When Malibu is on, it’s all-time. Photo: Hunter Jones // YouTube
Los Angeles exists in a peculiar place in the surfing world. Thanks to movies, the sun-soaked beaches of L.A. county have long been associated with the sport. The only problem is that the surfing there isn’t actually very good most of the time.
After all, there’s a reason you don’t see too many L.A. locals ascending to the top of the sport’s mountain. The current Championship Tour has none to speak of, and to find any you have to start going back decades. Back in the ’80s, Matt Warshaw went pro after growing up on the shores of Santa Monica and Venice, and before that, ’60s legends like Greg Noll and Miki Dora were known to haunt Malibu.
On the other hand. When L.A. is on, it’s on. Under the right conditions, the South Bay can sneak in a barrel or two instead of crushing closeouts. When Malibu goes off it suddenly becomes a world-class wave worthy of the legendary status it earned off the back of ’60s classics like Gidget.
So it’s worth celebrating Los Angeles when it lives up to its reputation, as Hunter Jones did in in his latest video. “Two weeks straight of firing conditions, back-to-back hurricane swells, and water warmer than I’ve ever felt out there,” he wrote in the caption. “I caught a wave from Second Point all the way through to the sand — one minute nine seconds, the longest ride of my life and something I’ve wanted to check off the bucket list forever.”
