Steamer Lane is a famous

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

location in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

. It is just off a point on the side of cliffs in the West Cliff residential area near downtown Santa Cruz, providing easy access and a good vantage point for viewing. The

Santa Cruz Surfing Museum The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is a museum which was established in May 1986 to document the history of surfing. With collections dating back to the earliest years of surfing on mainland United States, the museum houses a historical account of sur ...

is housed in a lighthouse there. "Steamer Lane" is the preferred form of the name used by the people surfing there.Lead o
Surfline article
accessed 2007-08-31. Steamer Lane was named by

Claude Horan Claude Horan (29 October 1917 – 11 June 2014) was an American ceramic and glass artist who was born in Long Beach, California. He received a BA from San Jose State University in 1942 and an MA degree in art from Ohio State University in 194 ...

while he was a student at San Jose State in the late 1930s. One flat calm day he and his friend Wes Hammond thought it would be a good idea to hire steamships to cruise back and forth to generate waves for surfing. It was at Steamer Lane that the modern surfing

wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfing, surfers, Underwater diving, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activit ...

and the leash were mainly developed by

Jack O'Neill Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in the MGM's military science fiction franchise ''Stargate'', primarily as one of the main characters of the television series ''Stargate SG-1''. Richard Dean Anderson played O'Neill in all th ...

, who had his surf shop nearby for many years.

Geography

The cliffs overlooking Steamer Lane are composed of

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

period marine deposits, part of the Purisima formation. pg. 2 & 7, accessed 2007-08-31. The rock underneath the lane is Santa Cruz mudstone from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

era. Steamer Lane is part of the

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) is a federally protected marine area offshore of California's Big Sur and central coast in the United States. It is the largest US national marine sanctuary and has a shoreline length of ...

. There are four parts to Steamer Lane: Indicators, Middle Peak, The Slot, and The Point. map accessed 2007-08-31. Third Reef is an expert surfing zone just beyond the Lane and closely related. Down coast to the east is Soquel Point, also known as

Pleasure Point, California Pleasure Point is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. Pleasure Point sits at an elevation of . The 2020 United States census reported Pleasure Point's population was 5,821. Prior to the 2010 census, this CDP was cal ...

Santa Cruz and surfing

Santa Cruz has 11 surf breaks, including the point breaks over rock bottoms near Steamer Lane and Pleasure Point. Home to the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum at Steamer Lane, which continues to be staffed by docents from the Santa Cruz Surfing Club who have surfed Santa Cruz waves since the 1930s, Santa Cruz hosts several surf contests drawing international participants each year, including the O'Neill Cold Water Classic, the International Longboard Association contest, and many others. Santa Cruz is well known for watersports such as sailing, diving, swimming, paddling, and surfing. However, Steamer Lane has also seen animosity between local surfers and surf kayakers as the two groups seek to share waves.

References

External links

Steamer Lane
on BlooSee (satellite view and surfing spots)
Santa Cruz Surfing Museum

{{coord, 36, 57, 14, N, 122, 01, 27, W, display=title History of Santa Cruz County, California Surfing locations in California Santa Cruz, California Geography of Santa Cruz County, California Monterey Bay Sports in Santa Cruz County, California Tourist attractions in Santa Cruz County, California