There is no dubiousness about it : I hold up in one of the gravid city on earth .
Los Angeles , while home to nearly four million , is actually a secret gem within itself . I ’m convinced that the people who give LA a lot of flak have either a ) never travel to , b ) visited the untimely places , or c ) believe the urban myths and reality shows that endeavor to define this Brobdingnagian city . Sure , we have the Hollywood Walk of Fame andThe Real lady of the house of Beverly Hills , but those are such flyspeck slivers of what LA is truly about .
We also have the South Bay , a beacon light of SoCal surf civilisation , and the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula where I live , which many people in LA do n’t even know exists . We have enormous peaks and sprawling Baroness Dudevant dunes and Class V rivers just a few hours ’ campaign from the heart of the city . And perhaps most vaunt - desirable , we can channel-surf and snowboard in the same 24-hour interval .
Surfandsnowboard ? All in one daytime ? The topic is a favorite among local rippers , who chaff about doing it someday and secernate outsiders that this is what wee LA so bully .
And while surf and snowboard in the same day sound secure on paper , I ’ve never have it off anyone to actually do it in the 10 - plus years I ’ve survive here . Which got me to thinking … would anyone in their right mind do it ?
So set out the scheme to achieve just that : carve turn of events in the morning and catching waving until sunset , all in a 12 - hour full stop . And what better time to do so than on my nuptials day — my 2nd marriage twenty-four hour period , that is , the legal ceremony for the State of California where we actually sign on our marriage license .
Last weekend , my soon - to - be - but - technically - already - husband and I pack our snowboard , surfboards , and every piece of winter apparel from our snowboard boots to our wetsuits , and rallied our friends at aurora for part one of our wedding : a mountaintop ceremony at our local resort , Snow Valley . Make thatbeforesunrise … We left our family at six to make it to the mountain by eight . By nine , we were on the lifts and making our elbow room to the back bowl .
We could not have lucked out more that Saturday — it was gloriously sunny , still , and a balmy 45 ° F atop Slide Peak , the highest point on the great deal . For weeks , a cold front in LA brought freeze temporary all over the San Bernardino Range and the refuge had record a chilly 10 ° F just a few years prior ! For us to be blessed with give - comparable atmospheric condition on our wedding day … well , I cogitate the adventure gods were smiling down on us !
firmly - packed groomers commit direction to gentle and duffy snowfall as the morning warmed up , and despite being a vacation weekend , Snow Valley was relatively empty . Most Angelenos manoeuvre further east to a more well - known resort , Big Bear , leaving the somewhat rustic Snow Valley to be a topical anaesthetic ’ secret .
We take a few lap down the runs before assembling on top of Slide Peak . Up on top of the world , we had a beautiful opinion of the San Bernardinos in one direction and a engrossing scene of the Los Angeles Basin in the other .
Our fantastic friend John ( who I think may have found his young vocation as an adventure rector ) officiate the marriage ceremony before our 12 guests , all decorate out in their boot and beanie .
As we sealed the deal with a osculation , our friends tossed snow flurries in the air and we spend the rest of the morning bombing down the hills — still in our wedding get - ups !
After a easy lunch at the resort , we left the mountain at two in the afternoon and made it to the coast by four . It was a perfect 70 ° degree Fahrenheit Clarence Shepard Day Jr. on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with a hint of seaward flatus and a building northwest swell . Part two of our wedding was becoming a grand reality !
In theory , I should ’ve been dead commonplace after getting no sleep the night before and spending a day on the slopes , but what they say about the sea is really genuine : the vigour move you .
As I waxed up my deck of cards and looked out over the Southern California slide , visible all the way from Malibu to the Manhattan Beach smokestacks , I felt an electric charge come over me . I could n’t believe that just originally that day , I was frisk in the coke at 8,000 feet above sea level … and here I was , about to dodder out in relatively warm 55 ° fluorine water .
To go from a white peck peak to a stunning glassy wave only two hours afterwards is such a remarkable natural endowment of where we live . LA will constantly be one of my favourite places in the reality because of this .
We end the twenty-four hour period with a spectacular sunset academic term in upstanding head - high waves with surprisingly few surfer out . As the sun dropped below the horizon and I paddled back to shore , I looked over my shoulder one last time . The silhouette of my supporter , sitting on their surfboard against a red - orange sky , was flat out of anEndless Summerposter .
By 6 that evening — exactly 12 hours after I ’d left my mansion — I was dressed and squeeze my wetsuit back in the car , right in between my snowboard and my breaker bootee . I was ecstatic , washed-out , and looking fore to a soak in my hot vat . ( Does red-hot tubbing reckoning as a third activeness ? I ’m claiming it does ! )
On that unforgettable daylight , January 19 , 2013 , I finally achieved what I ’ve always wanted to do since moving to LA and learning how to snowboard and surf : I did both in the same day ! And with my brand - fresh hubby to boot !
Now that I ’ve done it and lived to tell about it , allow me to carry a few words of advice :
If you are lucky enough to be an Angeleno and you love the snow and the surf , this is one thing you must add to your sprightliness inclination ! Your life leaning , not your bucketful tilt , because it ’s not something you should do before you kick the bucket . It ’s something you should do to have lifetime !
