Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Santa Cruz

Session: 7
Date: Sunday, 4/10/05
Place: Steamer’s Lane
Time: 3:30 to 6:30
Waves: Very Good (for 1.5 hrs of the 3), good for the rest
Stokemeter: 8.5

Santa Cruz, what a funky little town. Yeah, there is a bit of a strange vibe to the place, and sure, some parts of town are full of drugged out dudes “fuckin’ sippin’ fuckin’ cold ones, bro”, but on the whole I think it’s a town that I would enjoy living in. It seems to have an interesting mix of people – the previously mentioned surferdude punks, the 420 stoners (lots), the starving artists, the college students, the old hippy longboarder who now owns a coffee-shop, the volleyball players and the girls on the beaches…Santa Cruz has variety and flavor – and a lot seems to be lurking below the surface waiting to be discovered. To be honest, I’m not sure if those discoveries would be good or bad – but based on my initial impression of the place, I’m interested (unlike my initial impression of Salinas, for example).

Another note about Santa Cruz – what’s the deal with the surf gangs? While I have not yet had a bad encounter, I have heard that it is heavily localized. When Mike bought his wetsuit from FSC, we were talking to the girl helping him about surf spots, and when we started talking about the breaks north of town she said “yeah, those spots are neutral territory – nobody has claimed them yet so you shouldn’t get hassled.” Ok then. I’ll never understand the idea of owning a break. Sure, there are spots where I have surfed a lot and I feel like I know like the back of my hand, but that doesn’t mean I get mad at someone else for being there. It’s their ocean too – I’m glad that they are out enjoying it. It is a little bit frightening to think about how crowded some spots might be in 10 years with the explosion in popularity that surfing is going through right now – but that’s for another time. For right now, why can’t we just share? It’s always nice when you are out and people are smiling and sharing and happy – that makes even a bad wave session something truly enjoyable. So take note all you hostile surf gang members – You are not cool.

Alright. Time to get to the session – finally. This Sunday session was with Mike and my bro. We were going to go kind of early (Mike was on it) but Nic and I went out gallivanting on Saturday night so we were rather slow to wake up. So despite Mike’s phone calls every 15 minutes I still managed to lay on my dining room mattress until 11. Then at 11 I asked Selin to make me some pancakes and quite to my surprise, she did. That was fantastic. And not just any plain old pancakes – perfectly flipped fluffy golden brown pancakes (apparently Selin has taught classes on pancake making), with fresh strawberries on top, and real maple syrup. And sausage on the side. And mango slices even. All topped off with a big glass of orange juice. If you don’t have a good day after a breakfast like that, then I’m sorry, but something is wrong with you. (Plus it was free – thanks bro). So after that culinary experience we loaded up Mike’s Ocean Blue Explorer and were off. I did some board repair in the backseat while we were on our way (excellent time management) and managed to get the car all fumy (I was using the resin+hardener mix, no Solar-rez for me) but we made it anyway, without getting too goofy. Based on Nic’s report from his session yesterday, we decided to go first to Pleasure Point, south of town. So we rolled on over there and checked it out – but it wasn’t working. Whether that was due to the tide being very high at the time or whether it was because of the spot, I’m not sure. I think it was more likely the tide. Anyway, after watching the water for a few minutes and listening to some punk surfer dude speak (see 1st paragraph), we took off in search of bluer water (greener pastures?). Note: The punk surfer dudes seem to be much stupider and more annoying on the “east” side than on the “west” side. We decided this must be because the west side seems much richer and therefore the west-side surfer dudes are more likely to be educated and well-mannered. So guess where we headed, yep, the “west” side. Note 2: While locals seem to refer to the sides as “east” and “west”, it seems to make more sense to us outsiders to refer to them as “north” and “south”. However, it might be possible that upon further review of a map, the curve of the bay might lead to a sorta east and sorta west side. Either way, just remember that “east” is “south”, and “west” is “north.” Confused? Anyway, we ended up at Natural Bridges. We drove in and the wind was blowing at what seemed about 40 mph so that spot wasn’t working. We then drove down West Cliff Road (even the road namers think east and west) and checked out the spots along the cliffs, but none of them were working either. So Steamer’s it was. Mike hates it there for some reason, so he was a little whiny about it, but he went so good for him. We pulled into a primo parking spot, got out, and went to check it out. Nothing. There were about 10 people out, but the waves were puny. It was about 2:30 or so though, so it was still pretty high tide and we figured it’d get better. So we considered walking down to the closest surf shop and renting some monster longboards to enjoy the small and slow waves. We walked down the road a few minutes and came to the first shop and checked it out. They had boards, but it was 20 bucks and we’d have to get ‘em back by 5:30, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. But it did make me want to get a longboard soon – sometimes it is fun to just glide along and paddle so easily on a big longboard. I’m also interested in getting a skim board, one of those would be fun to mess around with, so I did a little research at the shop but didn’t make a purchase. We then sauntered over to the volleyball area and did some people watching. Mainly we were watching a couple volleyball games, there were some guys playing on one court who were pretty good and competitive so it was fun to watch. There were also some guys skimboarding down on the water, and given my new interest in purchasing one I watched them for a minute, but they sucked. Anyway, by this time it was getting later and we figured the tide would be down so we walked back up to the break and it was looking a lot better. We grabbed our gear and headed on out. Getting out was easy, and the crowds weren’t too bad. We first went out and sat kind of in the biggest pack of people, who were a ways off the cliff and catching the waves that occasionally came by. The pack was mostly longboards and hybrids and the skill level was average. I watched closer to the cliff for a bit, and saw that it seemed to me to be breaking better and more often, plus it wasn’t crowded at all. Pretty much nobody. There was one guy who was good who was going way out and catching the wave beyond the cliff, then riding it in. He was picking off the best waves, but there were still plenty that weren’t jacked up where he was that ended up forming nicely close to the cliff, so that’s where I went. Since it’s a right, Mike didn’t want to go for it, so I went on my own. It was only about 75 yards or so away from where Mike and Nic were sitting though, so they were able to see if I got any good ones…which I did! 2 waves in particular were very excellent, providing really long rides with a wall that kept on bowling up and making for good turns and stuff. If I was good, they were the kind of waves that just set you up perfect for big airs and 360’s and the like…but since I’m not at that level I settled for a little carving and some rather weak attempts at hitting the lip. But still, I felt like I was surfing better than normal, so I was feelin’ really good and having a great time. It was funny too, because about midway through the session about 7 or 8 little kids showed up and hit the spot, and it was like there were 100 of ‘em out there! They were good little grom rippers, who have probably been surfing since they could walk, and they knew the spot and went for everything (although like most groms they seemed to stay more to the inside and get the smaller stuff). One of them, who was probably the best (he pulled some 360’s – those are crazy looking maneuvers) cut me off so bad on one wave that I had a very ugly looking wipeout because he was right where I needed to go. He then paddled back out and I said “that was a nice drop-in you had” and he said “uh…thanks?” seeming a little confused and then I said “did you even see me going for that” and he said “oh…yeah, I didn’t think you were gonna make it” and then I said “well I was gonna make it but then you were right in the way” and he said “oh, oops, sorry, take this wave” and he gave me the next wave and after that he was a nice little kid. Clearly he was from the “west” side – he was nice and he didn’t say the f-word even one time. Anyway, the groms were swarming all over for about an hour, but then they left and it was fairly empty again. It was also interesting how some surfers chose to enter the lineup. There is maybe a 20 foot cliff at the side of Steamer’s, and it’s right above where the waves break. So some lazy yet brave surfers choose to climb down this cliff (which is damn-near vertical) clinging to the rock with one hand and their board with the other, and then wait for a wave to rise up below them, then they jump – having to get far enough away from the rocks to get into the water without hitting their board or body on any of the very hard, sharp, and mean rocks they were just clinging to. All this to save maybe 2 or 3 minutes of paddling. Anyway, it looked pretty difficult and one guy who jumped didn’t seem to get his board away from the rocks and when it hit it made a very bad sounding “crunch” noise. Not good. But he just paddled out like nothing happened…maybe he was too embarrassed to look for dings. Another interesting thing was that there were 2 Irish guys out in the more advanced part of the lineup – but it was rather clear they were not advanced in their surfing skills. They were flailing around and beating the water with every passing ripple, but not catching anything. Plus, they were talking a lot to eachother – but nobody else could understand anything they were saying. They sounded like the gypsies from the movie “Snatch”. I don’t really know too many true Irish people or any gypsies, so I’m not sure if these accents are similar or not, but that’s just what it seemed like to me – indecipherable. Anyway, along with the two Irishmen, there were also 2 other guys out there who didn’t belong. One of them was really charging. I give him credit for that, but honestly his charging was the type you watch and just wait for a serious accident. At one point, I was sitting next to one good shortboarder and we were watching the outside (very close to the cliff) where all these guys were, and the kamikaze went for a wave waaaaay too late, tried to get up, went plummeting headfirst and backwards over the falls, with the cliff wall about 4 feet in front of him. The guy I was sitting with said “time to call 911” and that about summed it up. Anyway, the guy was miraculously ok and apparently not afraid because he went ahead and did the same thing on the next wave. And the one after that. I never saw him actually make a wave – but he was certainly charging – give him credit for that. Ha.

