It’s all about sharing at Malibu. Photo: Noshington Wells//YouTube
A holiday weekend. A metro population of more than 10 million. And a Category 2 hurricane tracking toward California. Surfers from the entire Los Angeles basin gladly used their Labor Day time off work to paddle out at Malibu and hope for just one perfect wave thanks to Hurricane Marie.
As footage of Hurricane Marie 2.0 (the larger 2014 storm of the same name still holds the official “Marie” title in the eyes of surfers) filters through to the internet, it’s no surprise to see that hundreds of surfers chose Malibu as their venue of choice for perhaps the strongest hurricane swell of the season.
As is often the case at hectic Malibu, surf etiquette was thrown out the window. Drop-ins were more common than turns as hungry surfers staked their claims to waves – like astronauts planting flags on the moon. However, the Malibu locals seem to be used to sharing and drawing synchronized lines across the same wave.
Hurricane Marie 2.0 was by no means bigger than the Category 5 Hurricane Marie 12 years ago, but it still looked pretty darn fun. The long-range forecasts say another El Niño-fueled storm could be brewing off Mexico, so there may be several more encores at Malibu before the summer season ends.
