After plans for a road trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico fell through, my buddies and I faced the conundrum of figuring out how to fill our first week of summer in style.
The spontaneous road-trip up the coast from San Clemente to just above Santa Barbara came paired with a decent swell, allowing us to enjoy waves ranging between three and six feet throughout the journey. Coming straight from the mouth of a group of knowledgeable, local, California-bred surfers (and one token British fellow) here is the story of the perfect SoCal surf safari.
Day 1: Trestles
Our first stop brought us to Trestles in San Clemente, known as perhaps the most famous and most consistent point breaks in all of California. Originally, the beach here sat under jurisdiction of the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, off limits to the fraggly-haired hippies of an earlier era. Surfers historically would sneak in around the gates only to be escorted out at gunpoint by the cadets. Today, Trestles is open to the public and well known worldwide for its spectacular surf.
Part of the beauty of Trestles is the process of getting there. After parking the truck across the highway we suited up and skated down a meandering path from the bluff down through the marsh and ultimately up onto the sandy beach. We ditched our skateboards on the beach and paddled out into the water at a spot called “Uppers”. Trestles’ most notable spot, “Lowers” is aptly situated just south of “Uppers” on a reef that channels hollow breaking waves to a specific spot in the water that depends on the tide. “Lowers” remains typically populated with some of the surrounding area’s best surfers and since there is only one peak here, catching waves becomes quite competitive (and occasionally violent). If you cut someone off (either on accident or on purpose) don’t be surprised to find a clenched fist buried in your throat. People take surfing very seriously here and if you can’t keep up with the action, then consider paddling out elsewhere.
Wanting to start off the journey in a rather chilled out manner, we decided to surf the adjoining break featuring more disorganized surf and a mellower crowd. After two and a half hours of near perfection, we decided it was about time to begin our voyage up the coast. In our time out in the water the tide had dropped significantly leaving a band of exposed loose rocks to navigate upon climbing out of the water. I tried to make the exit a bit too quickly and sliced the bridge of my foot, making the uphill skate board trek on jagged asphalt a bit of an arduous process.
Malibu
After a delicious meal at Billy’s Deli in San Clemente, we made our way through the concrete jungle of Los Angeles out past Santa Monica and into the arms of Malibu. The rocky sandbar situated at Malibu channels nearly perfect rights off of the point, accommodating nearly endless rides in some instances. Since the break is so proximate to Santa Monica and Los Angeles proper, Malibu is always pretty densely populated. Classic videos of Malibu will depict dozens of people paddling for the same wave and battling it out for position. Not much has changed since then. Our visit took place during one of the better swells of the year, drawing crowds from far and wide.
Similar to “Lowers” at Trestles, people who surf here on a good day take surfing pretty seriously. We sat competing for waves with groups of guys who appeared to be near-professional surfers, fighting to drop in as aggressively as they would merging into traffic on the 405. A few times while paddling out from the waves that I’d managed to sneak in, I had the opportunity to watch a few of the guys tear it up. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the amount of talent in the water here. As the sun set in the distance, we all caught our final waves in and continued our north-bound journey to Santa Barbara for the night.
Day 2: Santa Barbara
After an evening of wandering the streets of Isla Vista in the moonlight and inventing the new extreme sport of dropping into half-pipes in shopping carts, we woke up bright and early the next morning to catch some of the best waves that SB had to offer. The same swell we’d enjoyed the previous day hit the local spot – “Sands” – with some force providing for some fun waves.
We walked out around the northern-most point of Isla Vista and paddled out into a group of fellow college-students. After enduring the rather stressful environment of competing for waves in Malibu the day before, the laid-back atmosphere of “Sands” came as a relief. Everyone here seemed to be in the same boat – either in a break between class or playing hookie – taking a hiatus from the realities of day to day life to enjoy a few waves and ease the mind from life’s stresses. Any type of malevolent localist vibe that may have been apparent in our previous day’s travels was utterly absent at “Sands”. Everyone seemed to know each other in the water and welcomed us with open arms to their surfing community.
The disorganized nature of the steep faces here accommodated the crowds allowing everyone their fair share of rides. After our session out here, we trekked back along the sandy path to the car and ate at Freebird’s, a local favorite Mexican joint, and caught up with some old friends before hitting the road once again.
El Capitan
Coastal California north of Santa Barbara remains largely unpopulated and laden with expanses of ranch land and rolling hills. Three state beaches sit between Santa Barbara and Highway 101’s turn inland: El Capitan, El Refugio, and Gaviota. All of these spots retain the essence of pure California coastal beauty in the spectacular marriage of land and sea.
El Capitan in particular features good surf on occasion. During our visit, we were graced with the tail end of the swell we’d been enjoying from down south, providing for some epic longboard rides around the rocky point there. As my buddy and I sat in the water taking in the awesome scenery around us, he compared the nearly endless right-handed rides here to that of Malibu. We were the only two guys in the water – a situation that would likely never happen at Malibu unless we happened to be the only two people unaware of a chemical spill in the area. If you can imagine Malibu, unadultured by the erosion and construction of multi-million dollar homes and people traffic, nearly devoid of any human manipulation altogether, you’d have El Capitan. The place is absolutely spectacular and during both of our visits, we had the pleasure of being the only ones in the water.
During the final leg of our voyage, we would ultimately return to the shores of El Capitan for a capstone barbeque to reminisce on the great times of the past few days.
Day 3: Hollister Ranch
Just north of Gaviota and south of Lompoc sits the private coastal community of Hollister Ranch. The high-end residential ranching community designed by Laurence Halprin, remains gated off to public access on all fronts. A few failed off-road attempts to sneak around the guard gate led us to a dead end utility road, where we were forced to begrudgingly return back down our beaten path through the coastal sage brush. “The Ranch”, as it is referred to by the surfing and diving community, serves as home to some of the most epic waves on the west coast. The breaks remain largely untouched due to the limited public access, but on occasion people boat in from Gaviota or walk the train tracks. We lacked the means to boat in and the audacity to walk for hours on end in hope of finding surf and instead decided to continue our search in areas of public domain.
Jalama
Just south of Lompoc on the Highway 1 sits a non-descript road that zig-zags 14 miles through the hills toward Jalama Beach. Jalama sits at the northern end of Point Conception where California’s coastline turns. It is therefore incredibly exposed to wind. Throughout our time at Jalama, much was spent battling the battering onshore gusts that fared much better for kite-surfers than those seeking to ride the waves. These winds plague Jalama much of the year, but I’ve heard stories of old from my father that praise the perfect waves that emerge on a calm day.
About a three hour walk south of Jalama will bring you to the southern side of Point Conception and the Cojo surf break, well known for holding the swell for the few brave souls to make the long trek. We however, lacked the energy to make such a commitment and ultimately headed back to El Capitan for the day where the light offshore flow held up the surf at what essentially served as our private break.
