Rains Churn Up New Surf Breaks, Plus New Risks

If there is a silver lining to the year’s near-record rainfall, surfers say it can be seen in places like the mouth of the Santa Ana River, where tons of silt pushed downstream from San Bernardino and Riverside have created new -- and very temporary -- surf breaks.

Since October, drenching rains have created sandbars where creeks and rivers meet the Pacific Ocean along the Southern California coast. And, as in the area in the river mouth where Newport Beach and Huntington Beach meet, new surf spots have popped up nearly overnight.

In Ventura County, the Santa Clara River has created several new peaks for surfers to sample. Ditto at Trestles, the famed surf spot near Camp Pendleton in north San Diego County. The new break off Newport Beach has even earned a nickname: The Delta.

“It’s a delta, that’s how New Orleans came to be,” Newport Beach Lifeguard Capt. Jim Turner said. “It’s like we got Louisiana here now.”

But the steady flow of dirty runoff that created the new surf breaks has also brought health risks. Ocean bacterial counts have been elevated for weeks, meaning that surfers must enter unhealthful water for a good ride.

For some, it’s a no-brainer.

“It’s not a smart idea, but the waves are good,” said Evan Elder, 18, an employee at Ventura Surf Shop. “Make sure you have your shots.”

Delta. Sandbar. Whatever the name, surfers say that with the right conditions, the re-sculpted ocean floor has created waves that riders can surf in either direction, an unusual condition.

“We’ve had lefts breaking out there that go for 200 yards plus,” said Thomas “T.K.” Brimer, owner of the Frog House, a surf shop in Newport Beach.

“It’s the biggest sandbar I’ve ever seen in my 35 to 40 years of surfing.”

The impressive waves in Ventura County have attracted an even more impressive lineup of surf stars, including Rob Machado of Cardiff, a former U.S. Open of Surfing champion, said Elder.

“Normally, the sandbars are found to the south of and in front of the river mouth. But now it shifts, depending on swell direction. Last week, I surfed a new break just slightly north about 100 yards,” Elder said.

In northern San Diego County, San Mateo Creek and San Onofre Creek near the well-known surf spots of Uppers and Church’s have had heavy sediment deposits enhancing the waves’ shape.

When ocean swells grind over the new sandbars, the waves become “more tubular,” said Steve Long, a California State Parks Department spokesman in San Clemente.

But the new surf spots may not last long. Powerful swells can push away the new sediment, making the sandbars disappear.

In Orange County, Brimer and other surfers said the new Santa Ana River break is fickle, showing best when waves are at least 4 feet and at medium to low tide. It hides during high tide and small surf.

Not everyone is convinced the break was created by runoff.

Some surfers believe dredging to remove Santa Ana River sediment has added to the silt buildup.

The months-long project has been plagued with delays, said Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Greg Fuderer.

“We just started putting sand in the area of the river mouth since about March 19,” Fuderer said.

The project has been interrupted because of piping problems; nesting least terns, which are endangered; heavy rains that made the river dangerous; and a dredging ship that twice went aground.

Longtime Newport surfers recall an earlier corps dredging project that dumped river sediment off the 56th Street jetty and created Cloud Break, a new surfing spot.

“I’ve got a picture of that place showing a wave that broke a couple hundred yards offshore,” Brimer said.

The corps’ dredging area begins south of the Santa Ana River mouth roughly at Olive Street and goes south to Orange Street.

The sediment is being pumped into an area 12 to 15 feet deep about 1,500 feet from shore, Fuderer said.

“Because of the stoppages, we won’t be finished until September,” he added.

The same torrential rains that have helped create the new sandbars have also brought days, sometimes weeks, that surfers were warned to stay out of the potentially unhealthful water.

County health officials warn that swimming and surfing a river mouth in an urban area can be harmful because of polluted runoff that carries bacteria.