SURFING LAGUNA: Spotting a big swell: epic

If you’re a surfer (or you know one) you probably picked up on the buzz that was going on around town last weekend: A big, clean swell was heading our way!

For me it started Friday afternoon as a pack of six or so Laguna High School surf team members wandered into the Soul Surf studio to check the online surf forecast for the weekend surf.

“It’s gonna be all time!” exclaimed an exuberant Hunter Smith. “Triple overhead for sure,” added 5-foot tall Adam Mejia. “Where should we surf!” shouted Dane Ziranelli.

Surfers need swells, and wait for months and sometimes years at a time for the convergence of elements involved to produce epic conditions. The big factors are: swell size and angle for our stretch of coast, wind direction and speeds, and favorable tidal cycles.

The groms did their homework on the rapidly approaching swell and (based on the available data) surmised that it was going to be one of those special surf weekends. So they did what all smart and transportation-challenged surfers do, they got me pumped up and primed to take them on a local surf adventure.

Don’t underestimate the power of texting. Within 10 minutes of agreeing to the surf adventure, more frothing Laguna surfers started coming out of the woodwork with big smiles and their surf boards, ready to join in.

“I’ll totally go with you guys down to Trestles, I heard it’s going off,” yelped funny guy Rex Strombotne.

“It’s gonna be sick!” added Andrew Congletron.

So the stage was set, we would reconvene over the weekend and head south to Trestles for some much anticipated surf.

Next week I’ll fill you in on how the surf conditions played out, who got the best waves and which Pedro’s burrito tastes best after a great surf session.

CHRIS WILLIAMS is the father of four surf-crazy sons, a surfing coach and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at chris@soulsurfingschool.com or (949) 497-5918.