The surfer who washed ashore yesterday near Sloat Blvd. on Ocean Beach has been identified as 33-year-old Sean O’Flaherty Fahey. Ocean Beach is one of the wildest surfing spots in Northern California, blessed by big waves and cursed by an extremely dangerous riptide. The cause of Fahey’s death has not yet been determined. As a resident of the Outer Richmond, I am continually awed by the beauty of Ocean Beach. On the Gulf Coast where I grew up, the water is warm, and the waves (except during hurricane season), are generally very mild. The waterscape is flat, featureless save for gradations in color caused by the underwater topography. Here, on the other hand, one stands on the gray beach and looks out into a roiling seascape, and it’s impossible not to be aware that it is a treacherous beauty. Everything is more dramatic in Northern California–the sea, the food, the culture, the unpredictability of plate tectonics–that’s one thing that draws people here. Most of us can’t imagine leaving.