Video captures Santa Cruz cliff erosion at popular Steamer Lane surf spot
By Kenny Choi
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SANTA CRUZ, California (KPIX) — Surfers from around the world have traveled to Santa Cruz to ride the waves at Steamer Lane, considered one of the best surf breaks in the world.
But the same ocean that makes Steamer Lane one of California’s most iconic surf spots is also slowly reshaping the cliffs above it.
Santa Cruz surfer Anthony Ruffo visits the iconic spot any day he can. He says he and other locals have watched chunks of the cliff give way over the years.
Last month, a Surfline camera captured the latest collapse.
“This one just fell straight down,” Ruffo said. “It didn’t fall over.”
Surfers say during big swells, the collapsing cliff has not noticeably changed the waves. But at lower tides, some say the new shape of the cliff has altered how surfers take off.
“The shape of the cliff’s different now,” Ruffo said. “It used to have a better angle for those smaller days. You take off and get like a slingshot, we call it.”
University of California, Santa Cruz professor Gary Griggs has spent decades studying California’s changing coastline, including the cliffs at Steamer Lane. He says the rock may look solid, but it is filled with natural weaknesses.
“As the water gets in there, the waves are acting like wedges, so it looks like rock,” Griggs said. “It’s actually almost like a series of dominoes that are stacked up there.”
The impacts extend far beyond the surf. Just a stone’s throw from Steamer Lane, a large section of West Cliff Drive collapsed during the winter storms of 2023, forcing a two-year rebuild.
Griggs says a warming climate is playing a role.
“It’s related to climate change because a couple studies that have been done show waves seem to be getting larger,” Griggs said. “If we look at 30 or 40 years of record, they may be a foot larger on average than they were. That’s consistent with a warmer climate.”
Surfers like Ruffo acknowledge breaks will change over time, but say that will never stop them from paddling out.
“As long as I can do a push-up, I can get on a board,” Ruffo said.
Like so much of California’s coast, Steamer Lane continues to be reshaped by the same ocean that made it famous, one wave at a time. Geologists say cliff erosion is a natural process, but rising sea levels and larger waves associated with a warming climate could accelerate that change in the years ahead.
They say Steamer Lane will continue to evolve, just as much of California’s coast has for thousands of years.
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