February 2, 2008 Saturday

Palos Verdes	Haggerty’s
4:00 pm	Four feet to head high
Medium tide	No wind
Sunny and clear	Beautiful waves

The above photo is a four-foot take off at Haggerty’s in Palos Verdes.  Kevin and I had flown down to LAX to join my mother, Allison and my brothers Dean and Carl for our annual Superbowl Sunday gathering of the Moore family. This is a tradition that was started by my dad and we have continued it since his death ten years ago. I took this photo on my way to my mother’s house in Palos Verdes. We had landed at 1:15 pm, rented a car and drove slowly down the coast. Kevin had arranged to meet a friend for coffee in Manhattan Beach, where he was born. I dropped him off at Starbucks at the corner of Manhattan Beach Blvd and Manhattan Beach Ave, two blocks up from the pier. I continued making my usual trek through the beach towns of Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance Beach. Between the houses and apartment buildings you can get a peek at the beach and the waves. Today the waves were big, walled, closing out, and nobody was out surfing.

From the top of the hill at Torrance Beach I glanced across the bay to Haggerty’s. There were a few guys out, I drove by there to check it out, just like I have done countless times since my high school days fifty years ago. I parked the rental car in front of the vacant lot next to the old, classic Haggerty’s Estate, which now is the Community Church, walked out to the cliff above the break and saw some really nice waves. “Loren, take a picture!” the voice in my head was telling me. I had brought my camera for the usual family photos, but why not take some great scenic shots also? So I stood of the cliff for twenty minutes with camera at the ready waiting for the sets to get some good pictures of this classic break. 

Haggerty’s is a left point break that only happens on sizable north swells, which is in the winter and sometimes in the fall. Today it was a big wind swell with an inconsistent ground swell. When the wind swell combined with a ground swell the resulting combination would be a descent four foot to head high left breaking wave with some punch.  I waited for this combination to capture some descent shots of these young guys mastering this great spot. 

By the way, Haggerty’s is mentioned in the Beach Boys surf tunes Surf Safari and Surfing USA; listen for it the next time you hear those tunes.