Surfing and snowboarding in one day? How I survived the ‘California Double’
LOS ANGELES — In what was far and away the most fun and most grueling reporting assignment of my career, I took on a challenge that’s possible in only a few places on Earth: surfing in the ocean and snowboarding in the mountains on the same day.
It’s a good year for the so-called California Double. An uncharacteristically cold and wet Los Angeles winter created plenty of snow in the mountains, and on March 23, I wanted to go for it.
But I also figured (and my editors agreed) that I shouldn’t attempt the adventure for the first time alone; I needed to find a group of experienced thrill seekers.
Lawrence Doherty picked up the phone at the second surf shop I called. The 29-year-old and some friends had attempted the double recently, but car trouble and heavy snow prevented them from getting to the slopes. They planned to try again, he said, and I was welcome to tag along. He also wanted to add a little twist to the double by skateboarding in between the surfing and snowboarding — a sort of “California Triple.”
Twelve days later,
