A Day for Surfers to Remember

Towering six- to eight-foot waves and a warm sun held autumn at bay along Orange County beaches Tuesday. But it was no place for a beginning surfer.

“These are pristine waves, the kind of stuff you’ll be seeing in the surfing magazines in the coming months,” said Mike Gifford, Huntington Beach marine safety officer.

While most county beaches experienced six-foot surf, Newport Beach and San Clemente reported occasional sets of seven- to eight-footers. Water temperatures were 65 to 66 degrees, and the air temperature was in the mid-70s.

Lifeguards reported small crowds and a number of minor injuries, mostly to surfers struck by boards.

“Only the best surfers were in the water today,” Gifford said. “We’ve had pretty low crowds. You don’t see any beginners or intermediates out there.”

The high waves, spawned by an Alaskan storm 2,500 miles out to sea northwest of California, are expected to continue at least through today as the storm slowly moves inland off the Alaskan Coast, according to Mike Smith, a meteorologist at WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

While the Orange County coast has experienced larger surf, Tuesday’s rare mix of a weakening south swell and the beginning of the Alaskan swell created some of the best surfing conditions all year, according to lifeguards and surfers.

The waves peaked and broke off in either direction, rather than forming one huge wall of water that broke at the same time.

“Actually, the peaks made it good for surfers to ride both left and right, which is unusual for Huntington,” Gifford said.

During the day, the Huntington Beach Pier was lined with hundreds of spectators and photographers.

In the afternoon, spectators on the shore could hear surfers hoot and holler after a good ride.

Shawn Craddick, a 16-year-old Ocean View student on his school’s surfing team, recalled his ride of the day at Huntington Beach.

After riding down the face of the wave for what seemed to be several seconds, he came off the bottom and “I did a snapback and just caught it, and it sent a spray of water really high. Then I just dropped down into the wave.”

As Craddick spoke, one of his companions yelled: “Yeah! He really did a lip shot. The wave was about two feet over his head.”

For about a week, county beaches have experienced a strong south swell, which brought consistent three- to five-foot surf that peaked over the weekend.

But Tuesday was something else, surfers agreed.

Former surfing professional Dean Quinn, 28, who operates a surf shop in Irvine, arrived just before dawn at Huntington Beach.

“It was perfect. Probably some of the best surf I’ve seen in years at Huntington Beach,” Quinn said.

Tuesday afternoon, his shop was closed. And Quinn was in the surf.

Richard Chew, San Clemente marine safety officer, said lifeguards made few rescues despite the unusually large surf.

“We had big surf, a beautiful sunset, and it looks like the swell’s staying right in there for another good day.”