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XXL California Waves January 2023

XXL California Surf

Some are calling it a 50 year storm, others a 15 year swell. However you want to look at it, the waves hitting the west coast last week have been epic. The swell on January 6th 2023 now going down in the history books as one of the biggest days for surfing in California. A whole bunch of different surf spots were all-time with light winds and sometimes hard offshore. Here’s a recap of some of the best footage that surfaced after the first round of swell. More waves on the way!

San Diego

Black’s Beach

First up let’s go to Black’s Beach, one of the stand out spots to get huge and ridable during California’s 50 year storm. SoCal Surfer was filming on January 5th, check it below.

BLACK'S BEACH GOES XL DURING CALIFORNIA'S 50 YEAR STORM

And on the next day Brad Jacobson was shooting even bigger waves at Black’s, here’s 15 minutes of madness!

MASSIVE surf pounds San Diego

La Jolla Cove

Down the coast a little at La Jolla Cove were big waves too, and thanks to Surfers Of San Diego we can see just how large the surf was at this more sheltered spot. 

Big Wave Surfing La Jolla Cove

Swamis

Now here’s a short clip of Swamis going off! Filmed on the 6th of January when the XXL swell was at its peak, credit goes to Dylan James for this one.

SWAMIS GOES XXL HUGE SURF

Orange County

Seal Beach

Up in Los Angeles the waves pumped on the south side of Seal Beach Pier, Hannah Morse was filming all morning so check his video below.

50 YEAR STORM (FIRING SEAL BEACH! 1/6/23)

Los Angeles

Lunada Bay

Lunada Bay was easily triple overhead with some waves breaking even bigger. John Kay was shooting in 4K with his drone so we can all see just how epic it was.

Huge LA Surf Lunada Bay Palos Verdes, CA 1.6.23

Santa Barbara

Rincon

Next it’s up to Santa Barbara. Rincon wasn’t quite as big as some of the breaks further south, but still some solid surf to be had.

2023 January 6: Solid Surf Santa Barbara - Rincon

Sandspit

Now let’s check out Sandspit, which was going nuts with huge waves slamming into the sandbank. This next video is from January 5th.

RARE BREAK SANDSPIT GOES OFF PART 2 | SANTA BARBARA | 1/5/23 | SURFING ASMR | 4K

And Scott Gudhal was there on January 6th to film the insane waves that were pretty much maxing out Sandspit.

SandSpit MAXES OUT as massive Swell Hits California January 2023

San Francisco

Fort Point

There were few protected breaks that saw some clean sets despite the size and ugliness of the majority of the places. Waves rarely surge into the San Francisco Bay, but the bomb cyclone gave surfers at Fort Point some enjoyable waves.

2023 Bomb Cyclone Pumps Waves into San Francisco Bay - Fort Point Novelty Surfing

It’s been an unreal start to the year, and the west coast had a great run of surf before these XXL California waves in January 2023. There’s even more big swell forecast for the next week or two, so take a look at our California surf cams to watch the waves live!

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