Do you ever wonder how many times you've surfed your go to surf spot... if you have one?  If you're fortunate enough to live at or close to a surf spot then it's most likely the place you surf most of the time.

For me it's been the point in Ventura. Sometimes when I'm paddling out for a surf the thought runs through my mind... how many times have I surfed this place? Ok, maybe I've averaged 3 times a week, maybe 150 times in a year, so over a ten year period maybe 1500 times... though I took up residence in Ventura about 49 years ago. Not that it matters, and it certainly doesn't give you any priority in the water at any rate.

The thing that I think about as well is how much the spot I surf all the time has changed over the years. I'm sure with a little research you could develop a time line showing how the area north of the pier has changed. I'm sure it would be interesting. 

This picture was taken after the big storms of 1969. It's an afternoon minus tide shot so there is a lot of beach exposed in the picture. The red dot about in the middle of the picture is all the debris that was deposited on the beach from the Ventura river.  The dot below and a little to the left you see large rocks that curve from the lower right hand corner to the upper left hand corner of the picture. After the area from the pier to the Fair grounds was cleared of the homes that used to be along the point those large rocks were put along the tide line as a revetment and is what the promenade sits on now.

Note that the dot at the upper left hand corner is where the high tide line was and that there is no sand or play ground area in this picture. There was a massive amount of sand deposited on the beach from the '69 storms. But when this picture was taken it hadn't migrated down from the river mouth yet. Once it did the first jetty south of the pier held the sand and made the large sand beach in front of the hotel... that was built some years later.

The beach development from the pier into the fair grounds is nice and all but I liked it the way it was in my youth.

D.R.  

 The repairs are complete at the top of the point now. 

 This picture is about the same vantage point a year or so after original construction.