Chasing California’s Surf Culture

November 30, 2012 | Updated: October 31, 2014 | By Elizabeth | Reply More

The Huntington Beach Pier is one of my favorite places to watch surfers dancing with waves.

Let me start by saying that the surf movie Chasing Mavericks is in no danger of being nominated for an Academy Award. Gerard Butler and Jonny Weston are sympathetic characters, but as one reviewer said “there’s a pretty good 90-minute movie trapped inside this 111-minute extravaganza.” *

On the other hand, Authentic Luxury Travel is all about encouraging you to connect with the local lifestyle – and you can’t do that in California without getting a feel for the importance of surfing.

California’s surf culture is as much a part of life today as it was when the Beach Boys were singing “let’s go surfing now, everybody’s learning how…” Little kids surf, women surf, old guys surf, and dogs – yes dogs – surf.

Case in point: in my hometown of La Jolla, when the surf’s up, so is high school truancy. And it’s not just a teen thing. My friends who live on the street above Black’s Beach regularly witness the early-morning phenomenon of grown men standing next to their cars peeling off wetsuits and slipping into business suits before heading downtown to their offices.

In my last post, I was telling you about walking from Davenport to San Francisco and how startled we were to come upon the movie set for Chasing Mavericks in the remote San Gregorio parking lot.

Since writing that post, I’ve seen the movie and I highly recommend it – not because it’s a great film, but because the story is so authentic. A courageous teenager and veteran surfer share an obsession for surfing giant waves that rise up to 80 feet at a point offshore of Half Moon Bay.

Most of the film is shot in Santa Cruz, which is perfect because the city is almost synonymous with surfing. If you go there, I highly recommend a walk along West Cliff Drive, where you can take in the full spectrum of the California surf culture.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching surfers from West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz.

At one point, both Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach (just south of L.A.) called themselves “Surf City USA,” but a careful listening to the Jan and Dean song of the same name finally bestowed that privilege on HB. I like to walk out on the Huntington Beach pier and look back at the surfers as they wait in “the line up” to catch a wave and ride it like a ballet dancer into the shore.

In addition to hanging out watching surfers, you can learn a lot at The Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum and the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, north of San Diego. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is located in a lighthouse on West Cliff Drive. All three places tell the history of surfing in California, have some wonderful old boards on display, and honor the heroes of the sport – like the true life characters in Chasing Mavericks.