B*ac*'s Beach

Never surfed it. Hiked down the cliffs only to find its a gay beach, so I hiked back up. Quickly! LOL I think I was only like 20 at the time. I did surf Scripps Pier

 

i caught it good a couple years back. It was about 3ft overhead and firing. The king tide was in effect that day, stayed on it for over 3 hours. A massive workable right, and a speedy left. I didn't see any spelunkers looking for caves though...

 

Never surfed it, but checked it out. Been to SD a bunch of times, and I always missed the opportunity, surfed someplace else, etc. It looks like a wide-open barreling beach break when there's swell, and it can hold a huge huge wave. It's a nice long hike down to the beach, so bring your shoes, so you will have them. Didn't know the gheys claimed it.

 

My thoughts? Somewhere I need to get pitted before I die.

 

My buddy moved out to SD about 8 years ago. When I was there last year there wasn't much swell at this spot, so I never paddeled out there. But from pics he showed me this spot can be super rad!

 

I went there one day and it was waist high, but very fun for the size. My main takeaway from the place is that it seemed more crowded than it should be for it's relatively hard to reach location. Then again, I think a lot of places in California are like that.

 

Every line up when I was out there consisted of no less then 20 people...

 

Haha, see PM Spicoli. Go young man. Today should be good there, but there are much better places to the south with no island blockage.

Blacks is one of the most fun spots you can have. It's not going to be massive but a 4-6 foot day there offers barrels on almost every set. They line up perfectly. Even the north peak past the section are workable if its crowded.

Tip, ONLY the north end of the beach, which is not actually Blacks, its Torrey Pines State park is the gay beach. So DO NOT TAKE THE GLIDER TRAIL down and you won't see boners in your face on your descent. Park at "the gate" and take the street path down. No naked dudes then....

The point of Black is this: When it's firing, its all time and offers up perfect barrels, but when SD is small, in the 1-3 or 2-3ft range, Blacks is also the call for me because it offers up a couple more feet usually regardless of the swell. When its waist high everywhere, black sets will be chest high on the regular with pluses.

I surfed blacks with an SI member about 5-6 years ago now for that very reason. It was like waist high everywhere in the summer, so I said hey, lets do there, it's at least going to be better. It ended up being chest high with minimal crowds. It made for the right call...

In summation, blacks is the call on any swell size, at any tide. It just works. Always. And park in the neighborhood to avoid a mentally scaring experience. Nothing like seeing naked dudes playing tackle football in the shorebreak as you are walking back up to the goat trail.... And if you really need to make it down quick, take the goat trail and you will be down there in less then 5 minutes as long as you don't fall and die.

 

So wait there are actually pillow biting butt pirates hunting ass tubes out there? Damn man get pitted in the water not the poo shooter!

 

Yeah bro. It's actually illegal, but no one does anything about it. Local lure says that back in the day, when gays weren't that accepted (Now Mid-town San Diego has an entirely gay neighborhood with 10s of thousands of gays in it, but some nice restaurants), that the rectal pirates would sneak down the cliffs there and hang out and "just be gay" and because it was so hard to access, the cops or whomever would like to break up their party wouldn't waste the time and energy to go down there... Don't know if that is true....

But it's not so weird because its a "nude beach", it's just strange because its a "gay nude beach". I have heard tales of surfers saying, I saw this smoking hot naked chick there once. I always reply, sure you did. Probably been there almost 100 times and NEVER, EVER seen a woman there.

But if you are into playing naked boner Frisbee with a bunch of fat hairy gay dudes, hang a right when you get there.

 

Another bit of lure from old Blacks: There are a hand full of "keys to blacks" that do exist. I can say this because I had one in my possession for about 2 days. Kid I used to surf with got his hands on one. It was his friends dad. He was a blacks regular for like 40 years. He had a key to "the gate". So, my buddy got it for two days. He worked for me as a server. As soon as he brought it in, I said, dude, I will probably never use it, because if I park down on the beach at blacks in a vehicle no one recognizes (As only 4-5 people have this key) I thought, I will be towed, have my windows shattered or possibly be black balled from the break for ever, so I really had no intention of using it and driving down there....

