A fun May Day south swell rolled into Northern California on Thursday, peaking Friday and hanging around through the weekend. According to Surfline.com, the angle of this swell (210-214 degrees) resulted in a lot of energy being blocked by the Polynesian islands, translating to somewhat smaller surf. Overall conditions weren’t exactly epic, but we’ll certainly take what we can get at this point. Where is that one epic south we always get in April/May? I hope this wasn’t it.
This swell had been hyped up for over a week since it first spun off of New Zealand and sent huge waves to Tahiti on April 26th. This was the same swell responsible for halting the trials of the WCT contest at Teahupoo and producing all those crazy photos from Tahiti in the final days of April. Then the swell continued to march northeast through the Pacific where it slammed the south shores of Hawaii. I spoke to a couple of friends out there who said they had solid waves for almost a week. Check out video of fun tubes at Ala Moana Bowls during the swell. although the tradewinds were howling for a number of days during the swell, rendering some spots barely surfable. On the peak of the swell most south shore spots on Oahu were closed out, with only a select few spots able to handle the swell. Meanwhile over on Maui things were more manageable…
By the time this swell filled into Northern California word had spread like brushfire, and the Eastside was doing its full on Malibu impression, with seemingly the entire town taking off work and school in order to go surfing. The Westside meanwhile didn’t seem to be picking it up as well, with most of the action concentrating at the Lane. Friday morning saw the Point at the Lane packed with about 25+ heads by sunrise! Meanwhile, up north heavy winds over the last several days had spots looking pretty bumpy and uninviting with hungover shape even for the dawn patrol from all the wind the night before. A pesky short period and steeply angled NW windswell didn’t help matters, chopping up the south lines.
Here are a few amateur shots from around Northern and Central California during this last swell…
Small early morning lines started to show in town by Thursday.
Yours truly finds a Sewer Peak section to carve into Friday afternoon. What you can’t see in this picture are the thirty other heads behind the foamball packing the bowl and stretching onto the shoulder of the rights. Pretty hilarious. It looked like the crowd on a small day at Pipe, except that the waves sucked in comparison. photo: Megs
While it wasn’t a macker, this south swell still had enough energy to make it all the way up to the far northern reaches of California. These three surfers enjoyed the unusually clean springtime lines at a Sonoma Coast reef break. I was told the water temp up there is about 49 degrees right now. Ouch! photo: Henderson
Even if the waves aren’t big, being caught inside by those juicy long-period south swell sets is never much fun. photo: JS
Me again, trying to float over a section that I should have pulled into. I didn’t get high enough above the lip line on my floater and wound up getting picked up by the feathering lip and slammed on my back. I guess that’s what I get for trying to surf from behind the section like Kelly Slater. photo: Megs
This beachbreak south of town saw sparkling clear water and punchy little barrels on Thursday and Friday. You can tell by the color of the water where it is. photo: JS
An ugly-looking little wave slips undeneath two surfers over the weekend. These guys had been waiting around in the fog for a wave to roll through for like fifteen minutes. The cold onshore breeze was blowing in their faces and you could tell they were over it. Then this little bouncy wedge somehow managed to slip passed them. Bummer.
It’s starting to feel like summer. The fog has been creeping in off the ocean, up through the canyons and into the valleys overnight lately. Even though this generally means a pattern of small, junky windswell and cold, damp days at the beach, there are still moments of beauty. Early morning mist retreats from a north coast canyon.
By Sunday the fog had rolled into Santa Cruz along with funky winds and it looked like June gloom. Shane Desmond still managed to get a few cracks in at this little reef before the waves completely died out.
Damn, where was everybody on this one? Empty beachie dishes out the goods. photo: JS
Posted by Leo Maxam on May 4th, 2008 · Add a Comment
Two surf-themed movies have been selected for this year’s Santa Cruz Film Festival, May 9-17, and will show together at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14th at the Riverfront Twin.
