Oregon’s Battle to Save Surf Access

Made trips up starting in 1979, moved here in 1986. Wide open, big but fickle surf every where. Where I live, our season is about 8 months of offshores with swell rarely below 6' and often over 10'. 23 spots within 20 miles north/south of me. May to mid September sucks unless you have north wind protection. Wind is from the north, all day, every day, at least 15 knots and usually 25. Water gets into the 40's, windswell 8' at 9 seconds.

Crowds? 12 people in my area, 3 can surf, the rest are getting there. A crowd is 5 and more often than not, we text a heads up because spot X is scary to surf alone-but we often surf alone.

This is all south of Newport though. Much like everywhere, a highway from a big city will bring a bigger crowd. PC gets packed (50 surfers on a 1/2 mile of good beach break) in the summers from the Portland crew. Newport northward see's heavy tourism but there are so many miles of beaches and hidden breaks, hard to find a crowd.

We don't have the parking lot overlooking the spot here, its more a half mile of trail through the woods in the pouring rain, hoping the average 8 foot tide swing is in your favor and 15' at 17 seconds is from the right direction kind of thing.

Because we are closer to the source, we don't have lulls. An average winter day sees sets every 6 minutes. Bring your best paddle game because our sand bars are 200 yards out on 6' day. You will take waves on the head. A 6' day will see sets of 12', that is a given.

Secret spots? Don't have to give any away, look for rigs with racks parked in odd places (looking at you Dane).

Water is only cold in the summer (upwelling), winter temps are 54 to 58. Air temps about the same though we do see some 20's a few weeks a winter.

To this article though. Stupid. We have no issues with access to any known surf spots. The article mentions nothing about location, not because spots are secret but simply because we have access to every surfable wave on this coast. In 30 years of surfing here, I have never heard of any one getting turned away from getting to a spot. This is not California.

Don't confuse a mile hike in with access just because you can't drive up to the spot.

inb4: Some Portland hipster shit bitches about secrets, fuck off tourist.

/r/surfing Thread Parent Link - mountainculturegroup.com