Hi. It’s me, Flat Emma! I spent this week in San Clemente, California with my cousins, the O’Brien family. San Clemente is best known for its beautiful weather (it’s sunny here 310 days a year!*), the Western White House where former President Richard Nixon lived when not in DC, and of course, surfing! San Clemente catches swells all year long making it a surfing mecca. Going from South to North, surf spots include Trestles, Lowers, Middles, Uppers, Calafia, Riviera, Lost Winds, The Hole, T-Street, The Pier, Linda Lane, 204s, North Beach and Poche.
San Clemente is also the surfing media capital of the world; its home to Surfing Magazine, The Surfer's Journal, Longboard Magazine, Stand Up! and Surfer Magazine. San Clemente also has loads of surfboard shapers and manufacturers including Noll, Lost, Stewart, Cole, Timmy Patterson, Dev, Terry Senate and Dewey Weber. I can’t even name all of the surf clothing industry giants in town.
With all this epic surf it’s no surprise that San Clemente High School won 6 out of 7 most recent NSSA national surfing titles. One title was won by Connections Academy – a private school in San Clemente. Pretty much everyone here surfs and you bump into professional surfers all over town; my cousins’ favorite surfer, Bethany Hamilton, was here surfing last weekend! Because of all this water, our first line of business was to get me laminated to keep me dry. Everyone at Office Depot knows who Flat Stanley is. Here is a pic of me going through the machine. It was kind of hot and smashy but it was worth it.
