Silva and friends charge 16th Street Hermosa Beach ‘slab’ waves

Video/photos by Brad Jacobson

The reason Dayton Silva left his Encinitas home at 3:30 a.m. the Saturday after Christmas was the same reason no one was surfing in front of the 16th Street “Geebs” storm drain in Hermosa Beach when he arrived there at sunrise. 

(“Greeb” was the nickname of pro surfer Greg Browning, who surfed 16th Street until stricken by ALS and passing last year from the incurable disease.)

The surf at 16th street was “slabbing,” as surf videographer Brad Jacobson described it after he arrived to video Silva. 

Most surfers don’t paddle out in slab waves, which occurs when a large, fast moving swell hits a reef (like Teahupo’o in Tahiti), or a shallow sandbar, as it occasionally does at beach breaks like 16th Street. The abrupt impact causes the wave’s lip to pitch over the surfer’s head, forming a barrel.

Silva grew up surfing in the Beach Cities. He was a member of the Mira Costa surf team that won the Red Bull Ryder Cup State Championships in 2010.

After surfing for the San Diego State surf team, he moved to Encinitas for its consistent surf.

But the San Diego area surf is so good it doesn’t present the challenges of Hermosa’s pitching closing outs, he said.

“I’ve been returning to the South Bay the past couple of years when a big swell follows a storm, hoping to scratch that itch. There can be 1,000 closeouts, and then a beauty comes through, ” Silva said.

The challenge that deters most surfers is distinguishing the closeouts from the makeable waves.

“I look for any semblance of a shoulder, or corner. But honestly, there’s not a lot of talent involved. You just put yourself in position and hope you’re lucky. If there’s a glimmer of hope you take two or three paddles, get up fast and try to get under the lip,” Silva said.

On some of his waves last Saturday the drop was so steep, Silva air dropped to the bottom as the lip pitched over his head and he disappeared in the barrel. Sometimes, he came out of the barrel. Most times he didn’t.

He was riding a 5-foot-6 JS surfboard from Australia, even though longer boards paddle faster.

“A longer board wouldn’t have fit the curve of the wave,” Silva said.

After he had been out an hour, he was joined by Dane Zaun, a fellow member of the 2010 surf team that won the State Championship; and Billy Atkinson, also a stand-out surfer at Mira Costa (Class of 2019). Los Angeles County Lifeguard Bobby Kithcart, who was off duty, paddled out on a bodyboard.

Toward the end of the three hour session Kithcart helped rescue a female swimmer, who required treatment for hypothermia. 

Silva said he’s hopeful the rain storm and large surf forecast for the New Year’s Eve weekend will bring back similar “slab” conditions to Hermosa. ER