Warm temperatures and brilliant sun follow three strollers up the beach in Capitola Monday. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)
Warm temperatures and brilliant sun follow three strollers up the beach in Capitola Monday. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)
Nico Ostermann gives his son Morgan, 3, a hand during their surfing lesson at Cowell's Beach Monday. The Ostermanns were in town from San Francisco. (Bill Lovejoy/Sentinel)
Stephen Lear of Santa Cruz will tell you that the best beach days of the year lie ahead. Lear reads Monday at Cowell's. (Bill Lovejoy/Sentinel)
Gary Testa of Novato gets some R and R at Cowell's on Labor Day. (Bill Lovejoy/Sentinel)
Little Guard participants compete in the surf ball competition on Main Beach on Wednesday. (Julia Moore/Sentinel)
Despite the overcast sky, surfers and body boarders enjoy waves off of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz on Monday. (Julia Moore Photos/Sentinel)
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Alea Bryn Andres-Salvay plays volleyball on Main Beach in Santa Cruz on Monday. (Julia Moore/Sentinel)
James Rivera, 10, prepares to be engulfed by a wave on Main Beach in Santa Cruz on Wednesday. (Julia Moore/Sentinel)
Steve Lyons, visiting from Dublin, Cali., rides a boogie board at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos on Wednesday. (Julia Moore/Sentinel)
The mouth of the San Lorenzo River at the south end of Main Beach on June 28, 2010. (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)
Seacliff State Beach lifeguard brothers Dustin and Kyle Marty watch over the beach as Mason and Connor McClure play around on Thursday. (Robinson Kuntz/Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Seacliff State Beach lifeguard brothers Dustin and Kyle Marty watch over the beach on Thursday. The lifeguard program just received last-minute funding to keep the seasonal staffing watching over beaches. (Robinson Kuntz/Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Seacliff State Beach lifeguard Dustin Marty holds his binoculars up for Connor and Mason McClure to peer through as their sister Morgan watches, Kyle Marty stands in the background. (Robinson Kuntz/Santa Cruz Sentinel)
A wave crashes around the lighthouse at Santa Cruz harbor Saturday afternoon as an earthquake-powered surge pushed into the harbor. (Jenn Ireland/Sentinel)