Today I headed up the line to Ocean Beach, about 10 minutes north on the trolley to Old Town, then 20 minutes west on the bus to the coast. This area is like Mount Maunganui, Papamoa, and the old stories of New Brighton Markets, combined. It’s exactly the cruisey, West Coast surf town vibe which, as an outsider, I’d always associated with Southern California. The streets are lined with surf shops, skate shops, bars, restaurants and craft breweries.

I was looking for something to eat, and was told about one place which does good burgers differently, Hodad’s. Sadly, they were closed for Easter Sunday, but I found Raglan Public House, a New Zealand themed restaurant. The atmosphere inside is really cool, and I even spotted an old bottle of Speights up above the bar. The Kiwilango burger there was also incredible, it’s a spicy beef burger with house made aioli and some jalapenos and Mexican beans for good measure.

After a feed and a pint, I found a surf and skate shop which also does skateboard rentals. I picked up one of their cruisers for 2 hours and headed towards the beach with no plan. The guy in the shop let me know to go right when I hit the beach so that’s what I did.

I skated up the path for about an hour, covering probably about 5km of hugely variable path. Some parts were so rough that it was hard to even push, while some parts were beautifully smooth, and some parts with no path at all. Got as far as Vacation Isle where I found a very popular reserve full of people and families hanging out and cooking amazing smelling BBQs on the public wood fired BBQ grills. That explains the shops selling little bundles of firewood held together with a bit of gladwrap. After a lap of the RC boat pond, I turned back towards OB and skated alongside the beach to get the board to the shop with 5 minutes to spare.

I got the bus and trolley back to Little Italy just in time for the Padres final baseball game against Houston, and $5 pints to boot. While at 3 Punk Ales, I got to chat with one of the locals who is a good skater, and even visited Australia to skate in Sydney and Adelaide. Him and the bartender both know the spot I visited yesterday, Tacos El Gordo, and they affirm that the one in Chula Vista is the original location in the US, straight from Tijuana, Mexico. They had other recommendations too, and I’m looking forward to checking those out tomorrow.