"Stay happy and you'll be perfectly fine" - Jack Norris

Postcards from Cali: Rincon from the water

Hello Friends,

At about this time yesterday, I was in the water at Rincon. I’d driven down there on speculation. It was hot and sunny (not as hot and sunny as Sydney though!) and when I got sight of the ocean just south of Santa Barbara, there seemed to be tiny lines. A couple more indicators along the way had me starting to get stoked. But, when I pulled into the carpark at Rincon, there was hardly anyone there – not a good sign.

I ran down to the cove for a look and discovered it was right on the lower limit of surfable. But it was glassy and there were little sets, plus, wonder of wonders there were only a dozen (mostly learners) at the cove and hardly anyone at the top of the point.

Grabbed the mal, pulled on the wettie (it’s about 17) and made the trek to the point. When I got there it was looking like knee to waist plus, dead glassy and although too slow and soft for shortboards to be much fun. Plus there were only three or four people scattered across from Indicators to the creek mouth.

Paddled out and immediately caught a little peeler. Here are a couple of snaps from about the mid-point in the ride…

rincon
Wave standing up a bit at Rincon
Note extreme lack of crowds as I zip down the line at Rincon
Note extreme lack of crowds as I zip down the line at Rincon

I surfed for a couple more hours and caught lots of little waves. The crowds never turned up, which just goes to show ya that even in super-crowded SoCal at one of the world’s more famous waves, you can still get it uncrowded in 2015.