Tag Archives: Santa Cruz

Yoga or Acrobatics?

When I previously wrote you can see all sorts of thing at Santa Cruz, I wasn’t joking. As we walked back along the shore, a woman was walking a rope strung between two sections of fence. Unfortunately, she hopped off the rope just at the time we arrived so I didn’t get to see how good she was. However, she was with a group of people who turned out to be quite skilled.

There were two pairs of people working on some balance routines. It was not clear whether they were acrobats or practitioners of some form of yoga. Whatever it may be, the guys were acting as a support while the women were balancing on them. They used hands and feet to hold them up while the positions changed. They were obviously pretty good at this stuff and confident enough to do this in front of a lot of people on a sunny weekend day at the shore. There was never a shortage of people watching them at work.

Things like this impress me a lot. Someone doing something well that I have no idea how to do (or innate talent for) is bound to get me to pay attention. If you know the definition of what they were doing, please let me know.

Shoreline on the Pacific Coast Highway

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Having started out our day at Santa Cruz, we thought a run up the coast to Half Moon Bay would be a good idea. The low winter sun angle makes everything look nice and heading north up the coast means the sun is pretty much behind you most of the way. There are a string of beaches scattered along the coast along with the cliffs and lighthouses for the more treacherous parts. If you were on a purely photographic venture, you could lose a lot of time along this stretch.

This wasn’t a photo trip – just a nice day out. Of course, that doesn’t mean no photos – just not taking too many pictures. Here are a few samples of what was there to be seen that day.

Santa Cruz

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The winter in our part of California is not exactly harsh compared to many parts of the country. However, we do get a lot of cloud and rain at this time of year. Having a lovely clear day is a good time to just get out and go to somewhere pretty. Santa Cruz certainly fits the bill. The coast there is both picturesque and full of interesting things going on. A variety of stuff was happening while we were there and some of those things will get a post of their own so keep an eye out for them.

The rocky shoreline is very cool. It has a beach below it which makes it look even better. Add in to that people surfing, walking their dogs or just being a little different, you have a fun place to be. Not often you see a bunch of guys on unicycles come by on their afternoon ride! I wasn’t the only one out with a camera either. I was actually testing a lens while we were out and I met another guy with the same lens so we were obviously doing similar things. Meanwhile, someone had a Phantom getting some aerials over the shore so cameras were busy that day.

Waves at Santa Cruz

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While watching the surfers at Santa Cruz, I also was watching the waves. Photographing waves is immensely frustrating. You see a wave do something really cool and want to get a picture of that. However, the waves never do the same thing twice so you are constantly frustrated. However, I did focus on two aspects of the waves while there. The sun angle was behind the waves so, as they started to break, the light would shine through from behind making a lovely green color light up the water. I find this really attractive and often look for it while watching the sea.

The other interesting aspect is the way the water runs off the sand after the wave has run its course. The gentle undulations in the surface cause the most interesting patterns to develop. The water is coming from multiple directions so the interaction of the flows results in some fascinating shapes. Looking down on these from above, they become quite abstract.

Surfing

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Santa Cruz is a popular spot for surfing and I have previously posted some shots from there here. With a great sunny winter day and the weekend combining in our favor, we decided to take a trip to Santa Cruz and enjoy a walk along the coast. Plenty of people were doing likewise and there were lots of surfers in the water. I don’t think the conditions were ideal since there seemed to be long periods with little wave activity but they were a patient bunch.

The majority were further out into the water where the wave action was pretty variable. I few hardy souls were close in to the rocks where the waves could be a lot more active. I imagine this is a spot for those that are more confident in their ability to avoid getting pulped on the shore!

Surfing Contest

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I will freely admit that I am a lucky guy. There are plenty of times when I can say that things have worked out well when there was no good reason for them to do so. One such occurrence was a recent trip to Santa Cruz. This was not intended to be a long stop but I was heading by en route to something else and I wanted to pay another visit to the overlook to Natural Bridges State Beach which has a large colony of pelicans. I had been there before as described here and was hoping to get some better light for another chance to get some shots. As it worked out, the weather was not to clear when I arrived and then I discovered that the pelicans were amazingly absent and the rocks were covered in cormorants instead. (No bad thing if you like cormorants as I do but that wasn’t why I was there.)

