Ventura C Street & Pipe

This was a Friday dawn patrol. Gorgeous wakeup in Carpinteria, and we had checked out a few breaks the night before.

We hada 13 mile drive south past Little Rincon, Mussels Shoals, Emma Wood State Beach marks the definitive bend in the coast between Ventura proper and the points and reefs beyond.

Through the years, California Street has endured numerous face-lifts. Two decades ago, when it was known as Surfer's Point, a crew of hard-core locals proudly guarded their break against invaders from the south (Oxnard and Malibu), the east (the Valley) and the north (Santa Barbara).

These days, with a boardwalk, pay parking machines (a buck an hour), islands of well-groomed sod and bathroom and shower facilities, the three-fourths mile series of points known as California Street, located in front of the Ventura County Fairgrounds, has been tamed into submission.

The top and most popular point, known as Pipe (there's only one, so don't call it Pipes), tends to be the highest quality wave of the bunch. Like Upper Trestles, it's an ever-changing configuration of sand and cobblestone -- dependent on the flow of the Ventura Rivermouth -- but the wave remains the same: long right walls. This is true primarily during the winter, but it's also good on southwest swells with the occasional hollow section that runs for 50 to 75 yards. On the biggest winter days, it's possible to connect it clear to California Street, a distance of a half-mile or so. Pipe tends to be the most crowded break in Ventura, with a tight dawn patrol crew and a huge army of weekend warriors that keep the place humming.

Lot's of stories to be had in this area, my first job in California was a consulting job for the Telephone company out of Ventura, and I got in a great summer run through some lemon groves. Later I had a girlfriend with a boat in the Ventura Harbor. I met Chuck Barfoot in overhead Rincon one session, I surfed my Russell in front of the Holiday Inn for the first time ever in California. I also met Preseidnet Reagen, Nancy and Fess Parker up here in 1983.

What a long strange trip its been.

On Campus UC Santa Barbara

We brought long boards and short boards to this break, it was just past the Santa Barbara airport, the Goleta exit is near by.

Ventura County & Santa Barbara County

What can you say? I have surfed central California for 22 years. It is big and powerful up here, a little colder, a lot foggier, and there are some wicked point breaks in the San Francisco and San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

I also know every break in southern california, having lived there in the 1982-1987 time frame. My local breaks were El Porto, Marine and 19th Street in Manhattan Beach. I lived on Homer Street where Greg Noll buuilt his first commercial long boards. I met Dewey Weber, David Nuhiwha, and saw Mark Richards, Tommy Curren, Shaun Thompson and Joey Buran surf the waves back there.

I had surfed Rincon and Ventura in the summer winter of 1982, It was a really cool place to surf, probably my first point break.

Now

we hit surfer's Point in Ventura and surfed Pipes and

on the last night, we hit Campus Point for some smaller waves

Petrillo History

On PCH 1 in southern california is an older surf shop called the "Frog House"

here is their anecdote on Petrillo surfboards:

"When I first started working here around 1967, I was sitting on the floor playing poker with Frank." TK explained. "He had been nicknamed Frog by that time. A guy walked in the door this particular day with two boards under his arms. They had no logos on them. One was a red one and the other blue and he wanted to sell them. Frog asked him where he had gotten the boards and he said I made them myself in my garage. They were really good boards and Frog liked them. Up to that point, The Frog House had only sold used boards and a few wetsuits (which were still relatively new product at the time)."

"The guy who brought the boards in was Frank Petrillo. So Frank "Frog" Jensen and Frank Petrillo entered into a contractual agreement where Petrillo made boards with his name on them and we sold them exclusively on the West Coast out of the Frog House. That was our first venture into selling new surfboards."

"That went along great for 2-3 years and we sold a lot of boards. Petrillo was a big name then, but then the two Frank's had a falling out. Frog thought too many boards were being sold out the back door of Petrillo's glass shop. Petrillo moved to Texas to build boards.

http://www.froghouse.com/History/Home.php?page=Surfboards%20and%20the%20Frog%20House

Petrilo quest 2009

Here is what popped up on my laptop, a clean looking 7'8" Petrillo Gyro

So fast forward 30 years, and I had sold this board. You've heard of "buyer's remorse", well I had "Sellers remorse". I never should have let that one go, I didn't need a 100 bucks, and off it went to Hawaii in 1972 with some guy named "Fish"

I asked a friend of mine, a local collector to look for a used one for me, I always wanted one in the rack. Almost once a quarter, he found one that was close or ugly or just beat to death.

This is an example of one, I would have considered for 300 bucks.

Out of the blue on April 20th, a Monday I googled "Petrillo Gyro" and here is what popped up for $550 bucks and it was still available in Santa Barbara where we were headed!.

The Stars aligned, I exchanged emails and we drove to Carpinteria for a3 night staty with the Trumans of Corralitos.

Santa Barbara & the second coming of Petrillo

For me, this surfing craze began on Long Beach Island in the 1960's, a cousin of mine rented a board to meet some guys, and in that two day rental, I hung unto that object like I was a lamprey eel.

I then borrowed another board for a 3 week period, a gorgeous Ron Jon, Hansen Competitor. I wanted my own board, and finally in 1970 my Dad bought me a 7'8" Petrillo Gyro. I didn't know anything about the brand, there were some 1/4 page ads in the surfer mags with Dru Harrison on them.

Here's mine. off my right shoulder is my younger brother James kicking water on Nick Balbo, my old man.

I really loved this board, it came down to the island for 4 weeks, maybe 3 summers in a row. I couldn't drive and it was lashed to some hard racks on my old man's 1968 Cutlass Supreme.

A look back: April 25 2007, Kane at 11

A Crowd of One

These shots are compressed and
are best seen with an expansion.

** ENLARGE with a DOUBLE CLICK**

This is a stormy day, and you are looking south towards Monterey.
A speck of neophrene in the center of this shot, is Kane
He has this point break to himself. Him and a quarter mile of
kelp beneath him, smoothing out the reef.





Here he is working his way out to the lineup on his new 5 8" Fish

Looking at the storm above Watsonville and Corralitos

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Just Brie and I on the railing checking him out.

stormy night Early April 2009

Alaia surfboards of Court Drive

Kane used scrapers, then hand sanded and then used a belt sander to smooth both sides of his board

three six foot sections of dry, light clear redwood from 1995

here's the laborer, Sanchez, waiting for the glue to dry. That's Gorilla GLue Waterproof.