Tar: A Local Beach Tradition
by Paul Costales

We are nearing the end of our flat season in local surfing. Soon we'll have fall swells to write about and winter swell photos to feast our eyes on. It seems as the flat days add up to weeks, our natural tar seeps compound our frustration too. As if having a flat surf session isn't bad enough, you also have to get covered in tar and spend a lot of time getting it off. Other ocean-goers are taking some big hits too. Just last Friday a friend was swimming at Goleta Beach and was covered in more tar then he's ever been covered in from oceangoing along our local coast. Goleta Beach isn't typically considered one of the really tarry beaches around here either. The tarriest beaches, not surprisingly, have some tarry names, Tar Pits and Coal Oil Point (Sands and Deveraux) being the most popular tar prone surf beaches in these parts.

The Santa Barbara Channel tar seep is said to be the 2nd largest natural tar seep in the world, gurgling up about 150 barrels of oil a day. That is about $15,000 a day with today's oil prices. Most of that tar gets blown towards our beaches somewhere, the quantity and location is always changing based on wind and currents. Sometimes a "perfect tar storm" occurs at a local surf spot and you will find yourself paddling through huge pools of the stinky, sticky mess. Many times surfers will just power through these tar infestations, but sometimes surfing out at Sands, it can be too much to bear. At one point you have to figure so much tar is getting on your board, wetsuit, hair and skin that it's going to take longer to get off than your surf session lasted.

Oftentimes you can have a tar-free surf session in the water but still get a ton of tar on your feet from the walk down the beach to the break. This will typically leave some nice big tar marks on your board from where your feet were, which in turn can put some nice big tar marks on your wetsuit or chest. Once the tar has got a hold of you somewhere it has a way of getting to other parts of you or your equipment. Pity the poor surfer in the lineup taking kelp or sand and rubbing it all over themselves trying to remove a big tar glob. Just like curing the hiccups, everyone has their own technique at removing tar from gasoline to Vaseline. Our preference these days is olive oil, although it might take a little more rubbing than a hydrocarbon based cleaner.

Man has of course intervened over the years. It is said that our local offshore drilling has reduced pressure on the oil and gas fields allowing the natural seeps to slow down. Local oil operator Venoco, has several "tents" they keep out over some of the offshore seeps. They collect oil and gas bubbling up from the ocean floor and pipe it to their onshore facility. It seems oil companies get a bad rap from a lot of folks, but in this Venoco should be thanked for collecting all of that junk that is going to end up on our beaches and turning it into something we heat our homes with.

The tar on our local beaches (as well as a UCSB dining hall) was even immortalized by Jack Johnson in a song about his future wife titled "Bubble Toe's." It seems every beachgoer in Santa Barbara has a good tar story, so feel free to embellish below.