Graphic by Riley LeBlanc, Photographer.
Bad news, brochachos: Waves in the Pacific have created a more dangerous environment for surfers in Orange County as very large tides, often referred to by surfers as king tides, return alongside an El Niño.
“The waves aren't breaking like they usually would be, and it's way more dangerous to be out there,” senior business administration major Jackson Chapman said.
For the past few months in Orange County, the current El Niño has caused record-breaking high tides and flooding along the coast, causing damage to the beaches and buildings. Although king tides aren’t uncommon in Orange County, the rising sea temperatures from El Niño have contributed to the much higher tides this year.
The last week of October saw high damage to buildings across the coast of Orange County, with over 100 structures reported as damaged or unsafe.
With the damage to the beaches and neighborhoods along with the significant changes to the Pacific’s tides, surfing has looked a lot different for the past few months for surfers at Chapman. The flooding as a result of the high tides makes it dangerous for people to be in the water.
“When the tides get this big, and they start washing into the houses, and they start getting over the berms and stuff like that, that drags a lot of bad stuff under the water. A lot of sewage, a lot of bad debris that can get you super sick, that can hurt you while you're surfing,” Chapman said. “It also erodes the beaches a lot, so that ends up uncovering a lot of old infrastructure, such as metal pipes and rebar and stuff like that, that you can step on when you're surfing.”
At Chapman’s Surf Club, the executive board does their best to plan out surf trips to continue to foster the community they have created, while also ensuring safe surfing conditions during the current weather conditions.
Jackson Chapman helped his friend, Thiesen Healey, develop Surf Club after Healey initiated the revival following the club’s disbandment during their freshman year. The pair now serve as co-presidents to Surf Club, alongside their team of executive board members.
Chapman explained how the lesson days are the most popular events for Surf Club, with a turnout of around 40 students eager to learn how to surf. These days may only be three hours for lessons, so it’s “all hands on deck” for the student surfers giving the lessons.
For these days, Surf Club typically picks beaches in Newport that have calmer waves, while surf days with more advanced surfers might be in Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach or a different, more intense beach in Newport. Regardless of what level the surfers are, the executive board members need to make sure surfing conditions are good each time.
“Sometimes, before I do a surf day, I go out and I learn the spot, just to make sure that I'm able to teach properly and I don't send anyone in a dangerous position,” Chapman said. “So it's gonna be a lot of doing that and relearning because of how different the beaches are after these floods.”
When returning to familiar beaches, the surfers get accustomed to the waves in the beach, as the placement of the sandbar, rocks or any natural structures affect the type of waves. Surfers call this process getting the spot “wired.” However, with the damages to the beaches and sandbars, the waves risk changing dramatically, throwing off the familiarity of the waves and making them less predictable for surfers.
“Wherever the wave is breaking changes, it becomes super shallow or super deep. So if it's super deep, then you're not going to get as many waves, and if it's super shallow, then it's going to be barreling harder, but way more dangerous,” Chapman said. “You have to relearn it, you have to reanalyze it and it can be super dangerous with all the metal and other things in the water.”
Surf Club communicates with members via their GroupMe channel when it’s best to surf depending on the winds and tides using the app, Surfline.
“We usually surf all together with lesson days and stuff like that, because most of the people don't know how to surf — and recently, it's totally the worst time for those kids because the swell is so big. I'll tell people if they're asking me, ‘Oh, should I go out?’ Honestly, just don't do it,” sophomore business administration major Maryann Withrow said.
Withrow, who also serves as the photographer for Surf Club, grew up around surfers but only recently got really into surfing. However, living around Newport Beach prepared her for understanding how tide patterns can affect the safest times for people to be in the water, such as a program called Junior Lifeguards.
“It's basically these kids that train to be many lifeguards just for exercise and fun as kids to camp over the summer and stuff,” Withrow said. “I feel like there should be some sort of educational course that you should have to take if you live in Newport, either in middle school or high school, because half the people that live here don't know how the water works and it's super dangerous, especially when the waves are big.”
For people looking to learn more about the ocean and when it’s safest to swim or surf, it can be intimidating to learn all the technical or scientific terms, but being in a community of people who can teach you, like Surf Club, can go a long way.
“I feel like (the) best thing is either to take a class on it or do your own research or be friends with people that know what they're doing,” Withrow said.
Before some Surf Club members attended “SoCal-oween,” a surfing event in conjunction with other Southern California universities, the club put together a pumpkin carving event at the end of October for surfers to get together, even if it wasn’t on the water.
Navigating surf times poses a challenge as king tides are expected to return to Orange County around Thanksgiving week. But Surf Club still hopes to plan traditional surfing activities, as well as brainstorming possible new events for members, in the future.
“It's super rewarding getting to put people into the surf community, and the industry and events, and just teaching them how to surf, “Withrow said. “Just doing that creates a connection between people.”