LBPOST.com: Huge Waves Draw More Surfers To Long Beach

Thursday, March 11, 2010 | Home

Huge Waves Draw More Surfers To Long Beach

by Samuel Lippke | The Lippke View | 01.21.10 |

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I've been a Long Beach resident for nearly seven years. Never have I heard of surfing like this here. We have an enormous breakwater (built in to protect subs and ships in WWII), and Long Beach was known as the Waikiki of Southern California before the construction of the breakwater in 1941. A surf contest was held in Long Beach in 1939... and ever since that huge wall went up... there have only been wave sessions like this on a rare occasion. So naturally, I grabbed up the camera and ran out to document it.

I hope that my children will be able to surf the waves of Long Beach without concern of filthy water and a restrictive breakwater.

I hope this will motivate everyone to put their foot down and restore back the beaches of what once was the Waikiki of Southern California.

Comments

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Dave in Alamitos Beach
I believe these are about as big of waves as we could expect to get with the Breakwater gone, and what do you know? NO one's house was washed away and by god, the port is still standing! Come on people, put away the fear.

lbresident
Outstanding video! Seeing that combined with the science from the Moffat study that shows we can reconfigure the breakwater, improve water quality, bring back small waves AND keep the peninsula and shipping interests protected shows that we absolutely need to get that wall reconfigured asap.

Anonymous
Dave, you are correct. We used to have waves even AFTER the breakwater. Look at some old photos. It is primarily the expansion of pier J that killed the waves and water circulation. We'll never get back to the huge waves we used to have because pier j isn't going anywhere. But the solution to achieving small waves like the ones in the video and improving circulation, water quality, and sand replenishment on the peninsula is to open up part of the breakwater on the western end. And the port should pay for it since it is port expansion that really killed our beach.

Dave in Alamitos Beach
Pier J isn't going anywhere, but if they were to build it today, it would probably be a series of "islands" with "rivers" allowing the seawater to rush through. Of course, the LA River would probably go somewhere else too. Let's put it on the "to do list" for 2050. ;-) For now, let's just get that breakwater removed!

Cmar
I am all for removing part of the breakwater. In 35 years of living in LB I have swam in its waters only a handful of times, and most were when we get our magical rare surf. The reason LB had clean ridable surf the past few days is because of the breakwater. If not for it the surf would be big, sloppy and unridable just like ever place else. Without the breakwater the surf would often be MUCH larger than it is now. just like Surfside and Seal, we would have to import or dredge tons of sand every year.

Resident
Awesome, great video! Let's modify the breakwater and get these waves in the summer!

lbresident
Cmar, we pay about a million dollars each year to move sand from downtown to the peninsula due to sand erosion caused by the breakwater. The sand moves west but lack of circulation prevents the current from bringing the sand back to the peninsula. Again Pier J is the main culprit but the solution of reconfiguring the breakwater would actually help with sand erosion along the peninsula.

Resident
Cmar said "Without the breakwater the surf would often be MUCH larger than it is now." Yes, exactly! That's what we want! We would get large waves during the winter storms and "clean" waves like that of the last couple of days all the time in the summer. That would be frickin' awesome! We could walk or ride a bike down to our own beach instead of going south.

brady
Nice piece..Wanna say hey to Evan on the pink fish..great to see you again. went out this morning and got some really fun waves off Santa Ana st. peaky fun..last time I surfed here was big wednesday the 21st of Dec. 08 when everything else was too huge.

Pam
If only it was like this all the time! That's perfect surf for someone like me...not too big and scary but big enough to have fun. Take down that breakwater so we don't have to go to Orange County anymore! We won't need Bolsa Chica if we have our own waves. Keeping my fingers crossed.

SUP LBC
Shredding the gnar! The launch Pad was the place to be!

PENI LOC
Film the surf not yourself.

LB Res 27 Yrs
Cool video, cool photos. But if you were real surfs you'd be in the water, not drinking coffee like a bunch of Bolsa locals.

The Lippke View

Samuel Lippke is a photographer residing in Belmont Shore, shooting high-end events, fashion and international photojournalism. Samuel is constantly looking to shape and change peoples lives with each photo he takes.

Samuel has photographed for Volcom clothing company, HOWE, Lani, Lee Lacocca & The City of Long Beach. His images have appeared in the Press-Telegram & Grunion Gazette. He is published in wedding magazines & featured online. His international travels have been featured in books and in a documentary film (recent photo trips include Indonesia, Tokyo, Paris, London, Mexico City, Costa Rica, Philippines, South Africa and Cuba). Samuel is a WPJA member (Wedding PhotoJournalist Association) & is represented by ZUMA press.