Anybody remember D+W…rode my first wave there in 61 or 62…It was called the Pits cause you could build a fire in the concrete pits…and wait for the grunion run at high tide in the late evening…muchas gracias Senor Ambrose lighting the spark…Oh yea and Balona Creek…one of the wierdest waves in the world before the breakwall…and the Moringside and St. Mary’s chicks…
The smoke from a beachfire ascends to heaven and with it the memories of good times. Nothing will ever top evenings or mornings spent around a well lit beachfire. However in tomorrows PC, carbon neutral world, beachfires will be made illegal by faceless unelected bureaucrats, to satiate the wonton desires of the lucky few to posess property along the interface of land and sea. And with the loss of beachfires the wisdom passed down throughout mankind’s collective history will perish a solemn and lonely death.
I remember trying to dry my wetsuit by the campfire (without melting it!) at Jalama in order to attempt to avoid a freezing cold suit-up in the early dawn of the following day...
D&W’s, Ballona Creek : well I started surfing in the early 70s’, the breakwall was 65 or so.
So I basically saw all the spots shrink and diminish.
Spent my early years learning at those spots and more.
Back then the entire SM bay (North) and South Bay had fair and better surfing spots littered everywhere.
Its all diminished.
I’ve seen D&W at times be one of the most exotic and perfect waves on the planet.
But select days only, those days are gone.
Day or days where 3 guys in the tube one behind the other, dissapear, and they all 3 come spitting out.
Next wave, two guys side by side, buried, they come out.
Ballona Creek died out and faded quickly after the Marina breakwall, D&W faded but lingered on into select days into the early 80’s.
D&W had some elderly gent surfing there in the early 70’s who I used to talk to whom might have been well known or so.
D + W…always thought that stood for Dockweiler or Depatment of Water and Power, both of which are still there. And you can still make fires down there. I remember surfing good waves at the oil pier there. That’s gone but I have seen some really weird waves on the new submerged oil pipeline…
I remember when Hermosa had really good sandbars. I also remember when Torrance used to break far enough out to have reforms on the inside That’s where I caught my first “unbroken” waves. What a thrill that was.
That’s all gone but yesterday I caught a couple fun ones in this same area. Good enough to put an ear to ear grin on my face.
yeah, shitpipe was working really good just the other day…literally the only spot in the area that was getting any energy and just wedging up on that pipeline.
I wonder, for the guys who were around…why did those spots dwindle?
was it just the breakwall that did them in?
what about channelizing Ballona…did that reduce the sand flow?
I wonder what would happen if all those stupid jetties were to disappear between MDR and hammerland.
All the reasons why are standard fare in a geology or coastal geology course at Community College.
Big cities, concreting and paving stop sand, rock, gravel flow out through rivers that end in the ocean.
the jetty extensions at Ballona creek stopped sandflow from passing past Venice Beach throw in the capstone breakwall to do this also some years following in 64/65.
This created a sand starved area South of ballona creek, one that becomes apparent in decades(10,20 year increments) , not in solitary year increments.
Whole areas with fair and better surf started dissapearing or becoming less reliable in the 70’s, 80’s dissapearing, 90’s not a surf spot any longer.
Some 20 years ago or so Venice pier and jetty,breakwall started improving somewhat and finally from the sand backing up from the N. Jetty at Ballonna.
Prior to that time Venice pier was never surfed it was a ditch.
Maybe in another 30,40 years Santa Monica beach may have some good or fair days again.
individual jetties like D&W, El Porto Jetty,Torrance are good for surf if they do not extend out too far to stop or BLOCK sandflow.
Jetties that completely block sandflow(very long jetties) are culprits. Problem with the small jetties you mentioned is that there is
not enough sand to aggregate around them anymore to improve the surf much, the whole area is sand starved.
The lucky few who will watch their land crumble into the sea, their houses next centuries firewood as the oceans, they are a rising. That mega-mansion on the beach may well become the inside bowl in the decades to come.
Back in the day, the hang around the fire was our front porch.
Groms, sucking smoke downwind while the elders stood upwind, talking story.
Surfboards, cars, gals, things that mattered or didn’t, all discussed with high humor.
Everyone knew who everyone was, and it extended to the lineup, where sensible order prevailed.
No one arrived in their souped up Rice Rocket with blaring exhaust, checked their smart phone for latest emails and Facebook news, then suited up and promptly paddled into the deep peak ignoring those who had waited their turn.
It would have made for a very short session indeed.
Ya, the campfire. For many, the smell of burning wood on the beach is almost a sacrement, instant transport back to halcyon dayz…
Ok now that we have taken this thing to the metaphysical, and outmystifing each other, our prefered method is a single match, but since I am getting older, I use a torch, and fires start every time. Mapp gas kicks ass, but is now illegal in California, soon they’ll probably outlaw propane, and I’ll go back to matches. A good sharp ax comes in handy too. Some of my friends travel with their chainsaws, but that seems a bit extreme.
However you 'build' it, a dose of Coleman fuel really helps to get it started. Maybe a shotglass full (or two) will do the trick. Stand back and toss in a match. Presto!
I grew up in an extended family with 4 square 1 acre beach front lots with one house (shack) per lot along an excellent surfing and fishing beach a stones throw away from the so-called civilized world. The road was not paved and full of large pockets that kept driving speeds down. We had electricity by the time I came along, but one house didn’t have hot water. Fire was for cooking and heating, but once in a while my uncles would want to get rid of stuff and they’d pile it all up near the beach, and we’d have a big bonfire. That was one way to get rid of large amounts of unwanted wood.
Weekend after weekend we’d gather at our little slice of heaven and enjoy the gifts that God provided. We ate freshly caught fish, shellfish and other delights from the sea. Everything seemed so simple and easy. Everything was done as a group, and that got things done faster. At night, there were more stars than you could ever imagine gowing up today. Shooting stars we really shooting stars and not space junk falling back to earth. If the surf was up, you could here it a mile away.
Today if you own a 1 acre beachfront lot, you probably live in an area impacted by rules prohibiting open fires. There are lucky ones who still live in the “country”, but I’ll tell you that isn’t the area known as the North Shore or where they keep saying keep the country country. And sadly, I think we’ll see these beach front locations disappear before our eyes, and it will happen faster than we think.
All the time I was a kid, I’d hate when people said “oh, you live in the country”. I’d seen “country” and to me it was a lot more desolate and barren than what we had. Besides that, just a hundred yards away, there were paved roads with full on subdivisions and maybe 7 homes on 1 acre of land. Those days were the best times of my life, and I’m so glad I was able to have that time, place and people in my life.
Just did a home repair this afternoon using my Mapp gas Turbotorch…at my wife’s 60th, my daughter -in-law (the glass blower) used her Mapps torch to light up the candles…of course Cali made it illegal, the guy from Berkley with the neck beard and two Ph.D’s said it interferred with the mating cycle of the cross-eyed Malaroo and acclerated erosion of The Coit Tower by 3 milliseconds per decade.
Not much mystical about hanging around a fire on the beach between sessions, sand between thawing toes, some good natured b.s. getting passed around, having a few grins, just enjoying be here now moments, usual worries on the back burner…wait, that does sound almost mystical…lol
If you are stranded on a beach and want to start a fire, look for coconut trees and get that stuff that grows just under the branches that looks like burlap. It is the best thing to get that first spark to turn into a flame. Just be carefull when you climb the tree because there’s all kinds of nasty creatures living in there. Don’t forget to grab a few green coconuts for water and definitely eat the soft “spoon meat” it’s soooo goood.
