Where I live, Ventura County, has right around 42 miles of coastline. Are there places to surf along the 42 miles? Absolutely.

Coming up the coast from just a short distance past the L.A, Ventura County line is a surf spot called County Line. It’s a very popular destination to surf for both L.A. surfers and surfers that live in the east south east inland area of Ventura County.

But County Line is just the first of…. well, I don’t know how many places there are to surf along those 42 miles of the coast. I’ve surfed many but not surfed them all. That could be a fun exercise. Go to every place there is you could surf along the 42 miles of coastline that fits inside Ventura County California.

I’ll tell you what…. You’d find some really good ones.

I know of one that can handle size and produces spitting barrels at size. I know of another that can offer up such a long line your legs laterally will tell you they’ve had enough. And, you’ll either straighten out or pull out because you don’t think you can make another turn off the bottom without collapsing. Honestly for all the surfers in the world few experience that sensation.

There is a spot at the county line of Ventura and Santa Barbara.  At the end of the  42 miles of coast line from the spot called “County Line”.  Speaking of the world of surfers….   This spot is known the world over and is a destination spot for surfers that travel to California to find surf. It has a name but is often called the Queen of the Coast. Why? Because it is the Crown of the surf spots of California.

I was recently told that a certain surf magazine publication turned away a story about Morey-Pope. The  60’s surfboard company from Ventura  and it’s very significant contribution to surfing and it’s history…..  My response was to say… “Typically the Ventura area and into Santa Barbara is mostly overlooked by the more populated southern end of the California coast surfing community.”  So it wasn’t really a surprise to me. But sad.

The city of Ventura is a beach town. The street to enter down town Ventura is California Street. California Street is just 3 and a half blocks long. It starts at the beach and goes those 3.5 blocks straight up to a majestic looking building that is the Ventura City Hall. Climb the steps to the front doors to City Hall turn around and look back down California Street. You’ll be looking a the start of a surf spot best known as “C” Street, short for “California Street”

Keeping in mind that surfing is the state sport of California… I think The City of Ventura is the only place in California that the City center looks straight at a surf spot. Just a short 14 miles up the road from “C” Street is the “Queen” of the coast. From there back down to “C” street there are 3 other fine point breaks. “C” Street being one of them. Someone tell me out side of the area of coast called The Ranch , which is all private property, is there any other 14 mile stretch of coast in California that has 4 very surf able point breaks?

How many thousands of surfers have developed their skills at those surf spots? How many surfers travel specifically to Ventura to surf those spots?  Plenty!

Ventura has largely contributed and is still contributing to surfing and its history. Morey-Pope was a part of that contribution during the earlier days of surfing.   

D.R.

If and when you find this spot looking like this and you pick off one of those waves... It can lead to wobbly legs as mentioned above.

 

You may have heard the saying “only a surfer knows the feeling”. I’ve said it at least a few times in the pages of this blog.

As we grow in our surfing abilities from the hours and hours spent in the water… or because you can surf in a wave pool now I should say ocean. Surfers all share experiences that only surfers experience. Surfing is a difficult activity, the excitement, fun, disappointments, challenges and even fears encountered in the ocean are all shared by surfers. So in that sense surfers are like a community.

Sure we are all different individually but the shared experiences make us surfers unique. As an example.. I live and surf (for the most part) in Ventura California. I can go to San Diego to surf and may strike up friendships with surfers there because we are surfers. A surfer can go anywhere in the world where there is surf and the same thing can and will happen… that’s community.

I’ve recently had a very kind and powerful experience from the surfing community which I talked about in my last post. The raffle that was put together at Ventura Surf Shop for me and my wife to raise some funds to help us with the damaging affects to our home from flooding last year. A different kind of experience than surfing but coming from surfers, some I know and many I’ve not met... from the surfing community.

The kindness and generosity felt is not easy to put into words. Overwhelming is one word. Heartfelt is another. I’ll add very heartfelt. Saying thank you seems a weak response, but I don’t know of other words that convey Thank You with deep heartfelt meaning.

So I’ll say this, a heart felt Thank You to all and every one that participated. Our ( my wife and my ) stress level was eased  for sure. And again thank you Blinky for making it all happen.

So Suzi my wife, reached into the bowl of raffle tickets. The phone number on the ticket was called…. And we had a winner.

D.R.

Ray our winner with his new Penetrator. Ray, if you see this, sorry I was not able to meet you when you came out to pick up your prize. Not knowing when you might come I got stuck prepping sand bags, preparing for the storm that was coming.

