Several buddies of mine use Salt Creek as their home break. For years they’ve been telling me to come down and try it out. But for one reason or another I’ve just never been down there. Usually because San O and Trestles are just a few more stops down the freeway, so why not go there instead?
But Brandon and I had a business meeting nearby, so we decided to stop in at Salt Creek beforehand and give it a whirl. But being the Labor Day weekend, parking and crowds were madness. We expected as much, but man, oh man finding a spot was cut-throat business.
The waves were ankle to waist-high, but that was the same story for all of SoCal, so there wasn’t much avoiding that. But even with that I could see the potential of the break. There are some rocks to contend with, but with a bit more size to the swell and the right time on the tide swing and that break could surely produce some fun rides. I only worry that the break only occurs in a single spot, so every surfer would be waiting in the same spot all fighting for the same waves. I’ll have to wait and see on a different day (unless you know anything about this, please comment!)
The biggest obstacles of the day were the kelp fields and the kooks. Again being a holiday weekend the kook factor was high. Lots of fools dropping in on you (and not just dropping in right in front of you, but dropping right IN TO you) and lots of newbs flailing about with heavy longboards in the break trying to figure out how to make it out to the line up. It was a sure-fire recipe for a board ding (or maybe a head ding).
Most of the ridable waves usually produced a left and a right. But if you took the right, it always dropped you off right into the kelp. So if you did not deftly avoid the foliage, you’d have to paddle back to the line up 10 pounds heavier wrapped in seaweed looking like the swamp thing.
But I look forward to seeing Salt Creek on a better day.