After a long eventful winter of epic swell and events such as the Eddie and Mav's, the summer surf season is here. It's a good time to sketch some of the contrasts of surfing in the warm long days with fun waves, vs the cold dark monster waves of the season past.

The solstice is upon us, and with it super early dawn patrols and extra late evening glass-offs. Here in Santa Cruz, you can easily start surfing between 4:30 and 5 AM, assuming the weather is not foggy or overcast. At the end of the day, you can catch your last wave pushing 9 PM. Contrast this with the winter solstice, when first light is closer to 7:30 AM and the end of the daylight is before 5 PM.

In contrast to the air temperature, summer has lots of cool waves that tumble gracefully from lip down the face. Winter has more hot waves that break top to bottom, snapping boards and dislocating shoulders in the process. These two sorts of surf are optimized for different surfing.

Summer crowds are huge. Many breaks look like wetsuit conventions. Folks pull seldom-ridden boards from the rafters of their garages and drive to the beach. Every wave is likely to be a party wave; multiple people paddle and catch each one. Oldsters, youngsters, men and women are all in the lineups. You can almost hear the Beach Boys in the background singing, and it does feel like "Everybody has a surfboard, across the USA."

In winter, those boards go back into the rafters to hibernate, and the crowds at many breaks are distilled to charging rippers who are competant in heavy conditions and extremely competative.

Summer waves and surf crowds bring forth different wave riding vehicles too. Long blue foamies, single-fin logs from the '60's, SUPs, fish and sponges sprout like mushrooms in the forest after a rain. The performance thrusters and quads are still there, but they are not the predominant form craft.

Like schools of fish, some breaks sport tribes of eager surf beginners all wearing the same color singlet to identify them. The instructor herds them like a shepard and his sheep, while they each create memories of surfing in the City of Surf. If you are a serious board rider, you'd best stay out of the way when school is in session!

Summer is the time for morning fog and afternoon NW winds. Winter is the time for squalls and rain. Every once in a while, no matter what season, the weather is actually clear, calm, and sunny. But don't wait under water for this to occur.

Winter is known for substantial NW groundswell produced by vast storms in the north Pacific Ocean. Summer has waves from two sources, NW windswell and the occasional south swell from below the equator. Rarely do either of these sources bring waves that can compare with the large waves of winter.

So that's a sketch. Each season has its plusses, each has its drawbacks. As soon as you get accustomed to the current way, the cycle will turn, and the next season will be upon us. And that's part of the beauty of the waves in the City of Surf.

CU Out There,

DogMan