South Bay Boardriders Big Wave Challenge
Winter of ‘23
Redondo Breakwater in perspective
Photographer Mike Balzer favors shooting surfers from a distance. For these photos, taken January 6, 2023 he shot the Redondo Beach Breakwater from the Hermosa Beach pier, nearly one mile to the north. The large waves in the foreground (top photo) give perspective to surfer Chris Rodriquez dropping into a giant wave bouncing off the Breakwall.
The heavy rains and big swells left behind sandbars that produced perfectly shaped waves, such as this barrel at 19th Street in Hermosa. Photo by Mike Balzer
In 2019, Rodriquez was the runner-up in the South Bay Boardriders Big Wave Challenge for riding a similarly large Breakwater wave. Rodriquez, 52, has surfed the Breakwater for four decades.
Balzer took this photo of Jeremy Griffin from the Second Street Lifeguard tower, about a block north of the Breakwall.
Photos by Mike Balzer
Los Angeles County Lifeguards Matt Mohagen. photo by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)
Paddling out was the first challenge
In the early morning hours of January 6, 2023, sets in the 20- to 25-foot range flooded the Grand Avenue parking lot. Paddling out looked impossible, but Los Angeles County Lifeguards Matt Mohagen (pictured) and Shane Gallas told me they were going to give it a go. The two watched the lineup for about an hour before agreeing on the best place to paddle out. They jumped in at 7:30 a.m., and after 10 minutes of furious paddling and duck diving, they were outside. They spent another 20 minutes dodging clean-up sets just north of the El Segundo Jetty. Then Mohagen paddled into a 25-foot bomb. But after getting to his feet, the wave exploded. Lifeguard Tom Seth and I watched nervously while waiting for Mohagen to surface, and get back on his board. Mohagen and Gallas traded drops and barrels on the quadruple overhead waves for five hours that day.
In 2011, Mohagen won the inaugural South Bay Boardriders Big Wave Challenge for a wave he caught at the Chevron Jetty. In 2019, he won the SBBC Ride of the Year award for long barrel ride at the Jetty.
Story, photos by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)
photo by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)
Goofy footer, regular footer opposite directions, same results
Los Angeles County Lifeguard goofy footer Shane Gallas (photo below), and regular footer Nick Ferrara (bottom photo) went their separate ways, at opposite ends of the South Bay during this mid January swell. Gallas was in El Porto. Ferrara was at Avenue I, in Redondo. But both were trusting to the offshore winds to keep the curtain from coming down on their heads.
Photo by Brad Jacobson
Regular footer Nick Ferrara. Photo by Tom Kampas
Natural wonders
Photographer Andre Sarnecki evokes painter Edward Hopper with this shot of the Chevron station overlooking a January swell marching into El Porto.
Photos by Andrew Sarnecki
Richard Podurski won the 2019 Big Wave Challenge Photography Award for his shot of Jeff Jones going backside on a 25- to 30-foot wave at the Redondo Breakwater. This winter, Podgurski photographed surfers on similarly large waves this year at the Breakwater. But his most memorable photo from the Winter of 23 may be this picture, without a surfer in sight. Instead, the photos shows the January 2023 swell lining up outside the Manhattan Beach pier, and cresting on the Cable Car reef, off of Hermosa Beach. Photo by Richard Podgurski
Photo by Richard Podgurski