Princeton by the Sea Memories

Half Moon Bay

Story from “Half Moon Bay Review,” November 1945

“Thirty-foot breakers and a wind estimated at fifty miles an hour velocity Monday night beached and damaged eleven fishing craft near Princeton-by-the-Sea; beached a Coast Guard rescue boat, and did damage estimated at more than $80,000. Two members of the Coast Guard rescue boat crew nearly lost their lives when the vessel pounded into the beach.

“The whole Half Moon Bay area was hit by a storm of almost gale proportions which beat in from the sea. Princeton damage appeared to be to the fishing fleet caught riding at anchor. Several seiners were torn from their moorings and blown onto the beach.

“Oldtimers at Princeton said the storm was the worst experienced there in twenty years.

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We visited Mavericks Surf Shop today and Cassandra told us that Jeff was out there surfing in the heavy fog (practically no visibility, just a lot of deep, deep fog at Pillar Point) and that “Opening Ceremonies” begin around 2 p.m. at Mavericks this Friday, the 7th of December. Waiting for the big waves.

Pssst: She’s the nicer one.

(Photo: Cassandra with Jeff, courtesy Jerry Koontz, jerrysphotos.com)

between Ken Bradshaw & Mark Foo

by Andy Martin (Buy it at Bay Book, Coastside Books, Moon News Bookstore)

Hi June,
I checked this new book, Stealing A Wave, out of my library a month or so ago. With the Mavericks Surfing Contest, possibly coming up soon (Friday maybe), perhaps some of your readers would like to buy a copy from the local bookstores that they support. It has lots of Mavericks’ related parts. Bradshaw is an old geezer like me, but claims the title for the largest wave ever ridden, just ten years ago. His battles with Foo, the young up and comer, who died at Mavericks competing with him, are legendary.
I just heard that an older world class Big Wave surfer, Peter Davi, died today at the Ghost Trees, surf site off of Monterey’s name-stealing Pebble Beach. He was one of the first surfers that Jeff Clark, Mavericks’ first conquerer, invited to join him there. I’m sorry to hear of this extremely brave man’s death, even if he was doing what he loved.
Having known the heart-pounding, lung-bursting, direction-confused terror of going Over the Falls and being held down for a seeming eternity during a Wipeout on just a twelve foot wave during my youthful surfing days in Hawaii, I can barely imagine what these guys experience on the monsters they ride. Reading this book in the safety of your livingroom will help its readers imagine the thrills and dangers and fierce competitions of this sport and greatly improve their appreciation of what they are viewing, if they make it out to the Contest. Enjoy. John Vonderlin
Email John: [email protected]

Click here

CALIFORNIA SEA FLOOR SURVEY
SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON BIG WAVES

New Sonar Data Helps Explain Why ‘Mavericks’ Waves
are Among Nation’s Largest

This map (click image for larger view) shows the geographic range of the north-central coast study region for the current phase of the Marine Life Protection Act implementation process. Seafloor mapping data is being collected throughout this entire area to provide habitat distribution information.

This is a regional map (click image for larger view) showing National Marine Sanctuary boundaries, Bay Area faults, and the location of the data collected at Mavericks.

Over the last decade, the Mavericks surf break has captured international attention. An interesting question is, “Why do such big waves break here?”

This is a map of shaded bathymetry with wave lines on it. The blue lines show hypothetical large wave crests propagating in to shore from the west.  As the waves move into shallow water, they begin to interact with the seafloor (“shoal”) and their crests slowly bend to try to maintain their roughly parallel orientation to the bottom contours.  The more the waves interact with the seafloor, the more they slow down and bunch up.  Wave “rays”, or the pathways of wave energy, move perpendicular to the wave crests.  In areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, diverges, the wave height decreases.   Conversely, in areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, converges, the wave height increases.  Due to the steep topography of the bedrock reef at Mavericks, the wave energy rapidly converges and the wave height rapidly increases, creating a huge wave compared to the adjacent areas.

The dominant wave direction off the central coast of California during most of the year is from the northwest.  These waves propagate over the much gentler topography to the northwest of Sail Rock and are generally too small to shoal and break at Mavericks.  Sometimes during the winter months, however, strong North Pacific storms generate large, long-period waves from more westerly directions that shoal and break over the bedrock reef just to the east of Sail Rock.  The abrupt topography of the bedrock reef causes wave energy to converge over the reef, causing the wave to rapidly slow down, shorten in length and substantially increase in height relative to the areas just to the north and south of the east-west trending reef.  This interaction of the geology and oceanography is what makes the wave at Mavericks so spectacular compared to many other locations along central California.

Mavericks flythrough animation (mpg, 10 MB)

This fly-through begins approximately ½ mile offshore from Pillar Point north of Half Moon Bay. The area we are looking at in detail is a shallow nearshore reef in the vicinity of the San Gregorio fault, a major active fault within the San Andreas fault system. Motion on the fault zone has uplifted and deformed the rocks in the area near Mavericks into the S and J shaped folds we see on the seafloor.

The 3-D image is color-coded by depth: the blue and green areas are deeper than the areas in yellow and red. You can see how rugged the sea floor is in this area with lots of ridges, valleys, chasms, and pinnacles.

The new data indicates that Mavericks is above a portion of the rocky reef that is shallower than the surrounding rock. As a wave front approaches the shoreline and progressively enters shallow water, it becomes compressed and grows taller. The ridge promontory also has the effect of focusing wave energy and the wave height rapidly increases, creating a huge wave compared to adjacent areas. About here (the highest red we see), the wave becomes unstable and breaks. In fact, the data collection stopped here because the rough sea conditions made it too dangerous for the scientists to operate their boat!

