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The Discovery, Rise (& Near Death) of Lower Trestles

Dan Harmon

30,080 views

We all know Trestles for its high-performance walls, but how did Trestles become the place it is today?
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20 Comments

@sickjoeyb1503 1 month ago

It was called slowers back in the day. It wasn’t an a frame either, it was only a right. After the cteek blew in the El Niño it created the a frame and the left

@William-Bill-Munny 1 month ago

I remember when I firat went to Trestles in the early 80's and Da'Cat Lives was spray painted on the wooden trestle. Later we found it easier to talk our way past the Pendleton guard shack to park on the beach with military families. Yes you had to give them your id but they always walked back, handed it over then told us to go ahead. After 9/11 things like that would never happen again.
As much as I love Trestles and seeing Ben Aipa, Herbie Fletcher, Ritchie Collins or some other legend out in the lineup - Killer Dana was far far FAR better than Trestles could ever be..... or at least thats what guys much older than I would say.

@gustavopassford 1 month ago

This is the best surf history channel on YouTube! Great content please keep doing it!

@mikewalters8253 1 month ago

Should ban E-bikes to keep the crowds down

@jhrobbins97 1 month ago

There are some inaccuracies in this video. Lowers is more so an artifact of of a previous exit point of of the San Mateo creek rather than a place where boulders are captured as they move with the longshore current. You would need a swell of enormous proportions to move the cobble reefs. The current position of the creeks exit point doesn’t make lowers-it actually slowly fills the bay between uppers and lowers with sand. It was completely filled in before the El Niño of 82 83 caused flooding that overtopped the channelization of San Mateo creek, exited between lowers and uppers, and carved out the sand. This is the event where people say lowers “got” it’s left. It always had one though - There are historic images dating back to the early 1900s that show lowers as a left and a right. Back then the river was more free to meander.

So yes the engineering of San Mateo creek is impacting lowers, but more so in a negative way through filling the bay with sand versus it being the reason why lowers is a good wave.

@starkotic 1 month ago

I grew up in the area in the 50's through 1980. The only time you couldn't really get in there was when Nixon was president. His western white house was at Cotton's Point, just to the north of Upper Trestle. I surfed it regularly since the late 60's. It was a great longboard wave. I left California for the Big Island in 1980. Current footage shows me the wave is still basically the same as it was in the 60's and 70's. Change is inevitable. Hopefully Trestles lives on!!!

@johnpaulsen207 1 month ago

In the 60’s my friends and I were escorted pout by MPs. We also mooned the train when the mood struck.

@reminaya 1 month ago

I surfed there regularly 74-76 before I could drive. Jeff King, a now famous wind surfer would drive us from Black Mountain, east of Del Mar, predawn to be in the water as the light came up. It’s was a great wave if you got there early. Blacks is a much more challenging deep water spot That I prefer.

@Steve-hs5le 1 month ago

I've been Surfing Trestles since the 70's. I remember Tricky Dick Nixon up on the hill. Deer trail hike down to the Surf. Now it's a nice paved road. The San Mateo Creek is filled with brush and trees. If this Super El Nino delivers Trestles is F*CKED. I just Surfed Cottons during that last July June swell. The back wash off the rock Jetty was intense. Great presentation Bro 🤙👍

@policedog4030 1 month ago

Good topic and I know you have done some videos about man-made surf spots; I always thought that adding ten dozen truckloads of cobbles would be the best way to do that, especially on long sandy beaches that always have walled / closed out waves, but otherwise have good surfing conditions. The regulations would probably be the most difficult hurdle, here in California, you would have to convince the local residents, the Coastal Commission, Dept of Fish and Game, State Parks Dept, probably Federal EPA, etc.

@JeffErnst23 1 month ago

Haha, you used a clip of the Ventura pier getting smacked like 10 years ago. Was out there that day.
This was a cool video thanks dude.

@Anonymous-tl6zu 1 month ago (edited)

Have been there a lot of times Great place to hang out surf

@SurfDad1981 1 month ago

Great video

@IsabelleWallace-g9n 1 month ago

first and love your stuff dan keep going

@surfgame 1 month ago

Cool explanation of the history of trestles. That wave makes mediocre surfers surf like pros and pros even go next level. The background of it, with the military and surfers sneaking into the area to surf it is quite similar to the scene at Pt Mugu. Maybe you can research that and make a video about it, since it now has a surf contest there and is still off limits to non military. Unless you already posted about it.

@Queba909 1 month ago

This was a good watch. I’ve stumbled across your channel b4 when looking into some travel info…which helped. It’s always good to re hear all the history behind lowers. My grandparents use to sneak in when you couldn’t surf it. If you lost your board (no leashes) the mp’s would take them and wait for you. I thinks it’s funny tho how it’s a nature reserve but you have 100’s of surfers everyday doing burnouts on the beach. Meanwhile complaining about the toll road ruining it.. it’ll b interesting to see when this year’s El Niño blows out the river mouth. Hopefully we’ll gets some more sand. Cheers

@davidrose3830 1 month ago

Great vid, thanks.

@toddsmith8190 1 month ago

Fun Fact! NiteRider cycling lights were created by Tom Carroll (Not the Aussie surfer) NiteRider Founder because he wanted to surf trestles at night to avoid the crowds

@jadrig 1 month ago

There are old aerial photographs showing one large sand point between cotton point and the bluff with the lifeguard tower (of course the tower wasn't there then) at middles (a few hundred yards south of Lowers); which extended maybe a hundred yards out past what is now the coastline. This was because San Mateo creek meandered over that entire area; close a a mile; where it dumped sand back and forth for eons. So there was no Uppers at all; and Lowers was buried under sand until; as the video talks about; the railroad was built and forced the creek to come up in one spot; which dug out the sand in between Uppers and Lowers; creating Uppers and the left at Lowers.