It’s the Early Birds Who Catch the Waves at Trestles

“Dawn patrol” regulars agree. Scott Lisk is the most radical of them all.

About three times a week, or more if the surf is good, he leaves home in San Bernardino at 3 or 3:30 a.m. and begins the 100-mile trek to his favorite surfing spot near San Clemente.

He drives over the winding, often treacherous Ortega Highway to San Juan Capistrano, where he veers south on Interstate 5 toward the Camp Pendleton Marine base and San Onofre State Park. There, he straps his board on his back and pedals his bicycle a quarter mile over the sand to a surfing spot in the park called Lower Trestles.

The idea is to get there before sunrise.

“This is the fine line between having fun and insanity,” said Lisk, 45, a real estate broker, with a laugh. “My wife thinks I have a girlfriend. But this is my golf game, this is what I do to relieve stress.”

Such are the rigors of admission to the dawn patrol, a group of intense, some might say fanatical, surfers who pride themselves on being the first in the water each morning. For Steve Murga of Huntington Beach, that means leaving home at 4:30 a.m., nearly coffee break time by Lisk’s standards.

“I’m heading down the trail by 5:30,” said Murga, 46, a Toyota salesman, who sometimes drives five mornings a week to Lowers. “As long as there is a south swell in the water I’m there. I have a 9-month-old daughter, so my time is real valuable now. So if it’s under 4 feet, I’m not going to go.”

Actually, Lowers is not convenient for anyone. It’s a small reef offshore of the mouth of San Mateo Creek, with no parking anywhere nearby.

But that’s part of its lure. Lowers and its companion break, called Upper Trestles, offer what some describe as a more soulful surfing experience. It’s a pristine wetlands area and always a bit of adventure to get there.

“Walking in there for the first time, I was so impressed with the natural beauty of the place,” said Bill Wetzel, 57, who now lives 45 minutes away in Lake Elsinore, but was a surfboard maker in San Clemente in the 1960s. “The deer were thick there and the bobcats. It was like a wildlife conservatory. It was something to see at that time.”

To help protect the area from outside influences such as professional surfing contests, a proposed toll road interchange and a plan for the construction of Marine Corps housing, the fledgling Trestles Surfing Assn. has been formed.

Still, nothing can really stop the crowds from coming to surf in shifts throughout the day.

“It’s like a kaffeeklatsch down there in the morning,” said Bob Bailey, 45, of Laguna Beach, a 20-year regular at Lowers. “The afternoon guys are a different group, but our paths cross once in awhile.”

Although Lowers has a reputation for some hostility to outsiders, Murga said that is reserved only for people who don’t respect other surfers.

“Lowers has a bad reputation for localism, but it really isn’t like that,” Murga said. “As long as you come and blend in and are not a complete jerk, nobody is going to hassle you.”