First Time Slyde Handboard Session at Salt Creek, California

Slyde newest intern Matthew Abdo shares his 1st time experience handboarding one of Orange County's most iconic shore breaks.

My personal bodysurfing style leads me to places like Salt Creek.

I love shorebreak. It is big, powerful, gnarly, and always different. I like to try combine the original bodysurfing style and fluid motion of using all different parts of your body with handboarding.

Handboarding styles can be more straight down the line, and really fast so I love to combine the speed and power of the handboards, with the style and flow of old school bodysurfing.

My go to board is the Bula. It is perfect for shorebreak, but really holds its own out in bigger surf as well. It has these crisp, sharp edges that really help you dig that rail in and make super sharp turns, great for quick stalls, and turns. The biggest benefit for me is the size. Its small and compact, so it makes it easy to swim around without the extra drag of some of the bigger boards. It also really helps when wanting to get off the board and slyde on other parts of your body, do spins, laybacks, etc. because you can just lift the board up out of the water and flow without the board catching water.

The landscape at Salt Creek, is very classic California. You park in a lot at the top and then walk down to the beach. The walk is really nice, you go down this big hill with a huge grass space along the side, perfect for get togethers, picnics, games, and more. Once you get to the bottom the beach stretches out to the right. (Looking left to right) it starts with a big cliff that sets up a really nice left.

Surfers usually hangout right here and catch lefts from the outside to the inside shorebreak sections. As you move down the beach a bit (to the right) it turns into mainly a shorebreak type wave. Breaks really inside but has amazing shape, it has mostly lefts, but a good combination of both lefts and rights. This spot is very consistent and is a great spot to have in your arsenal. Just beware waves can get big, powerful, and usually break in a couple feet of water if that so always be careful and aware of the possibility of hitting the sand.

What a first time Slyde looks like at Salt Creek

It was about 4:00 p.m. and I had just got done with my second week as a Slyde Handboards intern down at their San Clemente office. I live in Anaheim and usually surf in Huntington or Newport  but have always wanted to go further south and try some new waves. San Clemente, Dana Point, San Diego etc. all have multiple legendary spots that are on my list.

First up, was Salt Creek since I have seen the sign multiple times on my drive home. I got off work with Slyde and headed straight to Salt Creek. Car already packed with my Dafins and my Slyde Handboards Bula board. Salt Creek is known for its epic shorebreak and it did not disappoint! It starts to break outside to the far left off a cliff. Surfers usually post up here and catch this wave that connects to the inside shorebreak. As you move down the beach a bit (to the right) it turns into the classic bodysurf/bodyboard shorebreak wave.

By now it was about 4:30p.m. The shape was almost too good to be true and the waves were pumping a solid 3-5 feet with a rising tide. I swam out and instantly started catching this epic left. It broke pretty close to shore and seemed to keep coming in the exact same spot and was just the perfect peak.

You would drop down a steep face and land in just the right spot. From there I got one of two waves, either it would turn into this crazy deep barrel that seemed to last forever, or it would stay open with a solid face that would give you a super-fast, fun ride all the way to the sand. Most of the time it was the barrel and trust me I was not complaining!

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this break. Like always just be mindful of conditions, this wave can get very powerful on big days. 

Check out other EPIC Bodysurf Breaks HERE→