The feature presentation comes from the lens of Maine filmmaker Ben Keller who takes a close look at what draws so many of us to the ocean in his documentary “BlueGreen.” Narrated by Santa Cruz’s resident Hollywood surf star Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, BlueGreen “explores many different facets of our bonds with the ocean and delivers a powerful warning about the threat we face by abusing and exploiting this powerful presence on our planet,” according to the film’s press release. Keller interviews scientists, religious leaders, evolutionary theorists, fishermen and, of course, surfers, including seven-time women’s world champion Layne Beachley, Keith Malloy, Robert August, Liz Clark, Sean Collins.
Showing alongside the feature is “Gusto: Tony Roberts,” a documentary profiling Santa Cruz native and current Central American expat Tony Roberts. TR, as he is known throughout the surf industry, was one of the first surf photographers to utilize the fisheye lens to capture innovative skate-style surf shots and radical new angles from the water.
His photos and movies captured the new school of aerial and big-maneuver surfing in a way no one had seen before during the late ’80s and early ’90s and helped forge the careers of many professional surfers around Santa Cruz. The film won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Independent Television Festival in August, 2007. Check out next Sunday’s Green Room for a full article on the TR documentary.
Posted by Leo Maxam on May 4th, 2008 · Add a Comment
“A life devoted to surfing has been a splendid way to live,” writes Gerry Lopez in the preface to his new book “Surf Is Where You Find It.”
Such a life also makes for some epic stories, described in the accompanying 38 chapters of the first-ever book authored by the man known as “Mr. Pipeline” for his inimitably stylish performances at the infamous North Shore break.
Lopez shared some of these tales in front of a packed house Saturday night at the UC Santa Cruz campus for the second stop of his book tour.
“Surf Is Where You Find It” is the second book published by Patagonia Books, a division of the Patagonia clothing company Lopez has worked for since 2004.
The new division wasn’t exactly taking a gamble when it decided to put out Lopez’s first book. Anyone who has ever subscribed to a surf magazine going back to the ’70s has likely read an article penned by Lopez, now 59. His surf stories and articles have appeared in almost all of the major surfing journals in the states as well as Europe and Japan. Lopez also credits his parents — his father was a well known newspaper journalist in Honolulu and his mother was a lifelong school teacher — for instilling a love of the written word in him.
“I’ve always loved a good story,” Lopez said in a phone interview from his home in Bend, Ore., Thursday, before arriving in Northern California. “I’ve had the good fortune to live through a few good ones, so I thought I’d write them down before I forgot them. I’ve been telling them for years, and I didn’t want to lose them.”
The stories in the book are ordered chronologically — more or less — and trace the timeline of a life dedicated to riding waves around the world, both literal and metaphorical. They tell the unbridled joy of Lopez’s first time riding a wave as a child at Baby Queens in Waikiki, his first unsuccessful attempt at surfing the Pipeline in 1963 on a bulky “ironing board” longboard, and his discovering the perfect wave at G-Land, Indonesia with a small group of friends.
Lopez has often been described as one of surfing’s more humble heroes. Fittingly, the book focuses as much on the people and places that shaped his life as it does Lopez himself. Many chapters are titled after special waves — Pakala, Ma’alaea, Cannons and, of course, Pipeline — and describe memorable experiences at each spot. Other chapters are dedicated to unique characters that played a role in Lopez’s life, such as Buffalo Keaulana, Dick Brewer, Herbie Fletcher, Miki Dora and a young Laird Hamilton growing up on the North Shore.
“Things would prompt me to think of different stories,” Lopez said. “I would see someone and we would start talking about old times and I would think, ‘Hey, that’s a really good story.’ I don’t know how most people write, but when I sit down to write a story something usually sparks me to get me going — remembering a moment or incident, and the thing just flows out. I don’t write from outlines.”
Most of the book was produced over the past four years while Lopez was living in the mountains of Oregon with his wife Toni and 18-year-old son Alex.
Lopez said that the process of writing a book, although foreign, came naturally, much like his masterful surfing at the Pipeline throughout the ’70s and ’80s, during which time he made even the heaviest of situations appear almost effortless.
