Up to the day before the trip, nothing was planned and it looked as if the plans were going to fall apart because we did not have a car for the trip. Luckily though, my brother Louis came up with a solution, calling Matt to ask to borrow the his vw vanagon called Orange Slug, a bright orange westfalia weekend camper with everything needed for an adventure of this caliber. After about 30 seconds on the phone, Matt was in. By "Matt was in", I mean he was 100% up for giving me the keys to the van! This meant the adventure was on! I quickly called up Mark and Mitch and told them i would pick them up at UCLA on tuesday night.
That night we filled up the van with some surf boards, some food we found around the apartment, a few beers, and we were on the way. We had a detailed plan of where we wanted to go which could be summarized in three words, "always go north". Two friends from ucla, Mika and Tara joined us for the the first leg of the journey. That night, it was a full moon, and as we drove by malibu we decided to check the waves to see if would could score a night surf. The waves were a bit small, but the moon was almost full with a nice reflection on the water, and we hung out for a bit enjoying the night breeze. When we hit the road again, we hit a roadblock, as the van would not start. Everyone had been a bit untrusting of the van's reliability, and i was scared to lose their confidence. Matt had warned me that if I did not successfully start the van on the first try the engine could easily become drowned, and we would have to wait 10 minutes before giving it another try. an hour and a half later, we decided to just try jump starting it with the other car and the engine roared to life. We were back on the road and camped near point mugu in an empty parking lot up on the cliffs. We still had the full moon and were able to see the moon set over the ocean at 1 am, which none of us had ever seen.
The next morning, as were leaving the lot, a cop car drove in probably to kick us out. Luck was on our side! We drove down to county line and enjoyed some fun surfing before parting ways with mika and tara and hitting the road once again, but this time with more confidence in the van. But from then on, each time I started the van, we had a 5 second moment of breath holding silence and concentration to make sure it would start. We would also try to park it aiming downhill so that if we could attempt to push start it in the case that the battery was dead. I slowly began to understand the do's and don't's of the van, listening to its sound and feeling the power, and soon became one with the machine.
We stopped by an avocado stand in ventura and bought 15 avocados for 1 dollar, and some fresh strawberries. We also stopped to grab some mexican food in santa barbara. Hitting the road again we ended up near san luis obispo, This took much of the day because we were driving at around 50 mph, compared to the 75 mph that most other cars prefer. We loved the slow relaxed speed because we could enjoy the scenery, and of course let out a shaka every time we saw another vw bus. We later started flashing our lights, honking the horn repetitively sticking our heads out the window, and doing anything else to attract the attention of other vw van drivers as is the tradition. We found a CD of persian pop music and listened to that full blast over the howl of the wind and vibrating of the 67 hp engine.
We arrived at san luis obispo and stayed in a campground that was near a good surf spot. It was windy and cold, and Mitch and Mark paddled out anyways to try out the waves. I was tired from driving all day and decided a nap was a good alternative.
That night we cooked some pasta with avocados, built up a fire, and had smores before going to sleep. Mark and I slept outside, and mitch settled for the comfort of the bottom level of the van. During the night, raccoons got into our food and ripped it all up.
The next day we got back on the road listening to some CCR, the spirits were high, and we were hoping around looking for a good surf session. We found some good waves and enjoyed a glassy couple hours of surf in the morning sun. After we spent some time hanging out in the living room part of the van, where the two coaches made for a good relaxing spot after the surf.
Before long we were back on the road, enjoying the nice empty coast besides a couple of sea lions and a couple hundred brand new convertible red ford mustangs that most tourists rent to take down the coast of Big Sur. We on the other we puttering along, getting as much speed as possible on the down hills and chugging up the up hills in second gear over revving the 67 horses to not stall. This let us see more of the country and not miss any potential surf spots, as we rolled along to the beat of daft punk's "random access memories". We often had a trail of up to 20 cars following closely behind us with their big engines just dying to roar past us. We were advertising for Matts twitter, slug ride, by having a sign in the window that said "instead, follow me closely on the @orangeslugride". I wonder if anyone actually signed up for it haha.
We stopped for lunch at the most touristy place in the world, where we bought a burger and ate with people from all over the world. The smart salesman there told us that this was the last place to buy food in big sur. We only had a couple unripe avocados, one apple, and a jar of peanut butter that the raccoons had left us. Not wanting to buy their expensive food, we asked people if they had extra food. We got 4 apples and two pieces of chicken from some german girls! We decided that would be enough and hit the road again and soon found out that the salesman was being a good salesman because we found a small general store 15 min down the raod.
We stopped at a bay for another windy afternoon surf session. The surf in these parts is very different from what we are used to in southern California, instead of battling with other surfers, bobbing fat people, people surfing with their dogs, or beginners on soft tops, we were battling against the elements, the wind, the cold, rocks, and whatever lives below the spooky dark water.
That night we found an epic camping spot up in the hills, as it was still early we had time to enjoy the sunset, have a beer, eat a good meal and make a small fire before going to sleep. During the night a curious sly fox showed up to see what we were up to and took off with my jacket only to abandon it a couple hundred feet away. I guess fox don't care about patagonia gear as much as californians do.
Friday morning we coasted back down to sea level and were soon out of big sur. We kept going until we found an epic beach with some solid 6 foot waves, extremely clear water and glassy because of a rock formation blocking the wind. The only problem was the water was freezing. Even the smallest duck dive gave horrible numbing headaches. The drop was a bit technical, and I got very close to going over the falls on a couple as my feet felt like peg legs. getting out of the water, we had the scare of the trip as the towel that had the key was inexplicably gone. We thought the vanagon was going to become the "van-a-gone", or the volks-wagon folks-gonnu-pick-us-up-because-the-trips-done. Someone told us that they had seen a vagrant with a red hat sketchily eyeing our things. Mitch found the towel hidden behind some rocks with the key chain cut by a knife, with no key in sight. We sprinted up to the van expecting it to be gone. It was still there and the trunk which we always left open allowed us to get changed out of our wetsuits and find our service less phones. We found a call box to call AAA but before they arrived someone found the key that the criminal had left somewhere in a panic probably just when we got out of the water.
We were stoked to have found the key and be able to continue our journey once again. we blasted the radio and were back on our way with more confidence than ever. We drove until Monteray, dropping off Mark who's family was there. We used the hot tub for a well needed bath in the hotel his parents were staying at. We said good bye and Mitch and I pulled a U turn and headed back south, but this time taking the more direct 101 instead of following the coast. We wanted to go as far south as possible and surf in the morning. We found a good camping spot on the side of pch just south of santa barbara waking up early to a flat ocean, and finishing up our journey back at ucla and then newport.