We're out here anyway: surf checks before work, the wharf at dusk, the Friday taco line. So we started shooting what we see: raw photos, raw video, no filters. Not a tourism board. Not a newsroom. Just this stretch of coast, from the people who live on it.
Offshore reading, 36.95°N / 122.02°W, Open-Meteo marine model, updates hourly. It's always colder than you think.
When Santa Cruz Waves folded, this county lost the one outlet that covered it like a local: the surf, the events, the characters. Nobody stepped in. So we did.
Coastline Locals started with a GoPro and a simple idea: the coast is the content. No studio, no scripts, no polished packaging. Just someone who's already there. at the Lane at 6:47am, on the wharf when the fog burns off, in the crowd at the surf contest.
We shoot what we see, post it the same day, and let the coast do the talking.
One shoot on Saturday becomes the whole week's worth of posts. Here's what shows up.
Daily surf checks from Steamer Lane to Seacliff: wave height, crowd report, who was out, and whether it was worth the cold.
Street photography with salt in the lens. Unposed, unpolished, and the Santa Cruz you actually see when you live here.
The taco trucks, coffee shacks, and corners the guidebooks miss. The places that make this town feel like home.
Sunrise at the harbor, sunset at Natural Bridges, and the long glow in between. Shot from the spots only locals know.
The Sandbar Shootout, art openings, the Saturday farmers market. The gatherings that keep this town weird.
The stories under the surface: conservation, surf history, and the people shaping what the coast becomes next.
The cement ship is gone, but the beach isn't done. The state is asking the community what the park should become, and the input page is open now.
Read the storyWhere to stand, when to come, and why the most famous wave in town is worth walking to, even if you never paddle out.
Read the storyThe week in the 831: the road fight, the sea otters, and what the water looked like every morning.
Read the storyThe city council saw the realignment designs this week. The road, the path, and what happens next.
Read the storyThe feds just dropped a draft plan with two lease sales on the Central Coast. We already won this fight once. Here's what's at stake and what to do.
Read the storyThe SS Palo Alto never sailed a day in her life. Then she became the county's strangest landmark, and the ocean took her back, piece by piece.
Read the storySteamer Lane, Pleasure Point, Cowells, Capitola, Seacliff. Where to go, when to go, and what nobody tells you about the cold.
Read the story