Culprit: Harbor 

Flood Control, Long Beach California

The famous Queen Mary sits in Long Beach Harbor atop of where a great right-hander used to break. It broke big and clean almost like the Redondo Breakwater but backwards. Flood Control was a break that could hold the biggest of south swells. If there were more than ten guys in the lineup it was considered crowded for the time.

According to early surf photographer Leroy Grannis it was surfable up to at least twenty feet. The spot came alive on big south swells like the chubasco of 1939 in September. The Los Angeles River used to empty into Long Beach right at the break and that enabled the wave to get so big and good. Construction of the offshore breakwater in Long Beach effectively shut out all swells.

Flood Control does not break at all anymore. Grannis said that the jetty was built during the war in an effort to increase the size of the harbor. Once the swell blocking harbor was built the surf spot completely disappeared. Long Beach used to receive so much swell that it required more lifeguard rescues prior to the breakwater’s construction than anywhere else on the southern California coast.