How WWII Killed the ‘Best Wave in Southern California’ (Photos)
Long Beach, these days, isn’t much of a surf town.
Sure, there’s the occasional hurricane swell (ahem, Marie) that brings waves through the jetties, offshore oil rigs, and whatnot. But for the most part, Southern California surfers either head north (to Los Angeles) or south (to Orange County) for waves.
That wasn’t always the case, however. Long Beach was once home to an historically epic wave, even the “best wave in Southern California” as some call it. See below.
Flood Control, it was called. And the photos above show just how good this wave once was. Ricky Blake, a California-based artist and surf historian, mused:
“In the early days of surfing, this legendary surf spot was considered the best in all of California for size and conditions. The setup was a breakwater built to direct the LA River water flow straight out to sea while protecting the Naval shipyard directly on the other side of the jetty.
“This created a sandbar which produced a backwards wedge effect, and then another sandbar right point a long distance from shore. There was a submarine canyon just offshore and, being in the San Pedro Harbor, it created a swell magnet to this exact spot, which faced south, so the San Pedro hills and Palos Verdes peninsula blocked the prevailing winds.”
Then came World War II. And with it, Long Beach became home to the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet. As surf historian Matt Warshaw recounted:
“Pearl Harbor all but put a stopwatch on the destruction of Flood Control. With America's entry into World War II, everything associated with the military was expanded, immediately and on a huge scale, and the Port of Long Beach—longtime Home of the Pacific Fleet, although much of the fleet was now blown apart on the ocean floor just west of Honolulu—was first in line.”
A 3,500-feet extension of the breakwater effectively killed the wave, and it was lost to the sands of time. But hey, America won the war. Collateral damage?
Flood Control...gone but not forgotten.