Killer Dana News

Doheny Surf and Art Fest.

The Doheny Surf and Art Festival will be taking place on the Doheny State Park grounds June 23rd to the 24th, and will be celebrating the beach lifestyle this community shares. The event will feature live music from local bands, as well as art displays from artists that live in the area. For all the auto mobile enthusiasts, there will be a car show as well, featuring old school woodies! For anybody trying to get a taste of the trending surfing fashion, many vendors including ourselves will have a booth down there filled with clothing and other accessories. Hopefully we will see all your friendly faces down there, and feel free to stop by the Killer Dana booth and see what we are up to!

Cosmic Creek

The 20th annual Cosmic Creek will be going down June 2nd and 3rd this year and as always it will be at Salt Creek Beach Park in Dana Point. The contest offers a rare opportunity to ride boards from the 70’s and 80’s, primarily twin and single fins from private collections, and thanks to Vissla for increasing the board lineup even further. Age divisions range all the way from 16 and under to 45 and over, you might even get to see some old pros like Curren and Machado showing off their iconic style on iconic boards, or even new pros like Noah Dean busting airs on single fins! Along with the unique style of surfing out in the water there will be live music on the beach both days, so if your not interested in the surfing the music makes for perfect beach day vibes. The crew here at Killer Dana is so stoked to be apart of the action, we have been down there as a sponsor and supporting the growth of the Cosmic since day one. If your in the area come stop by and witness one of the most entertaining contests around!

Dana Point Art Festival

The Dana Point Art festival will be back this year on June 10th, a free event for everybody to come see what the local artists have to offer! Covering the entire side walk of Del Prado Ave. it is quite amazing to see the talent and beauty of what this little town can produce. Other forms of art will going down too, live bands will be jamming in the streets putting on a show for everybody! Local restaurants will be open too with yummy eats and there will even be a wine and beer garden if you need to quench your thirst on hopefully a warm summer day. See all you art enthusiasts there!

Doheny State Beach

Doheny State Beach is located just south of the Dana Point Harbor, offering some of the most forgiving and play full waves in So Cal. Doho breaks best on a south swell, which arrives in the summer months, making it the ideal spot to post up and enjoy a hot and sunny day. The beach itself stretches over a mile and the different surf peaks scatter the lineup giving you the opportunity to get some fun waves and sun rays all to yourself. Due to the forgiving waves it is the perfect spot to learn how to surf, most local surfers in D.P. learned at Doho and still venture back to get those long rides and epic vibes when out in the water. Just watch out for the barnacles on the rocks! The state park grounds right behind the beach offers everything from restrooms, showers, BBQ pits and even beach volleyball courts. The state park hosts tons of concerts as well, so keep your eyes and ears pealed for a concert on the beach! The historical aspect of Doheny is absolutely unreal, it was the birthplace of modern surfing and the stories you can find are amazing! Legends like Mikey Dora, Hobie Alter and Bruce Brown honed their skills at this wave, creating new surf moves that would propel surfing forward, and film making techniques that showed the world how amazing surfing is!

Dana Point Grand Prix

The Dana Point Grand Prix is into its 12th season and running strong. The event itself features race divisions that vary from fun kid races to full blown professional racing with a price purse totaling one million dollars. The event brings tons of vendors, giving attendees a perfect time to pick up racing gear directly from the source, a chance to meet local riders and check out Dana Points local bike scene. The event this year is going down on April 30th and will be running all day. As always the course wraps around the local back streets surrounding Killer Dana giving us a perfect view from our front door! We hope to see all the local bike enthusiasts there!

D.P. Surf Club Team BBQ at Killer Dana

On the first weekend of April 2018 the Dana Point Surf Club will be hosting an event down at Salt Creek Beach and it will feature competing teams from all up and down the coast. Prior to the competition down at the beach, there will be a meet up/ BBQ here at Killer Dana, 4pm- 7pm, 4-6-18. We will be grilling up the goods, typical hot dogs and hamburgers and all members are welcome to bring food and drinks of their liking as well. Team members will have a chance to go over lineups and do all their final prep on equipment before the next day. Also team/club issues for further dates may be discussed so its a great time to get tons of info! Hope to see all you D.P. locals soon.

