Leaving California was tough, especially when I started to know the people in my favorite surf community, Bolinas. However, the presence of a rugged wild doesn’t take its form as much in those Bay Area waters as it does on the Oregon Coast.

I lost my hood somewhere in the Linda Mar parking lot last year and do I regret it. Pushing into a duck dive in the cold Oregon waters without a hood will intiate the onset of an instant ice cream headache, at least when the alskan northwest swell blows through.

On a recent weekday, I paddled out as I frequently do now at 2,484-acre Oswald West State Park, a.k.a. Short Sands less than a couple hours from Portland, Ore.

The ocean was sparse with surfers, although on weekends it can get quite crowded. As I sat on my board just passed the break near the center of the cove a large splash took my attention off the foggy horizon.

Just behind me was a large bald eagle, in its vice-like talons it gripped a wriggling fish that shed its last droplets of water back into the ocean from twenty feet in the air. Out of no where another brown eagle came darting in, claws first, and an airborne dogfight was on.

Eventually, the bald eagle fluttered off with the prize into a nearby tree.

With my back turned to the oncoming waves I had drifted closely into shore and was nearly taken out by an outside break. I turned, paddled back through the waters and waited for my next waves.

Oswald West State Park ( Short Sands )

Parking for the beach is located a few miles south of Canon Beach on Highway 101. There are three parking lots which tend to fill up quickly on the weekends. The middle lot seems to be the closes to the 3/4 mile trail that takes you to the beach.

The hike down the trail is evergreen and follows a fresh water creek called Short Sand Creek out to the ocean.

On entering the beach old grey and dried up drift wood piles huddle together near the tree line and a layer of sea-rounded rocks act as a barrier to the sandy shore. The rocks are also conducive to small fires to warm up from a day of surfing. The rule board only asks not to build fires in the drift wood piles. The present amount of salt dried wood makes for easy starting clean fires, great for cooking up sausages.

Large cliffs surround the cove and bald eagles can often be seen flying between the tall douglas firs. Even a waterfall pours down into ocean after rainy days. Whale sightings are frequent in the area and some other marine life can be viewed. I would say as compared to California there is definitely a lack in seals and sea lions… which would equal fewer sharks I suppose.

The crowds to tend to get large. I usually huddle down at the southern end of the beach. There is a strong rip at the cliff side that will take you out passed the break without duck diving and little paddling.

Sometimes a right-hander will form and manage a fun, clean wave while still avoiding the rocks. You can almost always count on the left-hander there and holds up for a decent ride. From the picnic area the southern end of the beach looks messy, small and rocky which keeps away the humans.