 

My story number 59.

Last January I posted about the storm that inundated my home and work shop. We had 2 more heavy storms that continued making things worse.

https://drsurfboards.blogspot.com/2023/01/my-surfboard-work-shed-i-call-it-work.html

Well, Blinky thought it would be nice to help my wife and I with some of our expenses and asked if I would shape a Penetrator for Ventura Surf Shop that he would but up for raffle to raise some funds for us.

Ventura Surf shop donated the blank for me to shape… my work shop being destroyed Scott Larese  ( Larese Lamination ) donated the lamination. I asked John Peck if he would provide one of his Penetrator labels for the board and got help from Silkworm screen printing with dialing in the label to integrate it with my label. I’ve made plenty of Penetrators over the years but this one is a one off because of the labels…. A rare and special board. As well, the reason why it was made.

So, The week before Christmas just past the board was completed and Blinky started the raffle. Now all 200 raffle tickets have been sold and we’ll be drawing the winning ticket in a couple days.

Thank you to all who came out to participate. I’m overwhelmed with your generosity. We have a lot to do still to bring our property back. The expenses on having a home we can’t live in but still keep up with utilities, insurance and taxes on top of paying rent for temporary housing is not easy, it’s truly humbling to be on the receiving end of everyone’s help and kindness.

Thank you to Blinky for putting the raffle together and all your help.

D.R.

 

Surf wise this fall into winter Ventura has had a pretty consistent run of good surf. And 2023 is going out with a bang.

It started 12/28 with a large swell, defiantly the biggest surf we’ve had in some time.

Surf in Ventura has no channel to paddle through to get to the surf zone or line up. So when the surf is big the only way to it is through it. And that can be difficult. If the swell is real consistent you will take a good beating on the way out. If there are not long enough lulls it’s close to if not impossible get out.

On the 28^th some made it out and got some sizable surf.

Yesterday the 30^th another swell reached us and no one was in the water. It didn’t seem to be quite the size as the 28^th but the City closed the streets at the beach so you couldn’t get there. There were by standers that got hurt by getting to close to the beach where there were waves washing up the end of streets on the 28^th. We had news crews getting it in on camera.

So the morning of the 30^th the city closed the beaches down.

Today you can get to the beach as the surf has backed off… head high plus. 

So what will 2024 be like? There are always predictions… but the only real way to know is as we get through it.

Happy New Year!

D.R.

Do you ever wonder what the surf spot you regularly surf was like in years passed? Maybe what it was like before surfing got started?

Every now and again I do. The spot I surf has had changes and pretty big ones during the period I started surfing and now. The town of Ventura where I live has participated in the changes, spent probably millions of dollars on those changes. As well nature has made changes to the surf in Ventura town too.

My wife gave me a book “Images of America Ventura County” last week. As I read through the book and looked at the pictures I found one of what was called the wharf. It is a picture of the Ventura pier on the south side looking out from the beach. The story writing with the picture was from 1905… 118 years ago. The Ventura Pier has been around for a long time.

South of the pier now days there are jetties. They weren’t there in 1905. Harbor Blvd that runs along the beach wasn’t there either, nor the freeway or any other development.

There was some surf breaking in the picture. A perfect peeling right with a left hand corner on the opposite side of the right. And a couple swells forming behind the breaking wave.

The Pier is a surf spot, or was a surf spot. The last couple decades the pier has lost it’s status as a spot to surf. Why? Because it doesn’t break like it used to. And certainly not like what you see in the 1905 picture.  But in was a regular spot to surf.

I could see the pier from my shaping bay at Morey-Pope and when there was surf it made it hard for me to work because…. Well there was surf and I could see it. I surfed the spot but didn’t surf it regularly like I did up the point. My son surfed it more regular than I did.

It would get really good on big winter swells. The current would get really strong with the larger surf making it hard to stay in the lineup without being swept down the beach. So some of the hard core locals tired a long rope off the pier that they could hold on to, that would keep them from drifting down shore. That current would make things very difficult to paddle out to the line up too.

What would some of my friends do to remedy the difficult paddle out? Walk out on the pier to a place passed the surf zone and jump of the pier. Hard core… hustle to grab the rope, hold on for a good set wave, let go, paddle into position and pick off a good left back to the pier.

Developments on the beach up the point have helped to shut down the surf break at the pier. It does break some times but sadly nothing like it used to. My son and I used to have a look out spot a block over and a couple blocks down from our house we’d use for a quick surf check of the pier.

Though I don’t see it with decent surf, after all these years when driving by the beach I always look to see if the pier is breaking.

