Surf Hack: How to Surf When the Beach Is Blackballed

Dashel Pierson
·1 min read

For southern California surfers, summertime entails a few things:

Heavy crowds, warm(ish) water, blown-out afternoons, one or two (if you’re lucky) bombing south swells, and the perennial, potentially-irritating, yet often necessary, blackball flag. Essentially, the flag separates surfers from swimmers. But what if the waves are pumping in the area designated for swimmers and boogieboarders?

You rip the fins out of your soft-top and paddle out.

That’s what the Catch Surf crew did during a recent session at T-Street in San Clemente, and they went all out, practically taking over the lineup with their finless soft-tops.

And apparently, it’s a weekly thing they’ve got going.

Per the caption, Beefs TV writes:

“Surfing finless without fins at T-Street Blackball! The Catch Surf crew shreds finless Beaters, bodyboards, small softboards and more for Finless Fridayz which go down every Friday at 11am in summer! This is a collection of some of the madness and fun that has gone down so far.”

Cue the pop-shuvits, party waves, 360s, and more finless fun.

In the comments, folks wrote:

“Most fun blackball session ever!”

“Surfers must dread seeing that flag when the waves are pumping.”

“love the vibe. just how it should be in the water.”

Of course, finless soft-top surfing can only take you so far. But for the summertime in SoCal, and when it’s not absolutely pumping in the water, it does the trick.

If anything, it’s just a good loophole to cure the summertime blackball blues.

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