Half Moon Bay is a coastal city located in
the south of San Francisco. The city in itself is not very big and it doesn't
have a real interest for tourists. We went there almost by chance because we
wanted to reach San Francisco from Los Angeles by car, but it was too far away
to achieve it in a day; so we decided to sleep there, primarily because the
motels were cheaper than in other cities of the coast. 
When we arrived there by
car, we were flabbergasted by the beautiful uncrowded beach which had the shape
of a crescent moon. It was very windy and we knew that every year accidents
happen because of sharks so we stayed on the beach. But we were, with a few
other tourists, the only ones who stayed on the beach without daring to put a
toe in the water: the great majority of the people there came on this special
beach to practice kitesurfing. In fact, it's one of the most famous spots in
California for water sport: the wind is strong and constant throughout the
year, there isn't any rock under water all along the beach against kitesurfers
can get hurt and the several meters high waves allow kitesurfers to perform the
craziest figures.
I spent most of the afternoon on the beach watching those
people being towed with these big kites, and this filled me with wonder so much
that the following summer I registered in an intensive kitesurfing training in
south of France!