Gerry’s favorite shot of himself surfing the Pipeline. photo: Denjiro Sato
“I’ve been writing articles for magazines for years, but I have no formal training,” he said. “I make surfboards. I’m not a full time writer. But the more you do it, the better you get. I’ve come to find that I really enjoy it. Sometimes it takes several days or weeks, but the whole thing just pours out. It was easy.”
Some of the stories involve fond memories. In the chapter titled “Pakala,” Lopez recalls being a child and spending some of the best times of his life at his grandmother’s old plantation home in the sugarcane fields on Kauai’s sleepy west shore.
One fateful day, two older surfers showed up with their longboards. Lopez watched in amazement as they gracefully rode the perfect empty waves breaking on the outside reef in front of his grandma’s house — waves the young Lopez had previously been oblivious to while playing on the beach. Watching the display “profoundly changed the direction my life would take from that day forward,” he wrote.
Other stories are of more grim dimensions, like when Lopez nearly drowned after getting caught inside and swept back over the falls on a failed duckdive attempt at huge second reef Pipeline. Lopez describes in vivid detail having an “out-of-body experience,” actually watching from above as his body was trapped under the turbulent white water below. Most of the stories in the book attempt to convey some type of formative experience or overt lesson learned from the ocean.
“The book is more than just surf stories,” Lopez said. “It has a lot to do with the lessons we learn while out surfing, many which may have been learned in the surf but have more to do with life on the beach than in the surf.”
Most surfers will want to check out this book if only to get a glimpse into the mind of one of the world’s great watermen to see what wisdom can be gleaned.
“Lopez has proven himself a keen observer of human nature encountered while living through experiences quite extraordinary” writes Surfer’s Journal publisher Steve Pezman in the book’s introduction. “Gerry has taken to writing more and more about what he has seen. His is a rare slice for us to have access to.”
However Lopez hopes that the book will appeal not strictly to surfers, but also to non-surfing readers.
“That’s my hope,” Lopez said. “I named it ‘Surf Is Where You Find It’ because not only have I found surf in the oceans all over the world, I’ve also found waves in places without oceans and met a lot of surfers who are people who have never ridden a wave. Surfing definitely transcends a lot of borders.”
Lifelong Santa Cruz surfer Pat Farley is featured in the upcoming film, “Between the Lines,” a documentary on the distinct paths taken by two surfers in the 1960s confronted with the Vietnam War.
Many of you are probably already familiar with Farley’s acclaimed book, “Surfing to Saigon,” his autobiography of growing up a young surfer and surfboard maker in Santa Cruz during the late 50s and 60s who, at the age of 18, volunteered for the Vietnam War in 1967. Suddenly Farley “found himself on his first day walking point for the 1st/16th Rangers in the jungles of Vietnam.” Farley’s first-hand account of being a young California surfer trying to survive, both mentally and physically, in Vietnam is a gripping tale that blends the surreal qualities of Apocalypse Now with the bitter honesty of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.” The book received quite a bit of local acclaim, even earning Farley a 1994 Writer of the Year award from the City of Santa Cruz.
“Between the Lines” looks to have an amazing amount of rare archival footage from both the dropout surf culture on the North Shore during the sixties and early seventies, as well as the small brotherhood of surfing GIs who still managed to find the glide of wave riding, even while stuck in the middle of a war-zone in Southeast Asia. Definitely not one to miss.
Posted by Leo Maxam on April 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment
“Mr. Pipeline” himself will be at the UC Santa Cruz Media Theatre on Saturday, May 3 from 7 to 8 p.m. for a book signing and reading from his new work, “Surf Is Where You Find It.”
Lopez launched his book tour Tuesday night in Hawaii and saw over 300 people show up to the event. He also sold out all 200 copies of the book he had brought with him! It’s safe to say that the interest in a surf town like Santa Cruz for a book penned by the man synonymous with the Pipeline will be comparable to what was seen in the islands. Lopez is still in Hawaii and will return to his home up in Bend, Oregon before heading to NorCal for Saturday’s event.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet one of surfing’s most revered and influential characters. Check out the full details by clicking the banner below.
Posted by Leo Maxam on April 28th, 2008 · Add a Comment
Logjam logs stand at attention. photo: Neil Pearlberg.
