Instead of issuing fines, the Harbor Patrol heckled us for a couple of minutes: “Did you see the signs? Do you know you’re swimming in poo?” Scott Weinhardt doesn't seem to mind much. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
This past Christmas Eve started out as a beautiful, crisp morning, and when I headed down to the beach the surf looked fun and relatively empty. Unfortunately, signposts with uninviting messages littered the sand. Apparently, the beach was closed due to sewage contamination, but I reasoned that those signs could have been remnants from the last pollution problem. Also, the ocean is pretty big, and it seems like it can absorb a lot of filth. I jokingly asked my friend Scott if he had contracted Hepatitis from surfing here yesterday. He shook his head with a smile, and he looked pretty healthy, so I told him I’d go out if he did.
I was shooting photos, and because the waves were small, I secretly planned to stay in waist deep water to keep my head dry. The first little set made it apparent that this plan wasn’t going to work. It also made it abundantly clear that this was a really bad idea. The waves were a little better than we expected, but the water was much worse.
After about an hour, the Harbor Patrol boat approached our peak. Yesterday, the Harbor Patrol cleared the water and threatened to write citations for surfers, so we were expecting the worst. But instead of issuing fines, the Harbor Patrol heckled us for a couple of minutes: “Did you see the signs? Do you know you’re swimming in poo?”
They also gave us some helpful tips: “Shower for fifteen minutes when you get home. If you feel sick go straight to the hospital. If you have any cuts clean them thoroughly with antiseptic.”
After the lecture, Scott was ready to pack it in, but I tried to dissuade him. We had already been exposed to whatever was in the water; the damage had been done. Scott was unconvinced, so we were out of there.
We got a couple of decent shots, but the water color tells the story, and, luckily, neither of us got sick.
Ironically, a couple weeks earlier when it hadn’t rained and twelve miles of beaches weren’t closed, I swam for an hour and got a sinus infection, an eye infection, and a huge pimple type cyst on my eyelid.
Go figure…
View more of Chuck Schmid’s photography at Surf-Shot.com.