So, we turned and headed along the shore for a while and what should we come across? A surfing competition. We had watched the surfing here before but having a competition combined with a decent swell from recent offshore storms meant the there were a lot more surfers out and they were of a pretty high caliber. The plan was not to be here too long but we couldn’t resist catching a bit of the action. Finding a parking space was a bit harder due to the popularity of the event but we found a spot and walked along to catch some action. Some of the juniors were competing while we were there. The commentary from the event organizers was hilarious as they discussed the “squids” and some of them were surfing very well. Meanwhile, a lot of the locals were also out enjoying the conditions. I liked the idea that passersby could be in there with the competitors. It seemed a bit like playing football on the side of an NFL game!

The surfers could go either left or right the way the waves were breaking so we sometimes had them coming right at us which was cool. Watching them all trying to catch the wave as it came through and seeing who actually got up was good fun. One guy was out on his paddle board and he really did get some speed up as he surfed back in. As a lucky add-on to the day, this was certainly worthwhile.

Whales

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A short distance along the coast from our beach overlook we came to a lighthouse. This seemed like a popular part of the shoreline on a Sunday, even though the weather wasn’t great. I imagine on a sunny day, it is full of people along here. We strolled along the shore and out towards the point on which the lighthouse was built. The sea was looking very calm and out a distance we could see a number of kayakers in a loose group. Initially we had no idea what they were up to and assumed it was just a nice place to be. Then we saw something we had not expected.

A plume of spray followed closely by another signaled the presence of some whales. They were not far offshore and were coming in our general direction. I don’t know how to recognize whales unless they are of a few distinct types but I know that they get grey whales along here so I am going to guess that this is what they were.

They made pretty good progress along the coast and the kayakers were following at a discrete distance. I suspect for some that had been waiting ahead of the route, they got a pretty good view as the whales came through. We tracked them for a while. The problem with taking pictures of whales is that you don’t immediately know where they are. The clear their blowholes and you get a nice plume but that is often the first sign and it is dissipating by the time you get the camera on it. However, the shots are secondary in this compared to being there to see it.

Surfers

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The bay in Santa Cruz was not only filled with wildlife. It also had a fair number of surfers. Since I was looking at a calm surface of water, I was not entirely sure what they were hoping for. Then, all of a sudden and with no apparent warning, a wave blasted up the rock face below us sending spray above our level. I was a touch surprised! It seems that there are periodic waves that come in from offshore and funnel into the bay providing some surfable waves. The guys were hanging around waiting for these.

Since I was more focused on the wildlife, I wasn’t always paying attention to the surfers. However, periodically I did see one of them getting ready to try and catch a wave and I switched my attention to them. The angle often meant that they were getting obscured by the wave they were riding. Some of them weren’t being too successful at catching a wave at all. There were a few, though, who seemed to be a lot better at this and managed to get some decent rides in. One even helped me out with a spectacular dismount!

Cormorants

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There have been a few cormorant posts of late on the blog so, if those were not your thing, look away now. Santa Cruz may have had a large colony of pelicans as described here but it also was not short of cormorants. They were busy zipping back and forth along the coast, sadly not often coming too close to our location but we did get an occasional look.

More fascinating was watching them land on the rocks. The pelicans seemed to be clearly in charge of things but the cormorants did have some spots they were taking up. However, good landing areas seemed in short supply for them. Instead, they took a rather more direct approach. They would fly right at the rock face and flare into what seemed like an impact with the rock. In doing so, they would grab on to something and then clamber up the rocks to their colleagues.

It all looked rather like hard work but, if you are lowing on the pecking order (and with a bill the size of a pelican’s, who wouldn’t be) I guess you have to be innovative.

Pelicans

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The California coast provides a lot of different options for places to go to and things to see. We decided to take a day trip along the coast south of the Bay Area and started out in Santa Cruz. A little previous research had suggested some possible places of interest. Unfortunately, the weather that had been forecast was a little optimistic. However, even on a cloudy day, the ocean is a great place to be.

We arrived at one state beach and found an overlook that gave a view of the beach and a couple of rocky outcrops that were absolutely covered in pelicans. Not only were they on the rocks but there were plenty of them soaring about the area as well. Given how many were in the air, I suspect there wouldn’t have been enough space on the rocks for them all it once!

They would soar about in formation heading up and down the coast with our position being right under some of the flightpaths. At a distance, gliding pelicans look great. When they are just over your head, you become acutely aware of just how large they are and how, if they want to come where you are, you would be wise to move aside.

The formations flying around were fun to watch but almost as much fun was watching them landing on the rocks. With a spot identified, a lot of wing activity was required to bring them to a halt where they wanted. I could have stayed there for hours watching the fun.