Few surfing contests are better suited for small waves than the Big Stick Surfing Association Logjam.
If a standard shortboard surf contest had attempted to run this weekend at Pleasure Point — which saw hot and glassy conditions and a nice low tide, but relatively small, weak waves — there would have been a lot of bobbing around, griping, and surfers pumping their boards spastically in futile attempts squeeze some juice out of the little waves.
However the “logs” at the Logjam — which requires contestants to ride leashless boards made prior to 1970 and weighing at least 20 pounds — were perfect for catching even the most meager little lines that lapped through First Peak Sunday, allowing surfers to dance gracefully up and down their planks as they sped down the line.
Back-to-back women’s champion, Chris Chiechi. photo: Phil Matthews
Big Stick member CJ Nelson had no problem catching waves, as he navigated a 1967 Hap Jacobs aircraft carrier to victory in the Senior Men’s division. Nelson decided that the contest was as good a time as any to test out the antique longboard.
“I’m borrowing the board and I’m potentially going to buy it, so I wanted to try it out,” Nelson said. “I liked it. I’ve been doing this contest since I was 14 and had the opportunity to ride hundreds of old boards. This contest is all about finding your dream board.”
Nelson beat out good friends Vince Felix of Ventura, who took second, and Marciano “Chango” Cruz. Felix gave Nelson a good run after he somehow managed to cram his nine foot, six inch Hap Jacobs noserider circa 1966 inside a quick First Peak barrel and score the only tube ride of the event.
“He stuffed a turkey into a toaster,” Nelson said of his friend’s feat.
With the Logjam’s board requirements limiting surfers to often hard-to-find and expensive antique longboards, many competitors relied on the aloha of others to borrow a stick for the contest. Kai Medeiros, 15, surfing in just his second Logjam, said he was especially thankful to Mark and CJ Nelson for providing him with a beautiful 1966 David Nuuhiwa noserider for the event. In the process of surfing the Nuuhiwa all the way to the Junior Men’s finals, the young longboarder said he fell in love with the board.
“It’s one of the best noseriders I’ve ever ridden,” Medeiros said tenderly. “I think of the board as being innocent since it was made before the shortboard revolution. I’m thinking about buying it. We might have to dip into the college fund.”
Quinn Pearlberg surfs with his father Neil Pearlberg in the Aloha Team final of the Big Stick Log Jam. photo: Dan Coyro/Sentinel
In the Women’s final it was Big Stick’s Chris Chiechi taking first place for the second year in a row, picking off a number of set waves and scoring some nice tip time. Cathy Meyerhoffer, meanwhile, took the Junior Women’s final against a talented field that included Santa Cruz’s Micaela Eastman and Nelson’s girlfriend, Jill Hansen. Hansen, who grew up surfing in Hawaii, said the small surf was an adjustment, but that she enjoyed her first Logjam.
“We’re kind of a team,” Hansen said. “To surf with CJ in the same contest was really special for me.”
Another team at this year’s Logjam was the father-son duo of Neil and Quinn Pearlberg, who rode together in the “Aloha Team” heat, where two members from the same club surf the same wave at the same time.
“Instead of him dropping in on me, now we have to share the wave,” Neil Pearlberg joked before the two paddled out together.
“But I’ll still be in front,” added Quinn.
Keeping with the theme of celebrating surfing’s past, this year’s Logjam also featured a “Super Legends” heat of surfers all over 70 years old. 72-year-old Vince Pando of the Pedro Point Surf Club has been surfing since he was 24. Surfing, he said, has helped keep him feeling young.
“This is the first time they let guys our age surf,” Pando said. “Anything we can do to help encourage senior fitness is great. If you don’t keep it moving, you’re gonna lose it, and surfing definitely is moving it.”
Vince Pando, 72, talks about his super legend session with the other seasoned surfers at the Big Stick Log Jam Sunday in Pleasure Point. photo: Dan Coyro/Sentinel
Bill Bragg, 71, of Ventura, surfed with Pando in the Super Legends heat on the biggest, and possibly oldest, board at the event — an 11-6 Hobie shaped in the 1950s. Bragg said the camaraderie and community of the Logjam reminded him of the way surfing in California used to be.
