Winter so far has been great for Central Coast surfers

Finally, some sun out on the bay on Wednesday and local surfers were loving it. No stranger to surfing, Dave Schmidt was one of the first to paddle out at legendary surf break Mavericks in 1990. And he said the anticipation for winter swells is always high.

“You never know what’s going to happen, is it going to be sunny and 70?” said Schimdt. “Or will it be like this year where there’s actual rain.”

All of this recent rain then flushes out into the ocean, leaving local surf breaks full of tree branches, giant logs and dirty water.

“You just got to be careful,” added Schmidt. “Keep your eyes up and hope you don’t get whacked.”

Aside from that, it’s all worth it to paddle out in the winter. As storms bring high energy and big waves that move a lot of sediment around, which in turn builds sand bars and creates unique surf breaks.

The mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz is a prime example. As history tells it, the river mouth was the first place surfed on the U.S. mainland by three Hawaiian princes back in 1885. And now, thanks to this winter it’s surf-able again.

“Treading in their waters and out there surfing in the San Lorenzo River is a blessing,” said surfer Adam Replogle. “We feel really lucky to have a sand bar like this year it doesn’t get like this too often.”

According to Replogle, being able to surf the San Lorenzo Rivermouth may happen only twice in a lifetime. So from a surfers perspective, rain or shine, this winter so far has been a great one.

“Great to see the rain is back and it’s nice to see a winter again because it’s seemed like we haven’t had a winter in a long long time,” said Replogle.

Up and down the Central Coast sand bars are developing due to this winter. So for surfers the outlook into the spring is looking great.