Saturday, January 16th ,2021

A beautiful, warm winter day with small-ish surf

Location: Dockweiler State Beach, Los Angeles, CA

Time: Morning (6:30–9:15am)

Conditions: 1–3', WNW swell, medium-tide rising through morning, glassy conditions

Equipment: 8' Almond R-Series Joy

Company: Cherilyn, Joy

While it turned out to be a beautiful, toasty day at the beach, mine began in the chill of pre-dawn at the Dockweiler beach parking lot. The waves were considerably smaller than they have been during many of my recent sessions there so I opted to take out the 8' Almond. Although the waves weren’t particularly good, I caught quite a few and ended staying out until about 9:15. We saw several dolphins — at least one adult and a couple juveniles — swimming near shore as well as at least one sea lion.

Later on, I took a drive up PCH to Point Dume to take in the beautiful coastal scenery and hopefully see some marine life. I was lucky enough to catch a couple of fleeting glimpses of a gray whale (my second sighting this month!) swimming south past the point as well as several more dolphins and some sea lions basking on the rocks. It felt like a hot summer day and there were tons of people out and about all along the Malibu — PCH corridor which was aggravating but can’t blame anyone else for wanting to partake in the beach lifestyle.