This morning, most of us around the city jumped a mile when our phone — or phones — went off with the ear-splitting shriek of a (thankfully brief) tsunami warning.
Everyone, that is, except for the surfers already in the water at Ocean Beach, for whom the moment didn’t even register. Tsunami? What tsunami? If anything, a surge would’ve made the choppy waters on Thursday a little more rideable.
We received an eyewitness report from Beau Perry, a 30-year surfer and oceanography lover who ran to Ocean Beach from his Richmond home after hearing the tsunami warning blare during a Zoom meeting.
(Full disclosure: Beau is the brother of Gazetteer CEO Byron Perry, who first received this critical news via Beau's text.)
Live from the scene, Perry told me that the tsunami warning arrived during high tide, which can boost surging surf. Unsurprisingly, he observed two surfers in the water, well after the tsunami alert went out just before 11 a.m.
“I was feeling nervous for them! I’ve been going to this beach for 30 years. It’s rockin’ with waves and a gnarly current,” he says.
Is there a chance that these poor surfers were just left out in the (proverbial) cold, with no idea that there’s an evacuation? According to Perry, probably not.
“The beach was completely empty on a beautiful day, which is a hint, and there were lots of cops with sirens on in the parking lot,” Perry says. “They were out there until 12 p.m., so they definitely stayed in during the evacuation time.”
(I imagine the conversation went a little like: “Who’s that rando waving at us from the shore? Oh, just a firefighter. Meh!”)
There is a long tradition of surfer bros hitting the beach during storm surges, especially in legendary spots like Hawaii and Southern California. A surfer friend once bragged to me in college that the beach emptying out is a dream come true: “Mega swells, no kooks!”
In this case, it looks like the Ocean Beach pair got away scot-free. We hope they caught a sick wave for their efforts, anyhow.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 1:25 p.m. on Dec. 5, 2024 to correct Perry's location — he lives in the Richmond, not Sunset. Clearly, we were still distracted by the whole tsunami thing.