From the top of the mountain at Palisades Tahoe, the surrounding Sierra peaks glistened in the sun like frosted cupcakes. Last Monday was unseasonably warm for a morning in March, and it happened to be the day that my buddy Alex and I had traveled to the ski resort to kick off an experiment many Californians have dreamed about.
Alex took off ripping down a sun-baked mogul field. I followed a moment later. It was our first run of the morning and it started time ticking on a day of springtime perfection: a half-day of skiing followed by a sunset surfing session — a double-stack of classic California awesomeness.
Scenes from a spring day of skiing Lake Tahoe in the morning and surfing Pacifica in the afternoon.
Minh Connors and William Hale Irwin / For the S.F. Chronicle
Near-record heat brought the summer vibes to Pacifica State Beach in mid-March.
Minh Connors
The waves at Pacifica weren’t huge but Gregory and Alex made the most of them. Look at that expert form. Surfing!
Minh Connors
Why do this? Because there aren’t many places on Earth where you can.
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The proximity of the High Sierra to the mighty Pacific invites outdoor lovers to fantasize about pairing skiing and surfing. It’s kind of a mythical objective. Once I got the itch to try, I started texting anyone I could think of for tips and insights on planning.
I hit up a prominent Tahoe skier who grew up surfing in Santa Cruz, feeling certain he’d pulled off such a day. “I actually haven’t,” he replied. “Always wanted to but haven’t done it yet.”
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A buddy of mine in S.F. who surfs Ocean Beach religiously said he’s always wanted to try. “It’s pretty much the ultimate way to flaunt that you live in the Bay Area,” he said.
Eventually I landed on a seasoned veteran of such pursuits: Jeremy Jones, the globe-trotting snowboarder who lives in Truckee. He’s gutsy enough to surf Lake Tahoe on the rare days when high winds kick up rideable alpine swell.
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“Oh, yeah,” Jones said when I asked him. He has led his family on ski-surf days and has gone on sports-stacking missions with friends where they climb, mountain bike and surf all in one outing. “We call them California dream days,” he told me.
The surfing-skiing combo is soul-satisfying, Jones said. The more he spoke, the more I came to wonder whether a trip I’d conceived as a one-off novelty could hold more meaning.
“The palette change of the world — going from the white world of snow to bobbing in the ocean — is a unique sensory experience you can’t get in many other places,” he said. “It’s an awakening. It makes you feel alive.”
‘Of course I’m in’
Alex picked me up in his minivan last Sunday evening. The plan was to get a headstart by crashing at a motel in Truckee the night before our big Monday. We’d aim to get first chair at Palisades and ski until lunch, then haul out to the coast for a saltwater session in Pacifica.
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As I threw my gear into Alex’s cavernous car, I started to get excited. Just the act of piling wetsuits and surfboards next to skis and boots was invigorating. It was gonna be fun.
Loading all your skiing and surfing gear for one trip is an exciting feeling.
Gregory Thomas / S.F. Chronicle
Alex was an obvious recruit for this hair-brained mission. We’re both middle-aged fathers with young children juggling family duties and demanding careers. When we cross paths at school dropoffs, we chat about low-stakes outdoor pursuits with our kids — far from our glory days of spur-of-the-moment wilderness adventures.
Though I’d first fantasized about a mid-winter feast of deep powder and overhead surf — chest-beating conditions to brag about forever — it became clear that the challenge of aligning schedules would mean settling for less-than-ideal conditions.
By the time we’d picked a date, it was mid-March and nature’s roulette wheel landed on a day of record mountain heat and a pancake-flat ocean. Still, Alex was stoked.
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“These are my two favorite sports and doing them on the same day? Of course I’m in,” he said.
Gearing up for an early half-day at Palisades Tahoe on a warm March morning.
William Hale Irwin/For the S.F. Chronicle
A couple days before our trip, I sheepishly relayed the day’s forecast to Jones, thinking an athlete of his stature might scoff at our big plan to ride toddler-sized waves and slushy alpine leftovers. He waited until I’d finished qualifying then responded in the way of a big-mountain monk.
