some surf pics

Some, small, always mushy southern CA beach breaks.

You Know Where

My old hood, OB Jetty


South Bay, LA

More LA

 

duude didn't see this til just now.... ha... what happened to your other handle/avatar/persona?

 

Zach, that fist pic is Blacks, right?

 

Yup... All the shots from that day are just mind blowing. For being a beach break, Blacks doesn't max out with the top to bottom size that the reef breaks do. That was for sure one of the more impressive days of photos I have ever seen from there. The Cliffs has more length in the face, but Black had to be the heaviest wave in the area that whole swell. It lasted like 4 days.

 

nice Blacks shots Zach619. Blacks is the sh!t. I used to drive down there a lot when I lived in Seal Beach all the time. Worth the 2 hours of pounding pavement. The crowds are no big deal either. Most people there will back off if you look like you really mean it more then them.

 

Yup, that is pretty much the misconception so many people have of the west coast. Crowds are almost never a factor, because there is organization to it all. Its controlled chaos, and as long as you aren't blowing waves, it doesn't matter if Kelly Slater is next in line behind you, if you commit and go, he will wait his turn. But if you spent a lot of time there, you know that. There is a South and North Peak at Blacks, most most premiere spots on the west coast have one peak. And its organized. You can shoulder hop of people miss one, but all in all, its one peak... There are so many places on the east coast that are "named spots" that are nothing more than 4-5 peaks up and down a stretch of beachie.... Not the same deal...

For instance, the popular surf beach here is a named beach. You would think, okay, there are 20 guys at spot X, so I will be waiting in line, when in reality, you get there, and this one "Spot" is about a 500 yard stretch of beach that has 10 peaks on it.... The west coast doesn't have a lot of that. That is why it is so organized, albeit crowded.

 

True. I grew up in Santa Cruz (the ultimate snake pit) and would go down south a lot for contests. WAAAYYY easier to rack up your wave count down there. Even at Lowers, Rincon, Malibu etc... commitment is the name of the game. And people aren't too willing to fight over waves and risk jail time in Socal. Big difference between SC jail (high school reunion) and a Socal jail filled with gnarly mexi goons, shinheads tweakers and crackhead gangsters.

Anyhow, you literally could surf alone everyday alone the rest of your life in socal if you wanted. Sounds like BS but it's true. So many unwanted peaks and long stretches of beach nobody cares about.

 

Yup. There were two spot on sunset cliffs that aren't even considered "surfable spots" and I would hit them all the time. Completely alone. Long as you knew the inside reefs, it was empty waves, not matter how good it was.... Good times. Thats how it is down here too. You can go to the "surf spot" where you can share waves and cheer each other on, but in the dead of summer, with 200,000 extra people on the island, there about 20 places that just sit there empty, with decent waves. Decisions, decisions.

Only been up to Santa Cruz a couple time, my aunt lives up there. My shaper is from there. They were all SUPER secretive about the spots, we would be driving up the coast, looking at a wave and his buddy would be like, "I can't tell you what that is called, but its a pretty good wave". I was like dude, I may live in SoCal, but I looked at a map and I know what every one of these spots are called my dude... Chill homie.

 

I know what you mean. Anyone who surfs regularly and acts like there's any secrets anywhere on the west coast is a fool. There is just so much surfable coast that the vast majority of it ends up empty. North of Point Conception is mostly empty for good reason. Check this spot. B grade day. I would surf here all the time alone.

 

Shhh.... The entire state of California is overcrowded in the water and the land is over-run by Mexicans. The surf is mushy, gutless and there are no barrels.... California Sucks....

 

The crowd didn't seem too bad when I was in SC back in March, had a great time actually, it was no more crowded than a day at the Inlet around here. Maybe I just got lucky IDK. Great town though, I enjoyed surfing down at the Hook then walking up the street to have breakfast at that place on the corner across the street from Freeline Surfshop, I think it's Pleasure Pizza East Side Eatery or something. Sat outside on the patio in my wetsuit scarfing down breakfast and then heading back out for a 2nd session. Good times. Very dog friendly around there I noticed too. Everybody has one and they bring them with them wherever they go. Just something I noticed. I plan on going back again, hopefully sooner than later.

 

Good on ya DSUP. Smart move to go to SC for surf trips. More bang for your buck than anywhere. Very dog friendly place too.

Pleasure Point and the East Side in general is probably the best surf area in Merica. Im sure you liked the Hook. So buttery smooth...hero wave. Can be packed with aqua-jocks sometimes, but it's probably the most rippable right on the west coast.....better then Trestles. Its to bad those otters made a huge comeback at the point. They eat all the urchins. The urchins ate the kelp. Tons of kelp at the Hook now. Too much sometimes.

From the top of the point to the Hook is a big area and the wind is almost always good and swell is super consistent. On glory days you can surf all the way down to Capitola. And if you ever get a chance go there on a big south swell, you'll think your on the gold coast OZ or something. 38th turns into the CA version of Kirra. Keep an eye on the forecast out there via Solspot. You can time a big south from almost 2 weeks out.

Oh, try Paula's on Portola just up from 41st. Thats the go to spot. They have giant stacks of old surf mags to read while you eat, it's not expensive, and it's good damn good.

 

Thanks for the tips dude, I'll check it out next time I'm out there. Going to PR again in Oct. so maybe I can talk my wife into SC again in April for my b day. I know what you mean about the otters, they were all over the place, cool scene though, they were surfing and having a good time too, never bothered me, was right next to one in the lineup, caught me off guard at first haha. I will be sure to bring my own board next time, the rental situation was awful but managed to find a decent 6'4" SB that rode ok. That wave is butter like you said though, so I could of surfed anything on it really.

 

Swami's is a joke. The sad thing is that the crowd in this video isn't close to as bad as it can get. Looks like the starting line of a marathon sometimes. Plus, it takes a lot of west in the swell to get that size. Gotta admit though, that inside suck out section is rad.

 

Bro?!?!?! You went back to the future!!! My flux is on the fritz and the hoopty won't break 75 let alone 88. Thanks for the blast ahead though brosef!! Good to know what's on the way.

 

zach I was out there for one of those back in the winter. Really different man. Just different. The wave is going fast at that period.

True dat about organization and functionality of SoCal even in large crowds. 20-30 sessions across 8-10 spots under my belt there and not an issue yet.

AtanticO loves his Solspot. Their long term forecasts are bomb. Too bad they don't give a schitt about the EC. It's a great site.

 

Nor cal looks more like this:



Atlanticooo if you're from the S. Cruz you may be able to tell what wave that 2nd one is. Its a bit farther north, no kelp beds.

 

That looks like somewhere near Halfmoon bay, along that long stretch of highway, before you get into town

 

LMAO, thanks for catching that Emass! oops, I meant 2013, but, we will keep our fingers crossed.

 

Guess the spot. It's in SD and is NEVER crowded