“It reminds me of coming up here 45 years ago, when Kelly’s Cove in San Francisco was the place we always went because that was where you could always find somebody to surf with,” Bragg said. “Back then you were always looking for someone to surf with, as opposed to now where you go to check the surf and it’s like, ‘Oh, there’s too many people out.’”
Posted by Leo Maxam on April 28th, 2008 · Add a Comment
If you haven’t already heard of the Bra Boys, ask an Aussie.
Wild stories abound Down Under about the crew of tatted-up, tough-as-nails surfers from the slums of Maroubra. They have a reputation for always having each other’s back and never backing down from anything — be it the mutant death wave Ours that breaks in their own backyard, or a small army of gangbangers trying to start a riot in their community.
With the release of the full-length documentary “Bra Boys,” and the accompanying star power of actor Russell Crowe, who narrates the film, audiences around the world are now learning the true story behind one of surfing’s more infamous tribes.
The film chronicles the evolution of the Bra Boys and the surf culture of Maroubra, a Sydney suberb, from its humble origins in the beach ghetto during the early 1980s, all the way up to the trials of brothers Jai and Koby Abberton. Professional big wave surfers and core members of the Bra Boys, the Abbertons faced murder charges in 2005.
If I had to describe the film in one word, it would be “heavy,” and not just in terms of surfing waves of consequence. The movie focuses as much on the tribulations of growing up in an urban ghetto — struggles with police, gang violence — as it does on surfing. Basically, the Bra Boys are hardcore. They make the kids from Dogtown and Z Boys look like the Teletubbies.
Two of the Bra Boys behind the film — Macario “Macca” De Souza, co-director and editor, and Mark Matthews, professional big-wave surfer — were recently in town to help promote the movie, which plays in Santa Cruz this week. De Souza and Matthews are two of the nicest, mellowest blokes you’ll ever meet. After a failed attempt to find some rideable waves in town during our recent flat spell, both sat down to talk about where they’ve come from, what they’ve accomplished, and where they’re headed.
Leo: For people who haven’t seen the film yet, talk about what it was like for you guys growing up in Maroubra and what it means to be a Bra Boy?
Macca: A lot of youth in Maroubra back in the 80s and 90s came from broken homes—Single-parent families and a lot of drug addicted parents—so the bond was the beach and surfing and each other. It got to a stage where there was a bit of shit going down with other crews coming in and causing trouble, so we had to stick together and came up with the Bra Boys. That was the older generation. Things have kind of changed now, where we come from good families. You know, some have bad, some have good, but we’ve all got each other.
Leo: How did the rivalry between gangs and surfers start? Why did they start coming down to the beach communities like Maroubra trying to start fights with surfers?
Mark: It was just a phase that happened…the whole gang phase, that homeboy thing. In Australia out west–away from the beaches–there’s a lot of gangs and a lot of troubled kids–like we were on the beach–but they don’t have the beach. We’ve got an outlet in the surf there, but they don’t have anything, so they’d rather come down and cause trouble.
Bra Boy Koby Abberton surveys Maroubra Beach. photo: Berkela Films
Macca: It’s equivalent to the gangs over here, but over there it was like rockers versus surfers and the sharpies versus whoever, you know. Every crew had their thing. They were known as the surfers or the rockers or the homeboys. It was just a phase that started at that time.
Leo: So it was about not only where you’re from, but also what you identify with.
Mark: Exactly.
Leo: How has Maroubra changed from when you guys were growing up?
Macca: It’s mellowed out a lot. We’re like 15 minutes south of the famous Bondi Beach, which has been just overrun by gentrification and tourism.
Leo: Yeah, that’s happened to a lot of neighborhoods around California. Like Venice Beach down south. What used to be Dogtown is all fancy condos now.
Mark: That’s exactly what’s happening in Maroubra now.
