The swell began to land on Monday, pushing aside a small background waist-high swell and filling in to overhead at Rincon by the afternoon.
By Tuesday, the swell had increased in size by 150%. The approaching storm front was bringing southerly storm winds that were ruining conditions, and things looked poor for the following day.
Then somehow it all came together. The surf cleaned up overnight, and the swell began coming in at a straight west angle, perfect for Santa Barbara and Goleta breaks that usually stay half the size of the rest of the coast.
Locally, Campus Point had double- to triple-overhead set waves far outside the ordinary lineups during the morning high tide. By afternoon, the waves were wrapping from the top of the point all the way to Goleta Beach.
Goleta Beach itself was a mess, with well-overhead waves just brushing up to the bottom of the pier. Overnight the waves had surged up over the beach and into the parking lot, even overtopping the southern lot and running directly into the slough.
El Capitan had overhead and a half faces with good shape.
The Sand Spit was raging. Footage of it turned up in videos released in 1996, including "What Next?" and "A Surfing Revolution."
The swell continued to hold its size and period for the next two days, swinging more and more to the north. The Santa Barbara surf scene went back to business as usual after the biggest single day of surf since 1969.
Interestingly, exactly three months later (and also exactly 12 weeks later), on Wednesday, March 13th, we had another sizeable swell. On Wednesday, December 11th, 1996, a big swell rolled in, 52 weeks to the day later.
- The Surf Reports
-
Here are the surf reports I made for that week. By the end of my
first session on Monday, I was already stoked out of my mind, and
by the next day I figured the jig was up -- the storm was going to
blow through. I was thoroughly unprepared for what came next.
- Monday, December 11th, Rincon, Head high to overhead.
- Tuesday, December 12th, Rincon, Overhead to double overhead.
- Wednesday, December 13th, Campus Point, Overhead to triple overhead.
- Thursday, December 14th, Campus Point, Head high. Rincon was still overhead plus.
- Friday, December 15th, Rincon, Head high to overhead.
- Your Comments
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I have surfed for about twenty years and it was the most
insane swell I have ever seen. I surfed Campus in the morning.
It was going off.
Later, I dropped by Ledbetter and it was triple overhead. Can you believe it? Ledbetter, triple overhead? I snapped a picture because Ledbetter will never get that big again.
If Ledbetter was firing this hard I could only imagine what Hammonds must be doing so I went to Hammonds and surfed. It was Insane.
-- Mike Vaughn
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I remember it well. I woke up early, I was living at a friend's place on the strand in Hermosa Beach. His apartment had french doors that opened to the ocean. Front row view. The morning was grey but the waves were figgin' huge. Biggest I'd ever seen it in the South Bay. Where should I go? Indicators? Hammers? PV? How 'bout South Central. Geotechnical Engineering final at 4 pm, and I still had plenty to study. Fucking sucked.---
I'm not in Santa Barabara...I was in San Diego the days of the swell. I still think it is worth mentioning that La Jolla Shores was pushing double overhead, only one peak (La Jolla usually is made up of 5-10 peaks), and shape compared to hollowness of pipeline. Standup, arms outstretched barrels on sets. The rights were lined up to the horizon.Its gotta be a good swell if Shores is breaking that good. The picture in Surfing Magazine of Blacks was taken the same day...I think I'll stick to the Shores on days like that.
-- Andrew Waer
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I went to campus point that day in the early afternoon. Little did I know what I was in for. Having only surfed for two years, lets just say I was in an area where I definitly did not belong. My first glance at the point gave me second thoughts about even getting closer to the beach. I figured I would have to learn to surf big waves at some point in time, and this might as well be the day. Ouch!Having a buddy come along (Oli) made things a bit easier, but as we were just beginning to enter the water, a wave came in that slung a huge tree into his leg. Talk about a bad omen!
After paddling for my dear life, and getting utterly thrashed a few times... the moment of glory came. The wave was easily 12-15 foot, and I had never experienced such open speed on a surfboard in my life. It was not the longest ride (it would have been longer had I been a better surfer), but without a doubt the most intense.
After that ride, however, it was pure hell. I suddenly found myself dangerously close to the cliffs with not much beach in sight. The sets were relentless, pushing me back further and further towards the cliffs. Deep breaths were getting hard to come by, and things were not much fun anymore. Finally, there was a lull, and I managed to scale up the side of the cliff with my board. Whew!
I spent a total of fourty minutes in the water and it seemed like three hours. Quite the humbler of humblings. For the record, I saw some crazy bastards take off on some stuff that was easily 18-20 foot. Glad to have been a part of it.
