{"id":7140,"date":"2015-02-16T22:04:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T06:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/?p=7140"},"modified":"2022-12-31T03:24:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T19:24:37","slug":"the-original-wind-surfers-pelicans-waves-and-surf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/the-original-wind-surfers-pelicans-waves-and-surf.html","title":{"rendered":"The Original Wind Surfers: Pelicans, Waves and Surf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wikipedia<\/a> describes the origins of wind surfing in the 1940s and 1950s. It couldn’t be more wrong. For as long as they have existed, sea birds and their ancestors have plied the oceans, riding the updrafts of surf, waves and sea swells<\/a> to gain efficiency and a free ride. My favorite practitioner of this skill is the pelican, although the wandering albatross<\/a> is a close second. I have been watching pelicans cruise the coastline of my southern California home with a graceful effortlessness my whole life. This winter I made it a goal to shoot some images of brown pelicans<\/a> surfing and skimming waves. Here are a few of my favorites, photographed in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar and La Jolla<\/a>. Cheers, and thanks for looking!<\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30257<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown pelican flying over waves and the surf.
\nImage ID: 30199<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30262<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30275<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown pelican flying over waves and the surf.
\nImage ID: 30193<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Brown Pelican flying over a breaking wave
\nImage ID: 30353<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30277<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown pelican flying over waves and the surf.
\nImage ID: 30194<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30278<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Brown Pelican flying over a breaking wave
\nImage ID: 30364<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Brown Pelican flying over a breaking wave
\nImage ID: 30374<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30273<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30314<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Brown Pelican flying over a breaking wave
\nImage ID: 30352<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: La Jolla<\/a>, California<\/a>, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California Pelican flying on a wave, riding the updraft from the wave.
\nImage ID: 30264<\/a>
\nSpecies: Brown Pelican<\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis<\/i><\/a>, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

I photograph brown California brown pelicans<\/a> (Pelecanus occidentalis<\/a><\/em>). If you like these, please see more California brown pelican photos<\/a> or a little PDF e-guide about photographing California brown pelicans in La Jolla<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wikipedia describes the origins of wind surfing in the 1940s and 1950s. It couldn’t be more wrong. For as long as they have existed, sea birds and their ancestors have plied the oceans, riding the updrafts of surf, waves and sea swells to gain efficiency and a free ride. My…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,189,109,193],"tags":[212,221,303,310,324],"class_list":{"0":"post-7140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birds","8":"category-pelicans-of-la-jolla","9":"category-san-diego","10":"category-seabird","11":"tag-birds","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-pelicans","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-surf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}