Surfing and Moving to California

I moved out to California when I was 20. I had job lined up working as a ski instructor. I left home for the move in the spring and drove west. I remember the drive out, I specifically remember being terribly bored in Kansas and unnerved in Nevada. I took a back road through Nevada that was more direct. I have never seen such a desolate and lonely landscape.

The town I moved to was Mammoth Lakes. It is at the northern most part of southern California. I arrived in town in the night time and immediately drove to the mountain. Mammoth Mountain is a dormant volcano and is immense. I spent the night in a hotel. The next day I got myself into employee housing.

There was a dorm not too far down the mountain road for employees. It was affordable and ready for me to move in. The room I got had two bunk beds with two roommates to share the space with. One of them I got to be good friends with, his name was Matt. I worked at the mountain for the remainder of the spring skiing season. Mammoth has a very long ski season.

Matt found an apartment in town with a reasonable price. He invited me to move into the apartment with him. I gladly took the offer. I spent that summer in Mammoth; I worked two jobs bussing tables. I started reading a fair amount that summer as well. I made good use of the public library.

During that summer Matt and I were able to make time for a couple vacations. One of them was to Vermont where I grew up. I invited Matt to come with me and we timed the trip to coincide with the Vermont Reggae Festival. Matt got to see Vermont for the first time. He grew up in southern California.

The other vacation was shorter than the one to Vermont but it has its significance in my life. It was the first time I ever surfed. Matt took me down to Baja Mexico. We stopped in San Diego to pick up a friend of his whose name I don't remember. This was where I surfed for the first time. I had no idea what I was doing and struggled to get back to the beach. The waves were a little too big for someone as inexperienced as me to ride. The waves in Baja were even bigger.

In Baja we went to a place called Camp 38. It was a camp site up on a bluff with a trail that went down to a beach. It had an open air café and someone who sold jewelry, fireworks and pot out front. I had my first fish tacos at the café and bought a small amount of weed. I also went surfing down at the beach. I remember getting up on the board and riding the wave. I was too high up on the wave or something and the tip of my board got submerged in the water. I was tossed into the ocean head first. I swam to the surface and scrambled to get on the board before another wave crashed down on me. I paddled the rest of the way into the beach

The summer past and the girls that Matt and I rented the apartment from came back to town. Matt went back home and I stayed hopeful that I would find another place to live. I found a place just in the nick of time. I stayed there for a while but left and do not remember why. I was then homeless. I had two jobs and plenty of money for a reasonably priced apartment but was having trouble finding the right one. I spent that time living in a storage unit. It was winter and snow was on the ground but I was doing alright. I found an apartment before too long but was arrested shortly after moving in. I did 30 days in jail and moved back to VT when I was released.