Summer is officially over. And what a summer it wasn’t.

Here in Ventura we received one decent summer swell. And it was during the Ventura County Fair. Getting a nice south swell during the Fair is predictable. It last for 10 days so getting something during those 10 days is likely.

Thing about the fair is that parking gets shut down. The formally free lot gets closed and the pay lot up into pipe is also closed. So the only place to park close to the beach is at inside point. That gets filled up during the Fair before sun up if there is a swell. And that’s what happened the day of the only decent south swell this now past summer.

Fortunately when I got down at the point, when it was still dark, I found a parking space so I could park and go for a walk up the point as the day was just getting light. Check the conditions, see where the swell was focused and of course see all the guys that would have parked up in the upper lot, that was closed, walk all the way up to Pipe. Some guys even running. Not that the surf was that great but it takes several minutes to get up there and then several minutes to get back to you vehicle after you surf. When you’ve got to get to work every minute is crucial.

Not everyone will make the trek up to Pipe so they just go out at the point or surf inside point. Which makes for very crowed conditions. Even though the swell produce pretty consistent sets unless you were really aggressive getting a set wave was though. This ole guy wasn’t feeling very aggressive that day so I got a whopping 4 waves during the hour plus I was in the water.

Days like that have me longing for my younger days when there where fewer surfers and you could surf for a hour or two and get worn out. Getting plenty waves and lots of paddling to get back in the lineup for another go at it.

The other thing about this now past summer was the water temperature…. call it cold. Wearing a winter suit into June is a bit much. But if you didn’t want to shiver for an hour…. Well that’s what if did. It did finally warm up but didn’t stay that that way. Even now the water is just above 60 degrees. The water temps last winter got pretty cold so looks like there could be repeat of cold water  this winter.

With no real summer surf maybe we’ll get some nice fall surf. In my neck of the woods fall can offer up some nice consistent surf.

Hoping for the best.

D.R.