Santa Barbara and Malibu

I poked my way down the California coast, looking at inaccessible surf spots, monster kelp beds, and cold-looking water until I reached Santa Barbara. I pulled into town and made my way to the beach. I had planned to look up the infamous Wardog once I got there, I figured he’d have a secret spot or two I could get him to share. But it was late on a Saturday, so it seemed unlikely that he’d be at his shop. The surf looked small, but there were a couple of SUP surfers out with the crowd of longboarders, so I decided to get wet. Tossed my board in the water and paddled out. I caught a few nice rides, but it was pretty dinky. I went for a long paddle along the beach, intending to quit when I got back to the shore and head further south for the night. But when I got back to the little surf spot most of the folks had gone home, the water glassed off, the sun was going down in a big ball of orange, and the waves were looking clean and nice.

Santa Barbara

A family of young kids on longboards with their dad were shredding the heck out of the waves, doing long noserides and showing a lot of style. I slid in and caught a bunch of nice rides, played around, let the kids try my board, surfed until pitch dark.

Local Santa Barbara SUPer in little swells

By then I was hungry and I remembered an italian restaurant I’d had a great meal at many years ago. I drove down the shoreline and there it was. the place was packed but there was room at the bar, so I had a great meal and some nice wine. Turns out the place was so busy because Jeff Lorber was doing a CD release party there. Hard to believe a jazz great like Jeff Lorber was playing in a little restaurant, but there he was. I stayed for the music, and by the time I was ready to leave it was too late and I had too much wine to push on. So I found a place to stay on the beach and slept like the dead until 9:00.

The surf looked a little bigger, but I wanted to try Malibu, so I hoofed it on down the coast. Coming into Malibu I saw a lot of interesting looking breaks, but no SUPers at all, and flocks of surfers. Usually a great break has a lesser break nearby that no one uses that’s perfect for SUP, but i didn’t see anything like that. I drove through Malibu without seeing a SUP, but I was determined to try this famous spot. Finally I say two guys on SUP boards in the middle of what looked like a solid raft of surfers.

I pulled into a parking spot and pulled out my board just as both of them quit. I didn’t even get to see how they were surfing the spot. I paddled out and went looking for a wave that wasn’t packed solid. No joy. So I paddled North, past all the houses, looking at all that ridiculously expensive real estate getting pounded by beach break. I didn’t see anything that looked rational so I paddled back to the break and took a couple of rides at the far southern end.

Malibu SUPer

I saw the lifeguard walk down the beach looking at me, so I figured I might be out of bounds somehow, though I didn’t see any markers or flags, and there wasn’t anyone in the water. While he was headed my way I took one more ride, and wound up in about five inches of water. I could see the pebbles and rocks under the nose of the board. I dove into the face of the whitewater, so I didn’t get munched, but the whitewater and my board dragged me over the pebbles and we both got a little beat up. I walked up the steep bank and the lifeguard said “that’s a really dangerous place to surf”.

Next… Del Mar and Mission Bay.