Salt Creek

Surf Guide

Nestled in a beautiful cove at the northern end of Laguna Niguel lies Salt Creek, a watery playground of long pointbreak-style lefts, wedgy A-frames, relentless shorebreak and sand-gurgling rights. You name the type of wave, and Creek probably has it. Now add spongers, B-grade pros, gangstas from Santa Ana, 14-year-old girls, the entire Dana Hills surf team, wealthy tourists, newlyweds and, of course, Pat O'Connell, and you have a typical day at Creek. It's an interesting mix, but amazingly, everyone seems to get along. Much like the rest of Orange County, Salt Creek has a rich history of change and development. In the early '40s, the break was a raw, undeveloped park where surfers could literally drive up the beach, hop out of their cars and go surfing. There were no houses, no meters and no hotels. Twenty years later, the United States Surfing Association bought rights to the break and charged 75 cents a day for winter use. Members of the USSA could only bring one guest and had to deposit their money in a tin cup attached to a stick, extended over a fence by a caretaker. From there, Creek took a quantum leap in construction. There is now the multimillion-dollar Ritz Carlton Hotel ominously overlooking the beach, an exclusive apartment complex sitting next to the Ritz and an even ritzier St. Regis across the way. Throw in a massive golf course, pay parking, snack bar, grassy park and Starbucks, and you have a post-millennial Salt Creek. Many say development has staunched proper sand flow from the now-extinct dunes, and that the bars aren't close to what they once were. Despite this charge, Creek's primary waves remain. At the most southern end of the beach is the Point. It's a goofyfoot's skatepark as far as left pointbreaks go: extremely rippable, extremely crowded and has an extremely small takeoff zone. The Point takes any south swell and on the largest days, it can reel across the bay producing 50-yard rides. Watch out for rocks on the inside at low tide. On small days during winter, it's a superb fishing hole for boardfishing -- but don't tell anyone: it's the only secret spot left on this stretch of beach. Middles is usually where the rest of the pack ends up catching waves. Peaks crumble year-round from the outside and suck dry on the inside, creating ankle-snapping aerial sections on the right tide. During summer after 10 a.m., Middles is blackballed and Point is the only spot left open to surfers. If you're one of those surfers who enjoys pulling into deep closeout tubes and getting sand in all of your orifices, head north of Middles to the section in front of the golf course called Gravels. On west swells, Gravels is a showcase right-hand barrel. It peels in about 2 feet of water on any tide, and sometimes throws squarely into shore, like Sandy Beach shorebreak. Clearly not for the slow-to-the-feet or for someone who's invested 700 bucks in a potato-chip shortboard.