Macca: If we were going to compare it to anywhere in the world it would definitely be something similar to Venice Beach, where it was really localized, and now—it’s not as bad as Venice, it’s still quite local and there is still a strong local community—but it is a very high priced area now. At the same time there’s an area in Maroubra just back from the beach that’s still government housing projects. I’m sure ten years from now, they’re going to try and wipe that out.
Mark: The property prices anywhere on the coast of Sydney and Australia are just going through the roof. So locals, like the kids who have grown up surfing there, can’t afford to live there anymore. A lot of the older generation are moving away because it’s just impossible to live there. It’s getting more and more mellow because it’s just like holiday houses on the beach pretty much. You lose a lot of character.
Leo: What was it like to surf that wave “Ours” (the insanely hollow right slab that detonates literally a few feet in front of huge boulders, and pioneered by the Bra Boys) for the first time?
Mark: It was pretty nuts. I can remember when we first heard about it. It was so close that, when we heard it was such a good wave, we were just like, “there’s no way that a wave that good actually breaks that close to where we live and we don’t know about it.” So we thought it was just a hoax. We went over and checked it on a couple of different swells and from the shore it looks completely unridable. So we thought, “Yeah, there’s no way you can actually surf this wave. It doesn’t look that amazing because there’s too much consequence.” But once we checked it on the right swells and finally surfed it, we realized how good it is.
Leo: Is it true that spongers were the first ones to surf it?
Mark: Yeah, they had actually been surfing it for years. At Cronulla–where the wave actually is–it’s like a huge community of bodyboarders. They’ve got that famous break Shark Island and they all come from everywhere to surf there, so it was natural that they ended up finding it (Ours).
Leo: Mark, I know you’ve surfed some of the gnarliest waves around the world. Where would you rank Ours among the world’s heaviest waves?
Mark: Definitely size for size it would be matched with an eight foot day at Pipeline or an eight foot day at Teahupoo (Mark obviously measures wave height from the back). I’d definitely say it’s heavier than each of those waves at that size, and even up to ten foot, which we’ve gotten to surf it now. It’s a lot heavier than those places at ten foot. But then Teahupoo can get to 20 foot so…You can die at either of those waves, but at Ours there’s a lot higher chance of it happening. The consequences of falling at Ours are really bad.
Leo: How did Russell Crowe get involved with the project?
Macca: There is a show on the ABC back at home called “The Australian Story,” and they did a story on Koby when he was going through court. (Crowe) saw that show when he was overseas somehow and was interested in the story. Around that same time he had just bought a football team—in our rugby league over there—and it was our local team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs. One of our boys plays for South Sidney.
Mark: Their next up and coming star player was a Bra Boy, John Sutton.
Macca: So (Crowe) had been trying to call Koby and get in touch with him by email, and Koby thought it was just a prank because a lot of the guys around the beach, that’s just how we roll, it’s always prank after prank. So Crowe got in touch with Sutton who plays for the team and said, “Tell Koby I’m trying to get in touch with him.” They got in touch eventually, when Koby knew it was legit, and a couple months later we had what we felt was a strong enough rough edit to show him. So we showed him the rough edit and there was a narrator on there—just a generic guy—and he told us, “I really like the edit, but I don’t know so much about the narrator on there, he’s pretty shit.” So we asked him if he would do it and he said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” He helped us a lot as far as taking it to a new level and exposing the film. From there he had his own ideas for making an adaptation feature based off our documentary. It’s going to be his directorial debut and Universal and Imagine Pictures are behind it. I think we’ll start production maybe next year.
Leo: What do you hope people take away from this documentary?
Mark: We just wanted to portray a truthful story. In Australia we cop a lot of bad media attention and most of it is just completely sensationalized. They’re creating an image of us that is just completely false and it’s getting to the point now where young kids are growing up in different areas and they’re mimicking that image they see in the paper. Just going out and causing trouble, the first step to just ending up in prison. They’re doing that thinking it’s what we do just because the media has created that image. So it was cool to get more of a true portrayal of what we’re about and what we believe in. Hopefully it affects kids in a bit more positive way.