Although interesting for explaining the mystery of Mavericks, scientists and resource managers will be using this data to identify hazards to navigation, classify different habitat types, locate biological hot spots, and study the San Gregorio fault.

Hi June, Have you seen this? The N.O.A.A. site has some better color photos of the Mavericks area sea floor on their website as well as a virtual flyover that is very cool. John Vonderlin (email John: [email protected])

In Figure 2, the blue lines show hypothetical large wave crests propagating in to shore from the west. As the waves move into shallow water, they begin to interact with the seafloor (“shoal”) and their crests slowly bend to try to maintain their roughly parallel orientation to the bottom contours. The more the waves interact with the seafloor, the more they slow down and bunch up. Wave “rays”, or the pathways of wave energy, move perpendicular to the wave crests. In areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, diverges, the wave height decreases. Conversely, in areas where the wave rays, and hence wave energy, converges, the wave height increases. Due to the steep topography of the bedrock reef at Mavericks, the wave energy rapidly converges and the wave height rapidly increases, creating a huge wave compared to the adjacent areas.

The dominant wave direction off the central coast of California during most of the year is from the northwest. These waves propagate over the much gentler topography to the northwest of Sail Rock and are generally too small to shoal and break at Mavericks. Sometimes during the winter months, however, strong North Pacific storms generate large, long-period waves from more westerly directions that shoal and break over the bedrock reef just to the east of Sail Rock. The abrupt topography of the bedrock reef causes wave energy to converge over the reef, causing the wave to rapidly slow down, shorten in length and substantially increase in height relative to the areas just to the north and south of the east-west trending reef. This interaction of the geology and oceanography is what makes the wave at Mavericks so spectacular compared to many other locations along central California.

Ab chart from “California Abalone,” Keith W. Cox, Department of Fish & Game, 1962

It’s believed that the abalone shell (lower left) was first used in P. Bruegel’s 1604 painting: “The Gifts of Water and Earth.” Photo by Willis Photo Lab, Palo Alto 1962. (The original work is part of the Vienna collection in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.)

From “California Abalones,” by Keith W. Cox, Dept. of Fish & Game, 1962

Below: To visit the “California State Military” website, click here

Camp Miramar

Story by Command Sergeant Major (CA) Dan Sebby

The former Camp Miramar was established on 21 April 1943 when the U.S. Army entered into leases with several land owners in order to provide for a camp to house infantry units assigned to the Western Defense Command. The 1 June 1943 edition of the Station List of the Army of the United States, issued by the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, stated that a single rifle company, Company G of the 125th Infantry Regiment, was present at Camp Miramar.

At the time of acquisition, there were two major buildings that the U.S. Army took control of. The first was the Miramar School, a small elementary school that served the local faming community and located on the eastern parcel, between State Highway 1 and Valencia Street. The other major building was the Palace Miramar Hotel and Resort, a large redwood-shingled building located on the beach in the western parcel of the Site.

To these substantial buildings, the U.S. Army added several temporary barracks, mess halls and support buildings. These were of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) design developed by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps in the late 1930’s. These prefabricated, wood framed buildings could be assembled in as little as three hours by joining components with lag screws. Creosote soaked posts served as the foundation for these buildings. With the CCC buildings included, the post had a capacity to house 495 soldiers.

Palace Miramar Hotel and Beach Resort in the 1920’s (www.halfmoonbaymemories.com).

In a letter to the Adjutant General, U.S. Army; dated 23 January 1944, the Western Defense Command identified the Site as vacant and excess to its needs. On 11 May 1944, Office of the Chief of Engineers at the War Department approved a request from the Bureau of Yards and Docks of the Navy Department for the six of the barracks and one on the latrine buildings. This transfer of the buildings to the Point Montera Anti-Aircraft Training Center was made without the U.S. Navy becoming responsible for restoration the land on which the buildings were situated.

From September until December 1944, the U.S. Army terminated its leases for the Site. A 1946 aerial photograph does not show any of the CCC buildings remaining. On 6 May 1952, the U.S. Army terminated its permits for water and sewer lines that ran along State Highway 1.

Building Schedule

Facility Name or Function	Quantity	Building Type	Size
Mess Hall	2	CCC design	20’x130′
Barracks	3	CCC design	20’x130′
Barracks	2	CCC design	20’x120′
Barracks	3	CCC design	20’x100′
Officers Quarters	1	CCC design	20’x70′
Storage	1	CCC design	20’x40′
Storage	1	CCC design	20’x30′
Latrine	1	CCC design	20’x45′
Latrine	1	CCC design	20’x55′
Miramar School	1	Unlnown	3,500 square feet
Palace Miramar	1	Wood Frame

Sources: NARA Records, College Park, Maryland

“Tarrat tells C of C Luncheon.”

From Half Moon Bay Review, 1960s

“Water is a major problem if there is an influx of people into this area,” said Henry Tarratt,  county director of building and property, at a meeting of the Half Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce last week.

“Tarratt indicated that the water problem could be solved locally but stressed that ‘urbanization is coming, and if everyone works together, it can be pleasing’.

“‘I hope it will be possible to avoid anything that will make a radical disturbance,’ he added. Tarratt was introduced by Jack Kendree, a Doelger Co. official, who served as program chairman at the meeting. J.D. Maytubby presided.

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In 1940 the Fish & Game Dept. identified 3 types of clams, bivalves, living around Halfmoon Bay: the Pismo, Rock Cockle and the Boring.

Meet the “Pismo”:

Meet the “Rock Cockle”

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