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Community Corner

After-Storm Surfers Flock to Harbor Break

Surfers braved filthy ocean water and dangerous jetty rocks.

Friday's storm left behind a powerful swell, and about a dozen surfers suited up at the Harbor mouth Sunday morning, despite a splatter of raindrops and a choppy, mud-colored ocean. 

"I got my hemoglobin shots," said one surfer as he trotted towards the froth.

Although Friday's storm wasn't the notorious first rainstorm of the season, when the ocean is said to be at its dirtiest, it was the first in several weeks. Catching an infection from dirty city runoff (i.e., high fecal content) seemed to be less of a concern than watching out for the harbor patrol, though.

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"They're always lurking on the inside, like if you paddle across the mouth then they'll come out," said local Ryan Augenstein as he wriggled into his wetsuit. "It's a perfect sandbar but they don't want you to surf it. It's kind of like a constant battle between the surfers and the harbor patrol."

The main reason the harbor patrol takes issue with surfers in the Harbor mouth is because their risk of getting hit by a boat is pretty high—and there were several boats in the harbor mouth Sunday.

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"When you're down in the water they can't see you, and a lot of boats don't even think there could be surfers in the water. So it's a safety thing," said Dusty Marty, a lifeguard for California State Parks.

A surfer himself, Marty sympathized with the surfers, pointing out that people surf because it's fun, not because it's safe.

Even with no boats though, surfers risk being slammed into the jetty rocks.

"You have to be a really experienced surfer to surf there, like in the top 5%, because the way that the wave breaks, it's breaking right into the jetty rocks, and you're just a couple feet away from the rocks. They're really pretty gnarly rocks," said local surfer Steven Stubbelfield.

Another reason you'll only see a handful of daring surfers there at a time is because there isn't enough space for it to turn into a free-for-all.

"The space you occupy when you're waiting for a wave is a reallly small space too, so if you don't know what you're doing you're going to get in peoples way," said Stubbelfield, who prefers to surf up the coast.  

The big waves are back today.

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