---
I was planning on studying for a final (Geog 115A, Remote Sensing) that morning early with Bromi Krock, one of the outer point chargers. He called me at 6 am, saying the buoys were lit up, and I checked the point real quick (I am a dorm rat). I couldn't see anything in the fog, but it was loud, and there was a shitload of white water all over the place.So we were in the water quickly. I surfed (actually sponged, but surfed rolls off the tongue better) probably till 9:30, ten or so, not sure. We definitely saw a few near triple-overhead sets. The crowd was pretty intense, and to tell you the truth, I can't remember any of my waves. They were probably good though. I was at outer point, and I think that there was a shitload of kooks on the slightly more inner-outer area, who were shoulder-hopping like crazy, thus fucking us outer-outer guys up. Of course, they might just have been dropping in on me because I am a sponger :(.
Whatever.
It has been a good winter, and I am often the first one in the water at outer point, so I try to catch as many as I can before the "head locals" show up, and then I watch Brad, Bromi, etc. shred the place to bits.
Anyways, I took the final in an hour, and was back in the water around 1:30. Again, there was a shitload of shoulder-hopping going on, three people going on the same wave.
There are to many people who surf like Santa Barbara is L.A., but it is still fun being out when there is a decent amount of wave energy.
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I went out at Campus Point on Big Wednesday, on my trusty old 9'4". I jumped in way down from the point, at the Poles lineup, caught a few really nice head high waves, nothing too extreme.Eventually I ended up way down past the stairs, and got myself into trouble. A lovely cleanup set came through, and suddenly I was rather close to the cliffs, under the big eucalyptus. One more wave came through, I ditched the board, and when I came up, I was looking at my board standing straight up against the cliff face, and it was still attached to my leg. So onto the rocks I went, grabbed the board, and started fearing for my safety. The waves were just pounding the rocks at my feet, and I was looking forward to getting bashed around.
After about fifteen minutes of prudent rock-hopping, I managed to get close to Goleta beach, but another big set prompted me to just scramble up the cliff the hard way. Felt pretty relieved after that, and some nice guy gave me a ride back to campus (I live in the Santa Cruz dorm) and I just went back and watched from the cliffs. Saw some truly incredible waves, and some wicked rides, and some even wickeder falls. Counted more than fifty people in the water outside the point, and I don't know how many at poles.
By the way, I drove up from LA that morning, and Ventura was surely 20' faces, but looked closed out and unrideable. Rincon was relatively empty, maybe twenty people that I could see through the fog. They were down in the cove, the indicator was obscured. These guys were getting incredible waves, at solid double-overhead, and totally makeable. Looked like fun.
---
I surfed that day at Campus Point with my longboard. I had never before had such a surfing experience! Some waves were easily in the solid 10-12 foot range. The best memory of the swell is dropping in early on my 10-footer at the point and connecting to the Goleta Beach sand! It was incredible!- Teddy Allen
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You know it's big when you take off on a set wave, get tubed, and see half of Ventura Pier hanging in the lip...---
I went out at Devereux at dawn on that day, on a new 6'4" twin fish I had just got! I had no idea how big it was when I left home. We couldn't even get out over there and just got washed down to I.V. by the longshore current. So we went out to Campus Point and had a pretty incredible time. I rode my 7'6" gun the next day, with much better results.The biggest thing I saw that morning at Campus Point was a face I was sure was 2.5 times overhead on the guy riding it, but there was a bigger one that came in wide and caught everyone inside. It might have been near 3x overhead. So 2.5 x 6 feet is a 15 foot face? Big stuff for that spot. I was stoked to be a part of it.
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I liked your College Point report. Was that a swell or what? The sad truth is, I wasn't expecting it to be so smooth Wednesday, so I didn't get up early enough. When I saw the waves, I rushed home to grab my stick, came back and surfed a total of two waves before I had to get out and show up late to work. I haven't been able to break away since, and today (Thursday) looks pretty righteous as well. Oh, well, tomorrow afternoon I'm outta here at lunch, hoping it's not storming.---
Damn, I should have taken that day off. I only had lunch hour to try my best and I fucking couldn't get out in the time alotted!The same thing almost happened to me at Devereaux in '93, but then I didn't have a closed timeframe. I sat on the beach calling myself a piece of shit and vowing to get out there no matter how many tries it took. "Of course," I told myself, "it would be best if you made it out there at least on the 2nd try..." and I did. Best Coal Oil Point waves I've ever surfed...
Anyway, I've seen pictures of the day in 1969 (same swell on which Greg Noll rode his biggest wave) when Rennie Yater rode 20' Rincon and it was bigger than Big Wednesday, last December. I also seem to remember a weekend afternoon in the middle '80s ('86 I think) when Rincon looked so good and big VERY few people were out. But, yeah, it was a milestone up there with 'em...