So we spent 3 hours in the water and I enjoyed every minute of it. The conditions were good, the wind was blocked by the cliff, and the crowd was entertaining. Plus, I always do enjoy surfing where there is a bit of a gallery (which Steamer’s always has) – it makes it more exciting and you feel kind of like you have a fan club wanting you to do something cool. I know that I can’t provide as much entertainment as a 10 year old kid pulling 360’s, but I do try to surf smooth and with a little bit of style. I think that while of course it is pretty incredible to watch someone just tear a wave apart, there is also something nice about a surfer who is relaxed and working with the wave – getting long rides and gliding along, making nice silky turns and linking together sections. Someday I want to have somebody take a camera and get some video of me and Mike and Nic and whoever else on some waves – I think that would be fun to watch – and then I would know how bad I really look! (But at least I know I would look way better than Nic!).

So, we finally were famished and went in – and here comes the only bad part of the day. As I was going in, I rode whitewater a bit too long and my right rear fin nailed a rock. I heard the terrible noise and knew right away that it was a bad one. I turned the board over and lo and behold it ripped the fin out of the front plug and dug it into the back. It was bad enough even that the top end of the rear plug was just barely poking out of the top of the board. Damn. This has happened to that fin before and I fixed it once – it’s not easy. Now I have to do it again. But, on the bright side, at least it was the fin that was already repaired once, not either of the other good fins. Plus, it has given me an idea. I think that San Jose needs a ding repair shop. There has to be lots of surfers in the area, and to my knowledge (and Google’s knowledge) there are no repair shops in San Jose. I gotta work out all the details still (can I fix boards on the rooftop of Nic’s apartment, and can I store them in the dining room?) but the idea has been planted and it might be worth a try. We will see how it works out. Nic will set me up with a google ad-words account he said, so my advertising would be set at least. I would be able to leave my job at 3:30, go to San Jose, and be fixing boards by 4:15 or so…that might be hard but we’ll see. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it happen, but we’ll just have to find out.

Alright, this is a HUGE posting (I’m writing it on Word right now and it’s a full 4 pages) so I’m gonna go ahead and post it. Until next time, keep blazing that surf trail, I gotta do some work!