Coos Bay’s small and tight-knit surfing community has done its best to keep a closely-guarded secret: When it’s on, the surfing here is as good as anywhere.

But with a plug in this month’s National Geographic Adventure magazine, it seems word might be getting out about the region’s waves.

“That blasted National Geographic went and told everybody what we already know,” said Coos County Commissioner John Griffith, himself an avid surfer. “I think if someone read that and took a surfing trip down here, though, they might be pretty disappointed.”

Off the beaten path and inconsistent enough to confound any weekend warrior’s Highway 101 surf trip, the Coos Bay region’s beaches have never really been a destination, say locals. Sand breaks like those at Bastendorff Beach are ever-shifting and unpredictable, and expert breaks like Winchester Bay can be dangerous and unwelcoming to outsiders.

A fact of life for surfing around Coos Bay, it seems, is that you almost have to live here to enjoy it.

The National Geographic write-up came as part of an article naming the 50 Next Great Adventure Towns. It was short but sweet.

“With Pacific swells that rival San Diego’s, Coos Bay has carved a name for itself as the Northwest’s premier surfing hideout, and this year the gritty port upgraded with a downtown face-lift. The best breaks are off Bastendorff Beach; beginners head to gentler surf at Lighthouse Beach,” the article said.

Some were surprised at the blurb’s focus on surfing. After all, there are certainly other outdoors activities for which the Bay Area is better known.

“ATVs, kayaking, hiking and biking trails, scuba diving and surfing,” said Katherine Hoppe, promotions director for the Coos Bay-North Bend Visitor and Conventions Bureau, when asked about the Bay Area’s top outdoors activities. “Of course, our fishing is right up there, too.”

From Hoppe’s perspective, surfing isn’t a large part of the growing tourism economy of Coos County, an industry that earned $181 million in 2006-07.

“It doesn’t bring in a lot of tourists, but it is an activity that tourists like,” she said. “For a lot of people here, it still feels like it’s their secret.”

Brian Menten, a Coos Bay surfer since 1988 and owner of Waxer’s Surf & Skate Shop, said there are some very good reasons for the obscure nature of Coos Bay’s surfing.

“It’s difficult to just arrive here in Coos Bay and get good surf,” he said, standing on a foggy Bastendorff Beach on Friday. “Like here at Bastendorff, we have beach bottoms. The surf is constantly changing, because the bottoms are constantly changing. People will show up, and you’ll say, ‘Oh man, you should have been here a couple hours ago. It was great.’”

So the best way to take advantage of surfing conditions on the Coos Bay region, said Menten, is to live here and learn the beaches. And thus the geographic isolation of Oregon’s Bay Area has kept its surf relatively devoid of out-of-town surfers.

“This is a low traffic area, which makes it a difficult place to do business. But it being a low-traffic area makes it a great place to live for the people who do live here,” said Griffith. “It’s just like the steelhead fishing — you almost have to live here to utilize it.”

But for those who do live here, the payoff is special.

“At times, it comes into focus, and it can be as good as anywhere in the world,” said Griffith.  

Some beaches in Coos Bay and the larger South Coast region are friendlier to outsiders than others.

“Everybody surfs at Bastendorff,” said Menten. “Bastendorff can be waist-high on the south end and head-and-a-half high on the north end, and there’ll be guys surfing both spots.”

Winchester Bay, on the other hand, is an experts-only area that’s notoriously unforgiving — both in its waves and in local attitudes. In this case, there are some very good reasons for “locals only” mindset. The breaks at Winchester Bay are notoriously savage and unforgiving. Novices unfamiliar with the beach who show up there are putting everyone at risk. Locals know it, and they act accordingly.

“When it’s good and the boys are on it, they have very little patience,” said Menten. “It’s not a kumbayaa situation.”

And for Menten’s part, he doesn’t see the National Geographic article resulting in a huge influx of surfing tourism, partly because of the community’s identity as a blue-collar stronghold and a lingering resistance to tourism.

“It’s kind of cool when your hometown gets mentioned on a national stage,” he said. “But it’s still Coos Bay.”