Final days of 2023 deliver swell South Bay surfers won’t soon forget
by Kevin Cody The swell that hit South Bay beaches last Thursday invites comparison to the swells that flooded the Hermosa Strand in 1983; blew a hole in the Redondo Breakwall, and blew out the windows of the Portofino Hotel in 1988; and breached the breakwall again in January of this year, destroying the King Harbor Yacht Club’s docks, and parking lot, and the cars carelessly left in the lot overnight. Waves broke 100 yards out from the Hermosa and Manhattan piers last week, forcing their closures. The Redondo Beach bike path was flooded. In King Harbor, the Harbor Patrol had to chase down loose boats. A fisherman knocked off the breakwall and knocked unconscious would have drowned if three stand-up paddlers hadn’t pulled him from the water. The oil tankers moored one and a half miles off of El Segundo were moved five miles out to sea. Angelo Luhrsen gets cheered on a bomb at the Redondo Breakwall on New Year’s Eve 2023. Photo by Mike Balzer Wave energy is measured in KJs (Kilo Joules). A 100 KJ is powerful enough to surf. Thursday’s measurement, according to Surfline, was 2,600 KJs. The people who most care about how the swell during the final four days of 2023 compares to past…
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