Macca: Like Mark said, we copped a lot of flak back home, had a lot of haters. We didn’t make the film to glorify ourselves and to make people like us or hate us. We just told it how it is, and whether you liked it or not, that’s just what it was. What we hoped for a broader audience internationally was—there’s a bit of Maroubra in every town in the world—so hopefully they can take that love for family, that brotherhood, looking after each other, and coming from nothing and making something of yourself. Those were the main things we wanted to get across. The funny thing is now that we’re doing well with the film internationally, our critics have kinda jumped on the bandwagon and said, “Yeah, yeah, we’ve backed you the whole way.”
Posted by Leo Maxam on April 28th, 2008 · Add a Comment
Salmon season is over before it began, but all is not lost for ocean sport fishermen. Abalone diving season opened April 1 and the abs are ready for picking — assuming you’re up to the challenge.
In this modern age of microwave dinners and point-and-spray pancake mix, there are still a few adventurous souls out there who enjoy working for their dinner on occasion. And there is no meal more labor-intensive, or deliciously gratifying, as abalone retrieved with your own two hands from the chilly waters of the North Coast.
“It’s challenging, for sure,” Sonoma Coast resident and North Coast diver Jamie Barlow said. “Standard visibility is usually just 5 to 6 feet. Good vis up here is like 10 feet, and 20 is excellent. If you need to go get some abs up here, be prepared to dive in one to two foot vis. Hold your ab iron tool for prying the abalone off the rocks out in front of you on a dive. That way you don’t run into the bottom with your face like running into a wall in the dark.
“Unless it’s the dead of summer, there’s usually a decent amount of swell in the water, even on the mellow days. When you get that intense surge, you hang on to the kelp and stay put when the big rollers come in.”
Along with fickle visibility, divers should be prepared for some seriously cold water. This is especially true during the spring, when heavy Northwest winds and the subsequent upwelling of colder water from the depths are at their heights, and temperatures can dip into the upper 40s.
“It was 46 [degrees Fahrenheit] last week,” said Nate Buck, a lifeguard for the California State Parks who has patrolled the Sonoma County beaches since 2000. “That’s the coldest I’ve seen it. Average water temperature hovers around 50 degrees.”
A wet suit at least 6 or 7 millimeters thick, as well as booties, a hood and gloves are mandatory. Other essential gear includes: a weightbelt, snorkel and mask; diving fins; an abalone iron to pry the mollusks off the rocks; and an accurate abalone gauge to measure the animal and ensure it is of legal size [at least seven inches in the longest shell diameter].
In addition to a California Sport Fishing License, divers also need an Abalone Report Card to document and tag each abalone taken. Cards cost $18.65 and can be purchased at most dive shops and general stores along the North Coast.
Consistently rough surf, a rocky coastline with dangerous entry and exit points, and regular sightings of great white sharks are typical along the North Coast. Given the multitude of challenges facing divers, finding the safest possible conditions is crucial.
“Most days of the year there is somewhere to dive,” Buck said. “A sure sign of a poor diver is a person who shows up and dives in poor conditions. A good diver will learn the coastline and learn where to dive given the conditions. A good diver will find the best conditions, and the best conditions is where it’s safe — calm, clear water. Lifeguards and rangers will always be happy to steer you in the right direction.”
Buck said most of the rescues he and his fellow state lifeguards make along the Sonoma Coast are of abalone divers.
“We average upwards of 50 [rescues] in a season,” he said, “some seasons over a hundred. I had four rescues this weekend alone. All the rescues I made were guys I warned and they did exactly what I told them not to do.
“A lot of them drive out from a long ways away to get to the dive site, so pretty much they’re going to get in the water no matter what the conditions are. You get people underestimating the power of the ocean and overestimating their own abilities. That’s when people get in trouble.”
Abalone live along rocky shores near kelp forests, kelp being their main food source, and like to set up shop in crevices and underneath boulders where they’re protected. Underneath its red shell, the abalone is essentially just one big muscle, which allows it to grab on and affix itself to the underside of rocks. Often their round, convex shells, which already look like rocks from the surface, will be covered in algae, allowing them to further blend in with the rocky bottom.
