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Map/Life of the Ocean Shore Railroad (1)

From the San Francisco Call, Oct. 17, 1908

“Ocean Shore Road Open To Half Moon
“Graders Are Working On Bluffs Between San Gregorio Creek and Long Bridge

“The Ocean Shore railway this week extended the running schedule of daily trains from Granada to Half Moon Bay proper and Arleta Park. The company is now operating at this end of the line 30 miles of railway, running four trains daily and eight trains on Sundays.
“The grading between Arleta Park and Long Bridge [Tunitas Creek] is about completed and this laying of rails will commence next week. Chief Engineer Rogers says the trains will run to Long Bridge, which is three miles north of San Gregorio, about Nov. 15.”

…to be continued

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Surfing: Interview with Mike McCreary (Long Version) Part II

In 1981 I interviewed Mike McCreary, a surfer who also owned a surf shop on Highway 1.

Michael McCreary (MM): When I first started surfing [at the jetty] in high school, I called it the breakwater but it’s becoming known as “Surfer’s Beach” or “El Granada Beach.” I call it the “breakwater” still. Generally, it’s a small spot, no big waves, sheltered from the open ocean so the swell has to wrap ’round the headland to get in there. By wrapping ’round it loses some of its strength, strength breaking on reef off Half Moon Bay so there’s not too many dangerous currents and it doesn’t get that big and it’s a beginner-intermediate surf spot.

MM: The more advanced surfers surf at Venice and Kelly Street…The waves get very large, too large to surf but you can surf to about six or eight feet. Last winter (1980?) was the biggest swell we’ve had since 1969…I’d say the swell got up to 20-25 feet.

MM: Nobody surfed. When the swell gets that big, you have to go to Santa Cruz or Monterey. There’s so many new surfers in Half Moon Bay, at least 100. A lot of young kids, a lot of kids who boogie board.

MM: Cowboy (Craig MacArthur) is probably one of the most famous [Coastside surfers] due to the fact he’s been surfing the area for a long time, since high school. He’s a good surfer and he makes boards. Cowboy’s kind of a legendary surfer. He stands out..he’s six feet tall…

MM: Cowboy makes his own brand of surfboards and he almost makes a surfboard for us [McCreary] called the Miramar surfboard. We have our own brand, Miramar surfboards, and we have a couple of people making boards, one of them lives in San Diego.

Note: Visit Cowboy here…http://cowboysurfshop.com
…to be continued…

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I’m Afraid To Watch The Final Episode..

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I’m feeling high anxiety about watching the last episode of the Sopranos. I fear it coming and I’m not sure I’m ready to watch HBO’s solution for me and other soon-to-be depressed viewers, the visual sedative, the tranquilizer, if you will—and that’s the first showing of “John From Cincinnati,â€? or whatever it’s called– scheduled to air right after the possibly bloody resolution of the Soprano epic.

“John from Cincinnati,â€? the new surfer dude series that the folks at HBO hope will take my mind off the fact, the reality, that there will be no more Sopranos for me to look forward to on Sunday evenings. [To be fair, the intriguing promo features “Johnâ€? in full surfer costume—black wetsuit, minus his surfboard, standing on dry land–but as if he were riding a wave, that is, his feet are a couple of feet of the ground.]

It’s been years and years and I’m attached to Tony and his family.

And how I looked forward to seeing my “littleâ€? friends in hi def on our 40-plus inches flat screen.

I have a confession, though: last week’s thrilling episode moved too fast and didn’t work for me. Tony Soprano’s fall through space, with bullets flying all around him, felt too hurried and that’s why I fear the final episode. I just never imagined Tony, the family man, huddled alone in a room with a loaded rifle.

Somebody’s in a rush to get this all over with and I’m not sure I can face it. Maybe I’ll watch the rerun.

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The “Old” Way To Half Moon Bay

That’s Half Moon Bay in the distance–with the San Mateo-Half Moon Bay Road leading to the town. Note: there doesn’t seem to be anything on either side of the road–which means it must have been taken prior to the 1940s.

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This is my favorite pix of old way to Half Moon Bay…
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Early South Coast Conservationist: Theodore Hoover (11)

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The Hoovers spent many happy years at Rancho del Oso, south of Pescadero. When Mildred died in 1940, Theodore was grief-stricken but found solace in the memory of the Taj Mahal he had visited decades earlier. He recalled that this “wonder of the world” had been built in honor of a lost love–and Rancho del Oso–his natural wonder–was a testament to Mildred, his lost love.

Hoover eloquently expressed this sentiment in the epilogue of Mildred’s memoirs.

“I now understand,” Hoover wrote, “and see clearly that it was his attempt to form a concrete expression of that haunting mixture of pain and pleasure that is in the hearts of all good men who have ever loved and long loved and lost a loving and good woman.”

Theodore Jesse Hoover died at age 85 at his beloved Rancho del Oso in 1955. He never achieved the fame and notoriety of brother Herbert–but he lived a full life and is remembered fo rhis great love for a wonderful woman.

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Early South Coast Conservationist: Theodore Hoover (10)

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Theodore “Tad” Hoover was an early conservationist–and an honorary Fish and Game warden, a job he took very seriously.

In the 1930s, near full retirement, he was patrolling Waddell Creek on a Sunday, as was his custom, when he discovered three high school boys. They were fishing the headwaters of Waddell Creek far up in Big Basin country outside the Hoover preserve.

Upon questioning the kids, Hoover discovered they had been fishing without a license and had caught more than the legal limit of trout–way over the limit.

The boys explained that part of the catch was from the previous day and that they intended to bring home the entire batch to friends and family to show what great fishermen they were.

If that excuse wasn’t good enough, the boys offered another: the only reason they were there was because the game warden’s brother, President Hoover, had had terrific luck at that spot.

Theodore Hoover was unimpressed with both explanations even though one of the boys was the son of a state senator. He arrested them, confiscating as evidence the prize of their efforts, a magnificent 24-inch trout.

When the case came to trial, it was Theodore who urged the judge to be lenient.

…to be continued…