Feb 10, 201210:17 AM

A Guide to the South Bay Surf and Action Sports Scene

Rainstorms and Replicants

 

It’s generally not considered “socially acceptable” to respond to someone’s upbeat statement with an overtly negative comment—it’s honestly just a step away from moving to a cave and shunning society.

A friend of mine said to me yesterday, “I love the rain. We never get enough of it here in LA.” How did I respond? I told her, "I fricken hate it.” I’m almost positive I said it with a gruff, Walt Kowalski-like scowl on my face too.

In retrospect, that wasn’t exactly a shining moment for me (my half-hearted attempt at an indirect apology). In my defense though, as a surfer, I see a rather different side of LA when it rains, and it’s not that great.

About a week ago, I paddled out for a quick session at El Porto. It had just rained, but I was pretty set on scoring a few waves. I was sitting in the line up, minding my own business, when I noticed something floating towards me. It looked rather peculiar, so I paddled a bit closer for a better look (never a good idea). I remember thinking to myself: What is that? If it’s some trash, maybe I should pick it up? You know, maybe do my part to help protect the environment—oh, that’s a condom. Mental note: don’t touch my face with my right hand…

Now, essentially, El Porto is an altogether clean beach. The nearby refinery and water treatment plant may give the impression that you’ve just entered a set from Bladerunner, but it’s honestly not that bad. However, when it rains, it’s kind of a different story. According to the City of Los Angeles Stormwater Program, in Los Angeles County, approximately 100 million gallons of contaminated water and debris flow through the storm drain system each day. On rainy days though, the flow can increase to 10 billion gallons. Thus, it’s inevitable that some of the trash and pollution will end up in the ocean during a heavy rainstorm. In other words, more than a few condoms make their way to the ocean every time in rains (that might be a stretch, but you get the idea).

So what does all that mean? Is LA on its way to transforming into some Philip K. Dick/ Ridley Scott version of itself? Well, no, not really. I’d actually like to think that LA has become more environmentally conscientious over the past few years. The Surfrider Foundation South Bay Chapter has done a great job keeping our local beaches clean and (mostly) condom free, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing any flying cop cars or emotional androids anytime soon.

With that said though, the city of LA has a population of around 4 million people (the county population is somewhere near 10 million), so some trash will undoubtedly end up in the ocean—with so many people living that close to the water, it’s bound to happen eventually. What it all comes down to is that polluted run-off is just something that we LA surfers (in particular South Bay surfers) just have to deal with it a few times a year—it’s the price we pay to live and surf in such a unique city. There’s really no way around it.

So, I guess I’m just going to have to bite the bullet: rain inevitably brings pollution to LA’s beaches. But, at least it’s not that bad, thanks to environmental groups like the Surfrider Foundation.

And, besides, it could be worse, right? We could all live in dystopian, cyber-noir LA where it rains constantly and cynical detectives hunt psychopathic robots 24/7.

Yep, there's nothing even remotely cool about that.