Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is located at 36°58'19" North, 122°1'35" West (36.972050, -122.026252){{GR|1}}.

Recreation

Santa Cruz, known as Surf City USA, is well-known for surfing, and is the home of O'Neill Wetsuits and Santa Cruz Surfboards (as well as Santa Cruz Skateboards and Santa Cruz Bicycles). The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is California?s oldest amusement park and a designated State Historic Landmark. The City of Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz County, was the site of the first surfing in California, when three Hawaiian princes surfed on locally milled redwood boards at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in 1885. Santa Cruz has 11 world-class surf breaks, including the point breaks over rock bottoms near Steamer Lane and Pleasure Point, which create some of the best surfing waves in the world. Home to the Lighthouse Surfing Museum at Steamer Lane, which continues to be staffed by docents such as Harry Mayo and others from the Santa Cruz Surfing Club who have surfed Santa Cruz waves since the 1930s, Santa Cruz hosts several surf contests drawing international participants each year, including the O'Neill Cold Water Classic, the International Longboard Association contest, and many others.

Related Topics:
Surfing - O'Neill Wetsuit - Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - Amusement park

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Santa Cruz is also home to KSCO 1080 AM, one of the last independent commercial radio stations in the country.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In addition to its reputation in surfing and skateboarding, Santa Cruz is known for other alternative sports such as disc golf. The De Laveaga Disc Golf Course hosts PDGA tournaments, including the annual Masters Cup. De Laveaga will also be the disc golf and discathon venue for the WFDF-sanctioned World Disc Games overall event to be held in Santa Cruz in July 2005.

Related Topics:
Disc golf - De Laveaga Disc Golf Course - PDGA - WFDF - World Disc Games

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Santa Cruz provides many great opportunities for birding (see bird list) and butterfly watching.

Related Topics:
Birding - Bird list - Butterfly watching

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shakespeare Santa Cruz annually has a summer festival at UC Santa Cruz. The festival typically does two Shakespeare plays and one other play every summer, many of which are performed in a unique outdoor space among the redwoods.

Related Topics:
Shakespeare Santa Cruz - Shakespeare

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Santa Cruz is also home to the Cabrillo Music Festival.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Camper Van Beethoven was spawned in Santa Cruz.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~