D.R.

Ventura Pier circa 1905

 

Is it an everyday thing, or something done when you’ve got the time or when arriving at the beach? The surfers routine.

For 37 years, less the 9 years we were on Kauai, I lived in a house close to the beach and surf spot I usually surfed. Go west one block, south two and a half blocks then west one more block and you were at the pedestrian bridge that runs over the Ventura Freeway ending at the Ventura Pier.

Sometimes on weekends I’d ride a bicycle to the pier to check the surf. But usually on my way to work I’d drive by the point to check the surf. It was a routine thing. Eyes on the water.

Some days you’d know before hand what the surf was going to be like. Bad wind conditions, a storm is passing, but go by the beach just to see the water. The ocean, the waves, always in the back of your mind.  

It can be a community thing too. Like the crew that shows up at the point every day for a morning surf. If the surf is nonexistent they might hang in conversation before going off each their own way until the next day. Return for the same.

A routine could be around the varying daily tides. Having a yearly tide chart to routinely consult to see when the tide is optimum for any given day. On a regular basis so you can arrange your day to surf when the tides are good for the spot you surf.  Or you’ve got time to surf so you check the tide chart for the best window of opportunity.

After work, after school or classes. Off for a surf check.

You really don’t think about it. It’s just something the surfer does. Now the non-surfer? Tell them you go check the surf everyday on the way to wherever…. “ kind off obsessive aren’t you”? They might say. Your response…. “No”.

I suppose one could be obsessive now days. You’ve got a phone on you all the time, and you can look at the cameras at the drop of a hat. You know you’ve got time later in the day but you’ve got to look see…. Is the surf still good? Look see…Has it gotten better than earlier? Look see…. Has it gotten blown out and I’m going to miss it. Yeah that could be obsessive.

Ok I’m old. Once upon a time there were no cameras pointed at a surf spot. You actually had to get to the beach to see what the ocean and waves looked like and what the prevailing conditions were like.

One way or another the avid surfer typically has a routine the revolves around their daily life. It’s just what the surfer does.

But to check the surf? Where I live and surf there are no less than 6 camera angles you can look at to see what the conditions and waves are like at any given time.

Is that obsessive?

D.R.  

 

Here’s a question for you. What do you think of surf contests?

The story of my first surf contest is at this link..

https://drsurfboards.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-story-post-40-my-first-attempt-at.html

Over the years I’ve been in maybe 4 or 5 others beside the one in the link above. Maybe 3 of the 4 or 5 were at the point in Ventura where an annual event has been put on for some 37 years.

Honestly surf contests are fine. But typically it seems to me the number of events that have any decent surf are few and far between. So why bother? That said… I competed in the annual “C” Street Classic the first of this month. September 2 and 3. Why?

The week going into that weekend a friend of mine asked me If I’d like to be in the contest that coming weekend. “why” I asked. “because it would be fun, you should come out” he says. Then says “Think about it, I’ll get back to you.”  And that was it.

So I wake up Saturday morning fire up the computer to pay some bills. But first look at the surf via Surfline cameras and notice all this activity on the Ventura Promenade. ‘oh yeah there’s the surf contest today’. Then think I’d look at the contest web page to see who I might know in the event. Looking at the old man category I see guys I know and then see my name listed.

What???? ‘what the heck, my friend put me in the event’? So I give him a call… he picks up and I say “you put me in the contest”? “yeah where are you”? “I’m at home… you didn’t tell me I was signed up” “well do you want to be in it?  the surf is really good.”  “Well I guess” I say “ but it’s 15 to 8 and the heat is at 8:30”. He says “get down here, just park on the grass close to the event”.

I’ve pretty much always got all my gear and boards in my van so I rush out the door to the beach. Get there, run to the check in both sign the disclaimer paper run back to the van, suit up all the while looking at some really nice surf. Grab my board walk down to the waters edge and paddle out. I get to the line up just as the horn goes off signaling the start of the heat.

The heat was 15 minuets. Not much time for 4 surfers to find enough waves to get a decent score total. But the surf was good and pretty consistent, no wait time for a wave. Catch a wave paddle back out catch another. Everyone got waves. And good ones at that. Though only 15 minuets, it was nice being in those conditions and not have to work though a crowd.

Back on the beach I find I’ve advanced and will be back for more Sunday morning. This time in a 20 minuet heat. The surf was even better for the final.

All in all it was fun. Just like I was told it would be.

D.R.

Pic nicked from instagram @chappy2 

With Thanks!