Hot weather bringing people out to the coast

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV)- The hot weather is sending many people out to the beach, trying to stay cool.

With today marking the first day of summer, it's good for businesses along the Santa Cruz Wharf.

Umbrellas were planted, and chairs set. Families were hauling their beach gear. Some of them even getting in a kayak. All of them are trying to cool off the hot weather.

But over at Cowell's Surf Shop. Business is bustling. The surf shop can quickly run out of gear with the right weather recipe.

"If there's good low tides out and waves," said Robby Pappes, the owner of Cowell's Surf Shop, "and it happens to be 60, 70, or 80, the hotter it gets, the more waves, the less equipment that we have."

Pappes said many of their customers come from other parts of California.

"Surprisingly Modesto," said Pappes. "I hear Tracy a lot. I hear Stockton a lot, Sacramento, Bay Area, and San Jose. One thing we have noticed is that people aren't traveling as far. It's closer families coming over the hill. That's just a quick hour or two."

Pappes said if people are planning to head down to the beach, make sure to come early because things start to pick up after noon.

It's not just surfboards that people have been bringing out to the ocean. Some people have been bringing their volleyballs, and they've been playing out here on the courts.

Even during a quick getaway, high costs and gas prices still weigh on people's minds. For cousins Abbygail Ramos and Athalia Morelos, their family took one car to save money.

"We passed by gasoline stations, and it was six dollars," said Ramos. "A hundred dollars to just pump up one car, and you're like, why?"

"We might need to get gas on the way back because it's really traffic," said Morelos.