July started off with a major downer as we lost our beloved pet cockatiel over July 4th weekend, and shortly thereafter the entire surfing community lost the Santa Monica Basin Buoy, a vital buoy for the entire of Southern California. Footnote: The buoy was restored by November.Early in the month, the swells came from chubascos or NE Pacific hurricanes. The first chubasco of the season, Dolores, turned out to be overhyped, but Enrique followed through soon afterwards with a punchy head-high swell. The month finished out with some fun southern-hemisphere activity and the typical summer-time week-long flat spells.
The highlight of the month was a nighttime (does that make it a low-light?) full-moon surf at Secos with just one other person out that opened my mind to a whole new experience in surfing. Lowlight was getting snaked by some kook on a longboard that refused to kick out, even after I grabbed his leash and tugged it.
Out of eight reports, got good surf three times. Surfed four times on my longboard. The average wave height was in the waist high range.
The Reports