Those of us that live here and are surfers are blessed with a never-ending surfing season.  This is truly the land of the fabled “Endless Summer”.  Some people have to travel around the world constantly to find conditions warm enough to surf when their own areas freeze over.  But not for us.  We are the lucky ones that have been known to put our Christmas trees up on the beach and have a beach BBQ for holiday dinner.  Our version of a “White Christmas” is when the surf is up and there is a lot of “White Water”.

 Of course living in this kind of climate does have its good and bad points.  Yes, we can surf all year.  But then we never have the fun and frolic of shoveling snow off our driveways and rooftops.  And yeah it’s nice to be able to wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts all year, that’s a fact.  But we miss out on all that cool fashionable foul weather gear.  The parkas and snow boots and those stylish long winter coats you see people wearing in like New York City or Chicago. And we don’t get the happiness of maxing out our heaters either.  Not to mention never knowing the thrill of frozen water pipes.

 So you can see that this is a little bit of a paradise, especially for us surfers.  But it comes with a price tag.  Like how long-lost relatives seem to appear out of the woodworks for a visit every winter.  You can gauge this by the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day.  Almost always it’s warm and sunny and everybody all over the country sees that telecast.  And they go, “Wow, Herman.  Look at that nice weather in California.  Let’s get out of this twenty below stuff and go visit cousin Corky.  Maybe he can teach us how to ride one of them surfboards.”

Corky Carroll: Five-time US Overall Surfing champion.  Three-time International Surfing champion.  International Big Wave champion.  World Small Wave champion.  Named Best Surfer in the World in 1968 by Surfer Magazine poll.  Miller Lite All Star.  And voice of Grubby Grouper on Spongebob Squarepants.