Stinson Beach

This guide to Stinson Beach north of San Francisco opens on the last day of summer 1998, when sixteen-year-old Jonathan Kathrein paddled out on his bodyboard at the south end of the beach and waited for a wave. It places you inside the Red Triangle, the stretch of coast from Bodega Bay past the Farallon Islands to Big Sur where an outsized share of the country's great white shark encounters cluster, and explains why a bodyboarder's silhouette on the water can be mistaken for a seal hauled out on the rocks. Listen for the calm, gentle curve of the sand in front of you, famous for being soft and clean.