By 
When I first arrived in California, the immigration officer greeted me with the traditional “welcome to California.”
I had no idea what to expect since Obama had won the election. The last time I was in the US was in 2006 it was all very relaxed, personal on this visit and maybe this is just because a new president was in charge but then again I have always found that the Americans are general, at least at first glance. Appreciate the most charming people. From the moment you step out of the airport, the California lifestyle hits you. Within minutes I had seen five cars go by with surfboards on top and couldn’t wait to start my Californian surf.
Flying into San Francisco is always a great pleasure – the new Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has finally opened from downtown to the airport, so getting from SFO to Pier 39 has never been easier. What is Pier 39? I hear you ask, well let’s just say it’s the place to hang out if you’re a tourist visiting the city with the abandoned Alcatraz prison as a backdrop, the view of the Golden Gate Bridge as another backdrop and a lot of great girls walking, you are attracted to every tram anyway, so you can’t help it!
The next morning I picked up my Chevy and headed up the coast on Pacific Highway 1 toward Santa Cruz, the start of my California tour. The luxury of surfing in California is that it is surprisingly not overrun with surfers and the choice of spots is endless, well it always seems that way. In over 15 years of visiting California I have only met one other UK surfer on the water so compared to Indonesia etc. It’s a paradise!
Santa Cruz is a cool, very green, redwood shingle beach town that’s home to some epic surf breaks and some pretty famous surfers like Richard Schmidt. The Santa Cruz Municipal Pier has restaurants, fish markets, and great fishing facilities, but I wasn’t here for any of these, I was here to surf.
Steamer Lane is world famous for its kelp covered reefs and break points, all located west of the main town. The water is cold compared to Southern California, but to a hardy European surfer it’s like a spring or early summer swell with an average water temperature of 14°C. The swell is clear and powerful and to be honest , it is very refreshing to cut and just slide down the line in front of the curl. Steamer Lane has always been the center of attention for surfing in this region, but it’s the other places where you’ll find as much excitement as “The River’s Mouth” located along the St. Lawrence River. This river bisects the town and with the right combination of flow and swell you can experience perfect sand peaks and hollows at its mouth that make any trip to this region worthwhile.
After 5 days of total euphoria from surfing in Santa Cruz, it was time to move south to the warmer waters and climate of Huntington Beach in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. A good 9 hour drive from Santa Cruz and finally I pull up in front of my hotel to the sound of waves crashing on the beach across the road. As I traveled down, I noticed that the continuous swell was following me; in fact, the closer it got to dusk and to Los Angeles, the higher the swell, so an early night was reserved for the morning dawn patrol.
The next morning I am woken up by continuous knocking on the bedroom door. Oh! My goodness, I was over the speed limit driving last night and the local law enforcement officers finally tracked me down. I open the door rather cautiously, just in case, to see a beaming smile from my surf-mad Californian friend. Jeff is a former pro and his hometown is Huntington Beach, so who better to catch the first rays of the morning sun than a good old friend, and not a bad surfer at that…
Huntington is simply Surf City. If you think Newquay is cool in Britain, you’re in for a major culture shock at Huntington Beach. It is home to some of the best surf shops in the world and the surf community is laid back and very friendly, the surf cafes serving drinks called “dawn patrol” coffee and “pipeline” donuts for breakfast. The Pier is one of the most famous surf spots in the world; many international contests have been held here and they can work at any tide and swell, I remember visiting here in the 1980’s to see the infamous Ocean Pacific “OP” pros on the Bud Pro Tour (it’s all a thing of the past now, of course) ). He is very reliable and super consistent on both sides of the dock. After two hours of perfect bodies and sexy women in bikinis on the beach, we took a short drive down the highway to Newport Beach.
Despite being only a couple of miles down the road, it’s at a bit of a different angle and doesn’t always have the same swell or surf height as other places. Newport Beach is a beach break interspersed with a series of jetties. In front of me the hollow spikes were peeling off beautifully along the line at a clean 6 feet, the rest is history.
The next morning we headed straight for Newport Point. A rare place at best; why Jeff thought he was going to produce something, I don’t know, but since he was the local, he wasn’t going to argue. The place is known for churning out Pipeline-style barrels during the big waves from the south, and since the tide was out, all the combinations were perfect for a wave, or so Jeff said on the short drive to the place from Huntington.
Well today wasn’t a pipeline but a nice solid 6 foot wave breaking right in front of 18th street, what more could we ask for? The only problem is that even at 6:30 am. and having surfed Fistral in Newquay with 500, which is 35! Three hours later and another hundred in the water, Jeff decides to see if all Europeans are made of steel… of course I tell him, of course, mate. We are going to “The Wedge” or at least hoping to find a small wave that will completely destroy my longboard.
The Wedge is the world famous monster wave that bodysurfers and bodyboarders alike simply love, it picks you up, launches you a bit and then puts you in full traction if you put a finger wrong. For surfers it’s a nightmare come true, but for longboarders it’s total suicide. Fortunately for me, my challenge was to put it off for another time, as it only breaks with a big south swell. Of course, I took pride and made a comment about how lucky I was not to embarrass Californians to have a quality European surfer go smoothly down the face of a cliff and into the mega-barrel that came out at the end with style and all . on my 9ft 2″ board by robert augus…
Visiting California is a truly pleasurable experience, in the winter it is still mild 65F to 75F and in the summer it sees temperatures that can exceed 90F. It’s such a diverse state you can surf and snowboard in the same day if you want and it’s the true modern mecca of surfing that really should be at the top of everyone’s list, I’m amazed when everyone heads elsewhere in the world before visiting the modern home of surfing – simply California. So start planning your trip now to one of the many California surf spots where the modern era of surfing was born!