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OC Beach Blog ~ The latest news on all things along the 42 miles of beach in Orange County, Calif.

Archive for the 'blackball' Tag

Black Ball coming to an end

September 5th, 2009, 11:34 am by Jeff Malanca, contributing writer

black-ballOne of the biggest bummers about surfing in the summer has to be black ball.

You know the yellow flag with the black dot in middle that can be found flying at lifeguard towers all over Orange County beaches.

Once that is posted surfers are barred from being in the water because of too many swimmers and body boarders.

Well this is the last big weekend of the summer and come next week hopefully you won’t see those black ball flags on the weekdays.

Now if the warm weather sticks around it’s likely you’ll find those flags posted on the next few weekends if it happens to be really crowded.

By the end of September most of the lifeguard towers will be closed up for the season and black ball will be done with until about June of next year.

Posted in: Beach news • Latest surf news • Surf Junkie Jeff • Surfing • | 2 Comments »

Black ball is approaching

June 18th, 2009, 12:12 pm by Jeff Malanca, contributing writer

black-ball-flagUnfortunately, it’s that time of year again when the yellow flag with the black dot will soon be flying on lifeguard towers at many Orange County beaches.

If you’re not from this area or you’re not familiar with black ball, basically surfers are barred from being in the lineup after a certain time because of too many swimmers or body boarders.

The official start of summer is Monday, June 22, 2009 and by then just about every school will be out for summer break.  And that means your local surf spot will be a lot more crowded.

There are a handful of beaches in the northern part of Orange County where you can surf all day in the summer.

They include the jetty north of the Seal Beach Pier, the northside of the Huntington Beach Pier all the way up to at least Golden West street and the Newport Beach River Jetties which is about a 200 yard stretch of beach just south of Brookhurst street.

Posted in: Beach news • Latest surf news • Surf Junkie Jeff • Surfing • • • • | 6 Comments »

Blackball is in effect - do you know where you can surf?

June 23rd, 2008, 5:35 pm by Jeff Malanca, contributing writer

blackball2.jpgWell, summer is in full effect - so it’s likely that your local surf spot could be shut down to surfing by lunch time each day. 

The yellow flags with a black dot in the middle are being posted on many lifeguard towers along Orange County beaches starting now!  Some of the beaches guaranteed to blackball are Huntington Beach from the southside of the pier all the way to the river mouth at Brookhurst street.  Also, just about every spot in Newport will be closed to surfing once the flag is up, except the River Jetties which is open to surfing all day long. 

Some of the breaks where you can paddle throughout the day in HB start from the northside of the pier all the way up to at least Golden West street, possibly even a little farther north.   Seal Beach’s river mouth is another spot where you can break out the boards all day.   Meanwhile down south in Laguna some stretches of coast there have designated areas.  Salt Creek and Doheny in Dana Point also have posted areas for surfers. 

 is open for surfing all day on the northside of the pier, while on the southside down to T-Street it blackballs.  And lastly all of Trestles is open for surfing year round.  Beaches that throw up the blackball flag will do so from now until at least Labor Day weekend in September.

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Check out the image below for exact spots where you can and can’t surf:

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Posted in: Latest surf news • Surf Junkie Jeff • What do you think? Latest polls • | 12 Comments »

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