“Conditions are almost irrelevant for me,” Jones said. “The job is in the doing — giving you a reason to be in these incredible landscapes. A lot of the complaining is done from home.”
From Tahoe to the ocean
By the time of our trip, Tahoe hadn’t gotten snow in a month. But Jones’ mantra guided my perspective, and our morning at Palisades went off brilliantly. The record heat of the day worked to our advantage: By 9:30 a.m. the sun had already cooked the icy slopes into silky runs. The mountain was melting out fast and we were catching the best of what remained.
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From the top of Siberia Bowl, Lake Tahoe reflected a shade of deep indigo that matched the sky overhead. Knowing we were on a deadline — we had to be in the car by noon to beat the Sacramento traffic — we wasted no time ripping as many runs as we could.
Alex (red top) and Gregory (yellow) make turns near the summit of Palisades Tahoe on their first run of a long day of skiing and surfing.
William Hale Irwin/For the S.F. Chronicle
Alex’s form is that of a Swiss Olympian, and I watched him carve down the slopes like he was authoring a note of thanks to the mountain gods in giant cursive letters. As someone who learned to ski in adulthood, I travel downhill like a dog in a kennel crate strapped to the roof of a car as it barrels down the freeway — eyes wide, cheeks flapping, hoping not to crash.
By 11:45 a.m. we were stomping back through the parking lot — which was good because after two and a half hours of skiing my thighs were ready to explode. We shed our gear, loaded up and lit out for the interstate.
The drive was a challenge all its own. The long lull in excitement threatened to sap our energy, and being stuck in a car for four hours after a morning of physical exertion can stiffen the body. Both Alex and I had packed massage guns to blast out any car cramps and stay limber. We made sure to eat lunch early so we wouldn’t lose steam once we got on our surfboards.
Alex carves fast turns at Palisades Tahoe. Spring skiing came early this year!
William Hale Irwin/For the S.F. Chronicle
As we raced across the Central Valley, it occurred to me that we were roughly tracing the natural journey of a California raindrop, beginning in the peaks where precipitation first crystalizes into snow and following it down the landscape and out to the ocean. Chasing water in those two different forms — snow and waves — animates a lot of people who choose to live here, us included.
‘That’s why we live in California’
We arrived at Linda Mar around 4 p.m., squeezed into our wetsuits, grabbed our longboards and marched toward the water. After a morning in winter, we stepped into summer vibes: The beach was packed with sunbathers and families out to enjoy the abnormally warm afternoon.
I’d worried the weather might bring out the surfers too, but the flat forecast must have kept them at home. The waves were small, but at least we didn’t have to elbow our way through a packed lineup.
Gregory, left, and Alex brush the cobwebs off of their Wavestorms before strutting out to Pacifica State Beach to tear up the surf.
Minh Connors
For the next few hours, we two out-of-practice dads were free to chase as many rides as our big Costco-purchased Wavestorms could handle. I’d love to report that we were carving faces and hanging ten, but the reality was less radical. When we weren’t getting pounded by closeouts, we mostly rode whitewater back towards the sand.
Still, I doubt anyone out there had as much fun as we did.
After our trip, I called Brennan Lagasse, another Tahoe lifestyle athlete with multiple ski-surf days under his belt. He told me about itineraries I’d never thought of, like linking a ski morning on Mount Shasta with an afternoon surfing session in Crescent City. He radiates stoke. Like Jones, he seemed totally unfazed by suboptimal surf-and-snow conditions.
Gregory, left, and Alex charge down the meaty face of a 1-foot-high ripple. Next stop, Mavericks.
Minh Connors
“If you score (with great conditions) it’s a bonus,” Legasse said. “You’re not going to get the best ski day or surf day, but doing those things in the same day is really special. That’s why we live in California.”
The morning after our adventure, Alex texted me a quick note of reflection that reminded me of what Jones had foretold before we left. The trip, Alex said, “genuinely re-inspired my motivation to get out and take advantage of all this amazing state can provide.”