Surfing South Bay and Living the Dream
Since the day Chase could walk, his father put him on a surfboard. Chase grew up in a household with three older sisters. His father was determined to introduce him to the surfing waters as a sport. Chase grew up on the shores of Maui, Hawaii and later moved to Malibu at the age of eight. Chase has been surrounded by the surfing culture is in a variety of different cities. As a kid, Chase competed in surf competitions around the Island of Maui and a little bit in Malibu as well. However, when he got older it was harder to make time for surfing. Chase never lost his love for the sport.
Chase moved to the Los Angeles area for college but did not give up his love for surfing while balancing college. After college Chase moved to the Manhattan Beach area but goes over to El Porto for surf sessions. While attending UCLA Chase had many options to surf both north and south. Chase frequently goes to El Porto to keep up with his surf while his job in real estate. Like the majority of California surfers, Chase is dedicated to catching waves whenever he has the opportunity.
“El Porto is a beach break in LA that is usually pretty consistent in size and tends to have lots of closeouts but can have decent waves,” says Chase.
Chase Bloch, living the dream | Photo by Riley Hayward
He also says El Porto can be a difficult place to surf at times due to the fact that it is an in-between city and can attract a wide variety of skill leveled surfers. That is the difficult part with the El Porto and Manhattan area. Surfing does get competitive and aggressive at times so being in crowds difficult. Chase said that the competition and variety of surfers makes for good stories!
El Porto is easy for short sessions when Chase cannot cut out a huge chunk of his day. He said that he use to go before classes in college and was able to be back in time. Today he still surfs before work, if the waves are good. Recently Chase got a tattoo on his forearm and it says, “living the dream.” This was a tribute to his close uncle who recently passed away. His uncle was in love with the sport of surfing and that is part of the reason why Chase is such an avid surfer.
After living in Hawaii and in Malibu Chase does admit that the waves in El Porto are not the best he has surfed. Usually on the weekends, Chase will go back home to Malibu and surf at First Point. Chase admitted he couldn’t see himself living anywhere else but Southern California.