So anyway, I send the kid on a wild goose chase to go get a copy made. He came back 2 hours later. He went to 5 places, NO ONE will make a copy. There is no "Do not Copy" on it or anything. So we tracked down a mexican guy who would just "do it off the books" and when he looked at the key, he said "I can't do it. That is a key for a lock in a Military Base/E.R. or Hospital". He said there is literally no way to duplicate that kind of key using stadard equipment. He said you can't even obtain a blank like that outside of a hospital....

So yes, the "Keys to Blacks" do exist and only a couple people have them. And that gate has some crazy custom lock installed on it to make sure no idiots like me can ever duplicate it, even if they get their hands on it.....

Again, I never had intentions of using it, but that would certainly be something to frame and hang on the wall.... "Hey bro, whats with the key on your wall"? "Ohh that? Its the key to Blacks"... Ha./

 

zach, thats exactly what I did, I took the glider trail down (sketchy trail!) The day I did that, there were a mix of guys and gals playing volleyball down there. You could see them from the cliffs. I am assuming the ladies, liked ladies because it looked like they had Don King in a leg lock. Just my assumption. I hiked down the trail and then turned and hiked back up

 

Haha, so there really has been a woman on that beach. To date, this is the first confirmed sighting that I know of.

Sometimes in the summer, the gays will be polite and draw giant letters in the sand that say "NUDE BEACH" so you can see it from the cliffs. Because I can't tell you how many japanese tourists march down that trail with 5 little kids, only to be horrified at the bottom. Sometimes they will go so far as to sit in a lawn chair, spread eagle, wang in the sky facing the bottom of the glider trail. A real welcome wagon.

 

LOL no naked frisbee with dudes for me but Big & T bag would probably dig that.

And Lol Zero at the Don King in a headlock comment, that made me laugh!

 

Don't care how good it's breaking. If the first thing I see when I arrive at the beach is this, I'm fuking leaving dude!

 

Surfed the place for over 10 years, probably my top 2 favorite places to surf.

You probably won't see too many naked people during this time of year, unless it's a warm weekend day. They outlawed nudity at Blacks in '80 or '81, but it was initially a "ticketing offense". It was an unpopular law that although is never enforced any longer, remains on the books nonetheless. Like Zach, I have NEVER seen any hotties down there. It's just not done.

As stated before, it will always be a foot or 2 bigger than anything else in SD. Tides don't affect it too much, unless it is higher than usual. I don't recommend paddling out in these conditions, because 1) the backwash off the cliffs is murder, and 2) it makes it more difficult to paddle out when there's no sand to launch from. Medium low is best, as it gets *hollow*. Very hollow.

Although it's a beach break, Blacks has "channels" in a way. The peaks pretty much break in the same spot, with long defined shoulders. Paddling out is, most of the time, actually pretty easy...even when it's 6'-8'. The thing you've gotta watch out for are the sneaker sets. Getting nailed by a 6'+ set or bigger gives a whole new meaning to the term "washing machine". The peaks are steep, and break very hard. Getting pitched on the takeoff is fairly common, especially on the North Peak rights.

All in all, it's the most powerful beach break I have ever surfed. Baja Malibu in Mexico comes a very close second, but doesn't hold the size that Blacks does. If you've never surfed it before, it is most definitely a "bucket list" wave. And, as said before...crowds are a definite factor.

Look for all the parked cars at the directions given by Zach. The trail down is easy to find. I've never taken the Glider Port trail down.

If you want the 411, give me a PM. You know the routine.

 

Or you just waste a half hour walking back up and park to the south. You only make that mistake once. Because there is an imaginary line there, and they do NOT cross it. I think if they touch the sand south of the glider trail, the lifeguards are free to taze them. But then, you have to pull the pin out of a naked gay dude, so who knows.

 

I think i was out there in 92/93, my dad was stationed at Point Loma Coast Guard Station. I remember when the rents took me to Torrey Pines to see the gliders and my dad goes, you should try and hike down that trail. He didn't tell me what was at the bottom. LOL He was cracking up when I got back up. It wasn't packed, but there were enough that I knew I was in a wrong place. HA HA HA

 

Haha, joke was on you. Thats pretty funny.