Roots

I'm very thankful that I can share these photos with you guys. I haven't lived in California in a long time, but the following places and stories are part of my inner fabric. The above photo is the main place weould surf usually. The slough flowing out to Sands would flow hard in a rainy winter and create sand bars that would create some nice wave set ups. A very fun place. In some ways, I grew up along this shore.


If you walk down the beach and go around the point, you would come to another surf spot. Coal Oil Point, or Devereaux's was another fun spot. You would walk along the cliffs until you came to the jailhouse, which you can barely see in the background, and take the trail down to the beach itself. There were some great parties at that jailhouse in high school years :).

The shot above and the one that follow are of a Beach called Haskells. A really nice, fun place that you had to be a Goleta local to partake of. Used to go there alot with the Kulper brothers. The environment of the beach has been savaged by some obscene down south developer who created a poorly constructed monstrosity on the bluffs. Thankful I was around when it was pristine.



As a 8 or 9 year old, I used to get rides to the beach, when my parents couldn't give me a ride, by some neighborhood girls. Barb and Sue were pioneers of a sort, females who looked good and surfed good. They were nice and used to look out for me at the beach. I think they smelled pretty good too! Barb lives on Kauai and Sue survived ovarian cancer and lives in New Zealand. You go girls...

Up north of town, along the Gaviota Coast, sounds like the name of a blog, doesn't it? There were/are some nice reef set ups. They would only work during the winter West and Northwest swells. But once they did, the difficult memories of the summer lulls would wash away with your first bottom turn. The world was right again.

All in all, an incredible stretch of coastline. People have been trying for years to get it declared a National Seashore. Ahhh politics..... Really one of the last remaining stretches of coastline south of Point Concepcion that hasn't been Californicated over. Hopefully it can stay that way but life does unfold in a myriad of ways.

A trippy shot that expresses a lot of what is unique surfing in the Santa Barbara area. The ever present oil rigs with their Christmas light set up. Had friends and parents of friends that worked the rigs. Made good money and raised their families as a result of those labors. Life is a series of trade offs really. You got to give to get and vice versa. Hope you enjoyed these brief photos and some captionage. It is all part of who I am. It's all part of my thankfulness package....