The Capitola surfing scene reflect
Santa Cruz County's passion for surfing in the Monterey Bay region.
Surfing in Capitola is extremely popular. It crosses all age and gender
barriers to include young and old, girls, women, men and boys. Nearly
any day of the year you will see surfers catching waves in the Pacific
Ocean just offshore of beautiful Capitola.
Surfers in this area both grow up
on surfboards and adopt the sport as students at University of
California Santa Cruz. Beaches includes both sand and rocky shoreline.
Wetsuits are worn most months though summer months (June through
September) offer the warmest temperatures that are ideal for surfing
without a bodysuit. You'll never be short of wetsuit options in Capitola
and Santa Cruz. This is where the famous O'Neill family, creators of
modern body suits, originates from.
In addition to surfing, Capitola
has a scenic wharf where you can dine, fish or rent a boat. The wooden
wharf offers views of the redwood-lined mountains that descend to sea
level sand beaches.
Capitola-by-the-Sea is a scenic city located on the
Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz County, approximately 70 miles south of San
Francisco and 35 miles north of Monterey. Surrounded by the Santa Cruz
Mountains on one side and the Monterey Bay on the other, west of
Capitola Village are New Brighton State Beach and Pot Belly Beach and
sharing a common boundary with the city is Soquel, which extends up the
hillsides that climb all the way to the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Between two cliffs in a river valley, lies the beach.
A charming town with boutiques, eateries, a theatre
and an intimate sand beach where surfers find nice wave breaks close to
shore at Capitola Jetty, we think of Capitola as a smaller version of
Laguna Beach. These beaches probably have more differences than
similarities but what we like about this Central Coast spot and the
Orange County beach are the artsy flavor of the town in which each beach
sits.
For over 100 years, Capitola has made tourists feel at ease by keeping
life simple and pleasing. Festivals celebrating begonias, sand castles,
wine and art are highlights for a town, located just around the bend
from the big city lights of Santa Cruz. The river, Soquel Creek, is the
site of the annual Begonia Festival where flower laden floats drift down
the river for one weekend in September. Also held in September along
Capitola's Esplanade is Capitola Art & Wine Festival.
If you seek thrill rides and amusements, cruise north a few miles but if
you are looking for relaxation, 300 days of sunshine and a friendly
small town feel, park yourself next door in Capitola. Some of the fun
things to do include sitting at the benches along the beach and watching
waves and people, dining at one of the restaurants overlooking the ocean
and pier and shopping at the dozens of unique shops winding near the
water front.
How Capitola got its name - "Camp Capitola" likely was named in 1874
after the heroine in a series of popular novels. The land, which
primarily served as a lumber port, was purchased from heirs of the
ranchos and the name acquired by Frederick Hihn, a German who sought his
fortune in the California Gold Rush. He bought the seaside village and
welcomed those who found the location appealing as a camping spot for
summer vacations.
Escaping the heat of inland California locations, the newly laid rails
of the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Railroad provided a mode of transportation
for thousands seeking relief. As word got out about the ideallic spot,
Hihn subdivided parcels of his village and sold summer vacation lots.
The yet-to-be gold mine of prime property stayed in the family for a
short time after Hihn died, but then was sold just as World War I began.
Henry Allen Rispin had shared a vision common to developers all along
the California coast. Changing the name from Capitola or "Camp Capitola"
as many knew it, he called it Capitola-by-the-Sea. Poor Rispin's timing
could not have been worse! He lost his shirt (went bankrupt) just as the
Great Depression of 1929 hit.
Finally when two world wars ended and America began focusing on the
homestead, Capitola got serious and incorporated in 1949.
