Surfboarding, like ironing-boarding, attracts people with its steamy smoothness and tends to ruin silk gowns. Scope sizzling apparel with today's Groupon: for $17, you get a full-day surfboard and wetsuit rental (a $34 value) at Nor Cal Surf Shop in Pacifica.

Nor Cal Surf Shop rewards dedicated wave riders, wind manipulators, and asphalt whisperers with top-quality gear maintained by a knowledgeable, experienced, and all-surfer-comprised staff. Stripling surfers can lean on the expertise of the shop's gear gurus for a customized fit, and typhoon tamers can surf right through the pane glass and stick an aerial into the awaiting ocean, give or take a several meters of concrete. Wetsuit rentals (a $16 value) from top brands such as Xcel hug the body like affectionate otters, and a bevy of board rentals (an $18 value) ranging from soft-tops to NSP epoxy and stand-up paddleboards anchor ankles against bucking seahorses and vindictive breakers.

Nor Cal Surf Shop is run by a cadre of surfers, skaters, and kiters whose advanced understanding of physics comes from personal experience with gravity’s impulsiveness. Great for extreme sports enthusiasts and those who tend to think of their chosen game as somewhere between moderate and immoderate, Nor Cal Surf Shop is a well-stocked outpost for California’s wave-getting denizens.