Remember Your First Surfing Road Trip?

It takes longer to drive from San Clemente to Santa Cruz than it does to drive from Paris to London.

So when a Southern California kid makes a road trip to Northern waters it feels a little like a foreign country.

You leave the crowded confines of LA and merge onto the Ventura highway northbound and things start looking different. Eucalyptus trees dot golden hills, farmland dominates areas where office buildings are supposed to be, and you are reminded that California does in fact have lots and lots of open space.

People do things differently in foreign countries. The people up North seem to dress differently, they speak slower and calmer, there are less Sprinter vans, less e-bikes, and more stillness.

People seem to work around nature instead of nature working around people. It’s pleasant… if you like that sort of thing.

In this edit, three San Clementians — Dane Matson, Luke Wyler, and Hayden Rogers make their coming-of-age journey up Highway 1 and find windy wedges that generate a worthy return on their gasoline investment.

In some Native American cultures, a “brave” was a, “a young man who had not yet ‘counted coup,’ that is, not touched an enemy in battle with his hand, bow or stick.” These San Clemente upstarts represent the formidable future that California hopes bring to competitive surfing. And with proverbial chiefs like Kolohe Andino and Griffin Colapinto, these braves could cause trouble on Tour soon.