Bienvenido a Miami
SURFER'S East Coast Trip Kicks Off In South Beach, FLA
by Zach Weisberg
Online Editor

Maybe it was the leather-vested old man sitting next to me on the plane who ripped through six packs of Handi-Snak cheese crackers in twenty minutes flat. It could have been the humidity sticking to my tongue as photographer, Patrick Ruddy, picked me up in a shiny Toyota Tundra ready for war. Or it may have been the electric palm trees swaying on the strip as the smell of Cuban food meandered through the restaurant. I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but I was feeling good.

And why not? The trip of a lifetime had officially begun. I was happy to exchange the $4.50 CA-73 toll on the way to Orange County’s John Wayne for the six tolls we paid within ten minutes of being in Miami. The experience was almost pleasant. At the last tollbooth, the attendant hollered, “De nada, Papi!” with the softest ‘d’ you’ve ever heard. As the quarters dropped into her hand we zoomed off to neon South Beach.

I could hear Will Smith as the strip approached:

“…All ages and races, real sweet faces, every different nation: Spanish, Asian, Indian, Jamaican, Black, White, Cuban and Haitian…Bienvenido a Miami.”

Sure enough, a world’s worth of people skirmished through the strip at midnight on an October Wednesday. According to our host, Dave Begler, a born and bred Miami surfer who currently rides for Split, fall is when things get started down here.

“During the summer nobody wants to be here,” says Begley. “Everybody goes on vacation somewhere else. It’s blazing hot and as soon as you walk outside there’s sweat on your brow and your nose and your mustache area.”

My mustache area is lacking, but I knew what he meant.

Even amid the metropolitan mix and club-going crowd, Begley insists there is a prosperous local surf scene. It’s not quite as overt as more surf-rich locales along the coast, but it’s there. And it’s dedicated. And when it’s good, it’s the best on offer.

“There are a lot of people in Miami – period,” says Begley. “And there’s a huge surf scene here especially considering how shitty the waves are. I surfed a wave in North Miami today…it was just decent wind-slop, but when it gets good it’s the best wave in Florida. Everyone comes out of the woodworks and the water never goes lower than 70 degrees, and it’s all tropical and the girls are on the beach, and everyone comes down here. It only happens a few times a year. But it becomes the place to be.”

Sounds like Will Smith knew what he was talking about.

In the way of swell, hurricanes are brewing and low pressure systems are looming, so my fingers are crossed as far as the forecast goes. In a few hours we’ll be trucking north, so some rest might come in handy.

Thanks for all of the emails – we’ll be headed to a town near you soon.

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