Last night a meteorologist (or two) on my Twitter feed mentioned that today west facing beaches would have some high surf advisories. I immediately noted on my calendar that I would need to head over to said beaches to see what kind of photos I could get. I have to admit, I really did not expect temperatures to hit the low 80’s; I guess that is why they call it Decem-brrrr.
The main obstacle I was to encounter is that high tide was going to happen around 1:00 AM and, truth be told, I have never photographed surf in the middle of the night. I decided to see how lucky I was by heading out a little before noon, with my first stop being the breakwater in Redondo Beach. Sometimes when we get big surf, the waves crashing on the rocks can be pretty dramatic. It may have been dramatic at 1:00 AM, but it was not that impressive when I arrived. There were several surfers to photograph and I could see the swells were getting bigger so I moved up the coast a mile to the Hermosa Beach Pier to see what I might find there. The surf was no bigger and there was a lone surfer that looked like he was a beginner, so I left and headed off to Manhattan Beach.
The Manhattan Beach Pier is photogenic no matter what the weather is like and there were several surfers and boogie boarders enjoying the active surf. All in all, it was a great winter day in the South Bay; it is feeling a lot like Christmas.
