CALI HAZE - Southern California with Ricardo Christie

In the haze of Ricardo’s exit from the Lowers contest we spent a few days hanging with him while he enjoyed the downtime and a chance to cruise with his family in San Clemente after some lengthy time apart. Flick the pages for a visual diary and a few little insights from Ric documenting a fun week in Southern California.

For a look at the Cali Haze short film CLICK HERE.

Day one saw us post up for a beach day at Salt Creek with Ric, Sophie and the boys, Eli and Milo.

“A lot of the time I have to be on my own. I’m travelling to places that don’t necessarily allow me to have a normal routine. The only kind of normality I can have is when I kind of organize in advance to have my family with me. It’s amazing when I get the chance to bring them on tour so they can kind of experience what I’m experiencing on the other side of the world. I’ve got a family that I love and want to be around all the time, so when I am I feel complete.”

“I’ve been hanging a bunch with Matt Biolis. He called me up at about 8:30pm one night, as I was just putting my PJs on ready for bed and he was like, “Ric, lets go to Social Distortion” and I was like okayyy. It was pretty cool. Cory Lopez was there and they were both talking about Wardo and Andy going to Social D shows ten years ago. It was cool to hear all those stories. That whole era pretty much got me excited on surfing. The Lost Across America and 5’5” x 19 ¼ vids, it’s crazy to now be actually be hanging with those dudes, in California, doing something pretty Californian, it was rad.”

“My favorite part about coming to Cali is surfing Trestles. It’s a wave that I’ve grown up watching my idols surf: Andy Irons, Wardo… those guys just shredding that rippable bowl. The wave is so fun, I look forward to coming back and surfing it every time.”

Those distinct sights and smells from the walk into California’s center stage for surfing.

Ric’s surfing spoke for itself this particular evening at Trestles… If you wanna see this in motion CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE CALI HAZE SHORT FILM

“California’s been fun, waves have been good. At the start we had like 10 days of pumping Lowers and a lot of really good times hanging with some pretty awesome people over here.”

8.30am T Street, coffee loaded, the swell had virtually disappeared, but Ric made the most of it surfing extremely well despite the small waves not offering up too much for the big fella.

That patent Ricardo smile, as warm as the Cali sun‌

San Clemente beaches are never shy of a good crowd and there was plenty on this session.

California was experiencing an uncharacteristic heat wave during our visit, the days were as hot as sin and the water temp was weirdly tropical, all of which was quite nice though really.

We took a short drive South to Oceanside for a change of scenery and the hope of a lift in swell.

PHOTO: CAM NEATE

The waves were fun and Ric surfed hard and fast‌ Endless food options were always on our minds though. The quicker he dropped the hammer the quicker we could all go get a spinach bowl from Active Culture or some real Mexican from La Tiendita.

RVCA.COM