California swell, yesterday and today :

We are expecting a Noreaster tomorrow. Hopefully with some road grader waves

Laguna seems to have had a ton of sand taken away but very few targets - none in the water. This is similar to what I’ve seen at other nearby beaches - after storms a lot of sand movement in or out but few targets. Maybe I’m just too late to the game each time.

Bklein said:

Laguna seems to have had a ton of sand taken away but very few targets - none in the water. This is similar to what I’ve seen at other nearby beaches - after storms a lot of sand movement in or out but few targets. Maybe I’m just too late to the game each time.

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Bklein, You have to be familiar with the "norms" of each beach. There are certain beaches here, that get a routine erosion cut annually. Thus, the following year, it will only be cutting into "recent sand". Not "old sand".

For example, we have one beach here, where they dredge/pump sand onto, to keep a harbor mouth open. So the beach get very big each spring/summer, d/t the adding of the sand. Thus mother nature makes IMPRESSIVE cuts (overhead heights) each year. But the reality is: It's cutting into sterile new sand. Doh !

So you kind of have to know the norms for the annual recurring look of the beach. And when it becomes one that's "out of the norm", that's the better ones.

I don't know how Laguna fits into this picture, since I'm 5 hrs. north of you guys. Perhaps it's one where that cut, that you see now, is simply/only cutting into recent sand. Such that perhaps that particular beach needs deeper, or further-back-in towards the dunes, to get really good.

And yes: Another phenomenon I've run into is: Someone's beat me to it. Ie.: a cut is very good. And someone works the heck out of it one day. The next day (after the intervening tide covers all the holes back up), another md'r arrives and see the same cut ! Little does he know, that someone already harvested. Doh ! Or another phenomenon: Sometimes a cut might have been good, yet mother nature deposited a foot of sand at the base of it, after it was formed. That can happen during the same tide cycle (meaning you have to be working it AS it forms), or can happen over night. And in each case: The cut might look mighty impressive.

Some of the antidotes to the above "gotchas" are: 1) is the sand beneath the cut firm ? Or soft ? If it's soft, that's a bad sign that sand came in at the base. 2) Is the receding water/waves brown ? Or glassy blue ? If they're glassy blue, that's a bad sign. But if they're brownish, that means they're suspending sand, that had recently been taken off during that exact tide-time. 3) Is there seaweed and driftwood sticking half-way out of the sand ? If so, that's usually a bad sign of very recent sand.

Yesterday, I got to Santa Cruz at about 3:30pm-ish. From the cliff, I could see 3 md'rs with my binoculars, on the boardwalk. 2 of them were stopped, and talking to each other. The 3rd was a little further down, at the water's edge. I could see holes all over, in the area where the 2 were talking.

I tried Seabright first, and ... nothing shaking. Got 8 or 9-ish coins @ the north end. So then I went to the Boardwalk side. By the time I got a parking spot, and got down on to the beach at boardwalk, it was 4:30-ish. The 3 md'rs were gone. I dunno who they were, or what they found. Anyone here know ??

I went all around their holes. Got 31 more coins, a few pieces of costume jewelry, and a gold anchor/cross thing. There was still more there, but I only had an hour on my parking meter.

The conditions , based on the holes already there, had been "scattered". Yet consistent scattered. Ie.: if you walk around you continually get stuff, if simply walking patterns. And the zone where they were, was easy to spot: A damper zone, that reached further upwards , in a large area of the beach.

Thus it appears that mother nature needed 48 hrs, after the event, to re-arrange her slopes , after the actual event.

Each of my beaches has its own characteristics - but they seem to depend on how steep the slope is and the extent of sand behind. Steep slope: rapid waves, can’t dig deep holes, sand usually rather soft but was hard a few years ago, areas where sand is completely replaced in a storm - maybe 2-3 times a year.
Medium slope: smaller crescent beaches. Hardness varies. Sand gets replaced for say the first 100 or more feet in/after a storm but surge waves can run hundreds of feet back towards parking/rocks/boardwalks/trees. These are the beaches the news writes about.
Shallow slope: broad expanses of sand. Sometimes hard sometimes soft.
All have some unique tells that may indicate something to someone: black mud, coarse sand, many small shells, thin green grass showing, lots/no of seaweed.
I live too far to just drive down and look around. If I can hunt, I hunt, as more and more my wife is disliking my obsession. I look at what people are writing on the forums. I look at the newspaper. I check my tide apps and webcams.
Until we get a beach conditions dronecam service I think I’m doomed to this.
The guys reporting luck on the forums are getting out much more often than I am. So for sure they can go 3 days in a row and find a good spot or time and work the hell out of before reporting and do well.
Check Robert Ferguson’s latest video. He went to I think 4 beaches in one day and struck out. And he goes any time he can get away and plans as he lives further away than I do.
If I have the time I beach-hop too. I laughed as I watched his latest video as about the time I said he should move on he did.
What annoys me is that storms like we just had moved a ton of sand around and I have found nothing. A random Summer day would have better rewards. The storms were what we usually get as far as swell direction, wave size, surges. They just don’t pay off although you see all the sand vanish and get replaced.
I think for So CA we need south swells and we don’t get many. I don’t understand the physics of why they are better - is it just because on some beaches sand is being moved sideways rather than out? - because they too cycle the sand at my steep slope beaches.

Oh I wish I could of got out this weekend.
Congratulations on the gold anchor it looks good.

I didn't get out at all this weekend for a few reasons. Firstly, I wasn't around. I had my annual Jeeping/camping trip out in the desert. Blew an axle shaft, a Throttle position sensor, buddy burned up his clutch, another blew his steering box, another wasted a wheel, another a tire, another u joint.... Great time!

I convinced the wife that tomorrow will be a GORGEOUS sunset at the beach which it will be. I also convinced her that we should check it out, but that I'll bring my detector and hunt for a few hrs before. She can sit on the sand and read a book while I hit the negative low tide. Win Win....

low tide said:

...... Great time!....

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Wow ! The pix and description do not look like a great time !