Maybe you’ve heard, but California has been a hotbed (no pun intended) of natural disaster activity lately. A series of fires scorched an area larger than the cities of New York and Boston combined. Then, with hillsides virtually devoid of living vegetation to root down the earth, heavy rains caused mudslides that took out homes and closed US Highway 101 in the Montecito area for two weeks. During that time, a series of swells awoke the Queen of the Coast from her summertime slumber, despite being officially closed due to bacteria levels. That didn’t dissuade Lakey Peterson, Sage Erickson, Cory Arrambide, Pat & Tanner Guduaskas, Parker Coffin, Jabe Swierkocki, Josiah Amico or Dane Reynolds from braving the muddy waters.
As of yesterday, Rincon (which was previously unmonitored) far exceeded bacteria count levels deemed safe for ocean recreation by, well, a lot.
The Santa Barbara Channelkeeper plans to investigate the impact of the fires and mudslides on water quality, and publish the results later this week.