Great Afternoon at the Beach

Although I grew up in San Francisco, I never got INTO the Pacific Ocean until one sunny Spring day in 1952. It was after a swim meet at Fleishacker Pool, a huge salt water pool at Ocean Beach. Jim Fisher, one of my swimming team mates, was a powerful swimmer and he said “Let’s go bodysurfing.” We walked across the Great Highway and swam out through the surf. There were good sized waves, and to this day I get a chill thinking of the joy I felt out there. The blue water, the movement of the surface, the power of the waves. I was a goner. Surfing, beachcombing, running on the beach, being on that edge of land/water ever since…

Yesterday I’d been in the studio working on the tiny houses book since 7 AM, so I took off about 3 to walk on the beach. When I got down there, Josh and Kenny were about to head out to fish for halibut.

“Want to come along, Lloyd, we’ve got an extra rod.”

Hoo-eee, did I! It was brilliantly sunny, a bit windy, a fog bank a half-mile out in the ocean.

Pretty soon we’re heading out through the surf and I’m the only one in the boat who’s nervous. We make it through the last wave and the boat slams down, and we’re in calm water. How different the land looks from the sea. Such a different perspective. They fished for an hour and a half (only one bite) and I shot pictures and exulted in just being out there.

Back to the beach for a long walk, shot a lot of pix, click below on “Read more:


Kenny

Robbie coming in (caught 2 halibut). Robbie’s the Ultimate Local. Look how perfectly the boat cuts through the water.

Bridget taking her 2-year-old god daughter Taeya (who’s get little wet suit on) to go boogie boarding. Yes!!

It was a totally great day at the beach.On radio right now:

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood,

You sure are lookin good,

You’re everything 

That a big bad wolf would want…

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

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