is, we are here and we are making it happen, we have surfed and now snowboarded all in one day.
2:40pm – As we make our exit from the mountain we now are beginning to feel the fatigue of our early arrival to the day and being so active with what we are doing, but we continue on because we have a dream to one day be able to surf, snowboard, and golf all in the same day. We head back to the car and strip off our gear knowing that we are well on our way to completing the dream.
3:00pm – With everything packed away and energy drinks in hand, we make our way off the mountain and on to the next and final part of the day. Even as tired as we were, we had all kinds of adrenaline pumping through our veins from experiences that had preceded us thus far, we were two thirds done with our day and nothing could stop us now.
4:00pm – How can this be happening? What’s going on? Here we are one moment cruising along heading down the mountain, the next we are stuck not moving anywhere. To see what is going on I hop out of the car to find that an SUV had overturned around one of the turns. Emergency services are already on the scene and have almost cleared the SUV out of the way, so there is nothing we can do but wait. Even so we look into other ways down the mountain, and just as we had decided upon another route and were about ready to be on our way, things got moving again. It’s funny how that always happens, just when you are ready to make a move out of a lane or another direction, that’s when things get moving again.
4:17pm – FREEDOM!!!! We feel like William Wallace and the Scots, we can only be held back for so long, we are finally free. Traffic gets moving and once again we are on our way to our next adventure.
5:10pm – After our little adventure, the drive is over and we are back home at the PepperTree Estate. We will need a quick turnaround now, as the sun will be setting at about 7:30pm and we still need to get a round of golf in. With our clubs sitting ready in the garage like the fat kid that never gets in the baseball game, we load everything up.
5:18pm – All set and ready to go, we throw the clubs into the back of the truck and head on over to the course that we learned how to swing a golf club at. It’s a hop, skip, and jump away to Glen Oaks Gold Course in Glendora, CA where we will find the conclusion to our epic adventure.
5:28pm – We make our arrival at Glen Oaks and pull our clubs out of the back of the truck, load the bags up onto are sweet little pull carts, and here we are off the course. I feel a little bit like an old man as I hobble along and drag my golf cart behind me. Would be nice to at least play like an old man today, shoot it short and straight.
6:00pm – As we stare down the first tee we remember how we used to play this course all the time, and how far we have come since we first started playing golf. We both reminisced about our first tee off from that spot, and how we had hit it much too far and right at some people on the 5th green. Here goes nothing it’s time to tee off....
7:15pm – Finished 9 holes and we are done, we definitely felt the effects of our long day, at it took till the 8th hole to even find a swing, but we made it through our round without all too much trouble. I just know that the next time I am trying to hit a great score I won’t be planning to surf and snowboard before that in the same day.
7:20pm – With our round in the books, we are done with everything we had planned for the day. It was time to go home; there was no way that we were going to be able to do anything else anyways. Tired beyond belief but with a sense of accomplishment we load of the truck and head on home.
7:30pm – Back the PepperTree Estate. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!!!
Next to come: My first random act of kindness....