Red abalone can be found on exposed rocks during extreme low tides and as deep as 70 feet below the ocean surface. Because freediving is the only legal method of harvesting the animal underwater [absolutely no scuba or any other type of surface air supply is allowed] most abalone divers operate within 10-30 feet of water.
In order to pick an abalone, the diver must take a lungful of air and dive down to the ocean floor. After scouting out an abalone that looks desirable and measuring the animal by placing the abalone gauge to its shell, the diver must then use the ab iron [a flat strip of metal about 7 inches long] to pry the muscle off the rock.
The diver will quickly slip the iron underneath the shell, in between the muscle and the rock, and then lever upwards, popping the abalone off the rocks. However, if the diver takes too long in prying the animal off, or disturbs it while measuring or scoping it out, the muscle will clamp down tight to the rock and be nearly impossible to remove. Struggling to pry the abalone off at this stage is mostly futile and will only injure the animal, while burning up what little oxygen the diver has left.
State law allows licensed divers to take abalone from the waters north of the Golden Gate in the counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte. The season is open during the months of April, May, June, August, September, October and November.
Unfortunately, not everyone follows the rules.
Abalone poaching — taking more than one’s legal limit of three per day and 24 per year, and taking them out of season — is an increasing problem, especially when a single abalone can fetch up to $100 on the black market. The California Department of Fish and Game estimates that over 250,000 abalone are poached off the North Coast every year. As a result, a tougher set of rules is being implemented in 2008.
“California’s red abalone is a very important and valuable fishery resource,” Nancy Foley, Chief of the Department’s Law Enforcement Division, said in a statement. “This new regulation should enable our law enforcement officers to better enforce regulations designed to prevent the overharvest of this abalone fishery.”
In years past, a diver could come ashore and leisurely return to his vehicle with his abalone and gear, change into some warm, dry clothes and then fill out his abalone card. On the card he would record how many abalone were caught [up to three for that day] where, and when. The diver would then punch out one of the 24 holes on his abalone card for each abalone he caught that day.
According to the new rules, divers must now carry their sport fishing license and abalone report card at all times when diving. Immediately upon exiting the water or boarding a vessel, the diver must fill in the month, day, time of catch, and location on abalone tags that come with his card and affix one tag to the shell of each abalone caught. After tagging all his abalone, the diver must then record the same information in his abalone report card.
While many divers see the new rules as an annoyance, ab divers like Barlow say they don’t mind the regulations if it means ensuring a sustainable sport fishery to enjoy in the future.
“I’m okay with the new regulations and the need for Fish and Game to enforce them,” Barlow said. “It’s the fact that some people have been really dishonest and forced Fish and Game to make those changes that bothers me. It’s the classic case where a few rotten apples spoil it for the whole bunch”
Buck, also an avid abalone diver, agreed with Barlow.
“For me it’s really a privilege to dive for abalone and I think that we should do whatever needs to be done to preserve it for future generations,” Barlow said. “It’s a lot better than shutting the whole thing down. … but because of overharvesting and other factors, the abalone disappeared. So it’s very real to me that the ab population could disappear. It’s a precious resource that needs to be protected.”
Posted by Leo Maxam on April 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment
If you are a registered voter in Santa Cruz County District 2 (Aptos, La Selva Beach, Corralitos, Freedom, and portions of Capitola and Watsonville) and want to learn more about District 2 supervisorial candidate Dan Young–or if you just want to rock out to some roots reggae rhythms–don’t miss Young’s ”meet & greet” concert party this Saturday in Aptos.
This is an excellent opportunity to get to know Young–a lifelong NorCal surfer–learn more about his grassroots campaign to become one of the County’s five supervisors, and how you can help this historic effort to get the first surfer into local public office on June 3rd. For more on Young and the focus of his campaign platform, check out this interview.
Roots rock reggae music will be performed live by Aptos locals Coastal Sage.
The event is happening Saturday, April 26 from 1-5 p.m. at the Aptos Grange (2555 Mar Vista Drive off of Soquel Drive).
Roots rock reggae music will be performed live by Aptos locals