Watermen Team Members chase the largest swell to hit California in years.
A week into 2023 and a series of north pacific storms provided the largest swell to hit California in years. With the proximity of the storm, most big waves and outer reefs were too wild, so the mission was simple; get north of Los Angeles to some fickle point breaks and other areas that rarely see any size of swell, let alone a predicted 15 foot swell.
3:30am
After departing the Watermen headquarters in the dark and driving a few hours north, we arrived to watch the sunrise at a classic rock boulder point that has the potential for large ruler edge lines and punchy scraping barrels. The Large raw swell was slightly overwhelming the point, but still manageable, with large double ups and long racing walls breaking up and down the large boulder field. Waves would taper off down the point, only to merge with another line of swell and double in size as they pushed further into the small cove. Within a few minutes of paddling out, we were trading off waves amidst a small crowd, pulling into shallow sections and flying down the line on large bowled up sets.
6:30am
Dawn patrol at a fickle, boulder-ridden righthand point break
9:30am
As the tide peaked a couple hours after sunrise, the swell backed off slightly, creating longer, more organized lines from the top of the point into the bay and the crowds came by the dozens. Feeling very content with our uncrowded dawn session we caught one more wave in and headed south to food and lesser known points that could possibly be in rare form.
High tide and mid-morning late comers push us to the next wave
10:30am
Just like clockwork, we arrived on site at another ‘fickle’ right point that was breaking in multiple spots along the point, with big walls racing off the rocks into a large sandy bay. Huge mounds of water were coming in consistently, with the opportunity to connect one of these waves 100’s of meters down the shoreline, through a variety of steep sections, and big swinging walls of water. Each of us took turns sitting deep out the back for a taste of the larger bombs, before sitting inside the rocks and swinging into large steep green wedges. With arms tired, and legs muscles burning from pumping through endless sections, the barrels became less make-able, and a light breeze began to ripple the surface texture. After a couple hours at this ‘un-mentioned’ point, we packed up and hit the road in search of one last miracle. With a few hours of light left, we had enough time to check Rincon and nearby spots. As the tide bottomed out and hundreds of surfers poured off the highway into coastal parking lots, hoping to take advantage of the unique conditions.
A lesser known point converts the large swell into long bending lines
Racing down the line on a freight train right
2:30pm
After an hour of poking around, the search came to a halt at a lesser noted right point break, with the strength and direction of the swell offering unusually long lines over mussel covered boulders and patchy sand. One last change into the wetsuits and we were running down the coast highway to our third session of the short winter day with salt in our eyes, and smiles wider than our sunburnt mouths could handle. Although the Largest swell to hit California in years did not necessarily translate to the largest waves we surfed this year, it did offer an incredible opportunity to score some fickle and lesser-surfed points with considerable size.
5:00pm
Sales team member Ryan admires long lines of swell bending around a point at sunset.
In this post, Watermen team member is wearing the Yellowtail Shirt, Yellowtail Hat, & Canvas Watermen Jacket
For more accounts of this swell, check out Surfline’s latest story, here
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