The seasonality of surfing, in California anyway…

So its fall now with swell direction changing from south swells to west north west. The water is starting to cool, but not much so far, which is nice. The tides are changing from morning lows to afternoon lows and day light is getting short.

On that note when I woke up this morning to a dark room and looked at the clock which read 5:30., I thought ‘man if it was May I’d be on my way to the beach right now if there was a swell and it would be first light already. Today first light was after 6:30. As well in May you could surf until after 7pm, but not now.

In the early days of surfing California the summer months were when most surfing took place. I’m not sure how much change there is now in the number of people that surf summer as opposed to winter. Definitely the beach going crowd in winter is pretty much exclusive to surfers.

Some guys like surfing winter more than summer. There are usually more waves and more consistent swells and size. Personally I just like good surf and the surf in winter where I live means the points start going off. Though Ventura point gets south swells and west north west. But personally, I like summer swells more than winter swells.

I like the angle of south swells. Though in Ventura you can get longer rides with west and north west swells you do have to chase sections through soft spots where as south swells hook more at you and can give you the opportunity to really drive a line.

Winter surf pulls all the sand out and exposes all the cobles where as the summer months all the cobles get covered with sand. Another reason to like summer over winter where I live. You lose your board in summer and it washes up on sand.. at least during low tide. Lose your board in winter and it washes over rocks. And you have to walk over rocks to get in and out of the water during winter months too.

As a teenager growing up it was the summer months I got to surf the most and no doubt that plays a big part on why I like surfing during the warmer, longer,o lazy days of summer.

Going to miss them until they come around again next year.

D.R.