Killer Dana Surf Break

Killer Dana was a legendary surf break that existed right where the Dana Point Harbor is now located. The waves themselves were able to hold size and the break had a hard time maxing out. Locals would head down to Killer Dana seeking out amazing views and were greeted with crystal clear water, an abundance of wild life and waves! Early surfers such as Billy Hamilton, Bruce Brown and Hobie Alter created the scene that inevitably started the surf craze in Dana Point. Construction began on the Dana point Harbor in the late 1960’s, with the building of the rock jetties that served as breakwaters. In the end, the wave was destroyed and all the memories were lost as well.

Bells Beach

Bells Beach is the longest running surf competition in the entire world. Located south of Torquay, its apart of the surf coast. The surrounding landscape makes for an amphitheater like viewing situation. The wave itself is a sloppy long running right that gives you the opportunity to show off your true style. Bells breaks best in the months between October and March and is now a proving ground for up and coming young surfers trying to make a name for themselves. Almost all established pro surfers have won this event. The trophy is a bell and everybody wants to ring it but only one can each year. Happening this year, March 11-22, you know the staff at Killer Dana will have it on when it is running, supporting all our local surfers on tour!

Discover the Headlands

If your looking for a nice place to walk or just want some jaw dropping views, go check out the Headlands of Dana Point. Trails intertwine on the top of the Cliffs that look down onto the harbor and offer you the chance to make the journey all the way around the Headland and end up at Strands beach scenic walking trail. A local favorite would be to start at the bottom of Violet Lantern St. and then make your way north on a nice and flat trail that looks over the back of the harbor. Development of the Headlands project site was carefully planned to enhance the public coastal access, preserve the coastal bluffs and give the locals a chance to go out and see how much Dana Point actually sticks out into the Pacific!

The Dana Point Headlands Conservation Area contains over 150 species of plants and animals that are native to coastal Southern California. The unique setting and mix of habitats on the Headlands also provides a home for rare and threatened plants and animals. Check it out!

Killer Dana’s “Board Room”

Over the last year tons of cosmetic changes have happened here at Killer Dana, we have moved a lot of things around, created some new spaces and now we have a dedicated side of our shop that is all about surfing, “The Board Room.” The focus point obviously being surf boards, we stay up to date with all that is new about surfing. We carry multiple board brands Firewire, Lost, Channel Island and frequently get the best local shapes in from guys like Mark Ellis and Timmy Patterson who have been making boards for the local surf conditions for decades! Along with boards we have all the hard goods that you could want, everything from wet suits and booties to the newest fin set ups that everybody is trying to get their hands on! Feel free to call the shop anytime of the day, whether you need some info on local surf spots or need some product info, we love our local community!

If you have a nice ding on your board and don’t feel comfortable fixing it yourself come in and talk to Ralphy, hes been fixing up surfboards for years now and offers his service to anybody who just wants their board fixed correctly and just wants to get back in the water.

Dana Point Surf Club

Surf clubs are back! In the last year Dana Points surf club has been taking shape. Now a member of the West Coast Board Riders Club, Dana Point will take on other coastal cities clubs in competitions all up and down the coast. The competitions have divisions for all ages and the teams roster will be decided by team captains and how hard you shred!

Killer Dana is proud to be a main sponsor of the D.P. surf club. We will have the occasional party after an event, grill up some hot dogs and have a local band jam for a few hours. If your looking to sign up for the club go see Happy (Mike Cruikshank) back in our board room and he will hook you up with all the info you need!

Festival of Whales

Dana Points Festival of Whales is into its 47th year running, a event involving the local community and its appreciation for our near by coast lines and all the wildlife living in it. The event will be going down two weekends this year, March 3, 4, 10 and 11th, and will feature a ton of attractions for all ages. Everything from concerts to educational shows with live displays over at the Ocean Institute. The Killer Dana surf shop crew is stoked to be apart of such an awesome event this year, we pulled out our old V.W. shop bus, decorated it and ourselves in D.P. colors and hit the streets for the parade through Dana Points main streets!

Picking the right board

Don’t ride what the pros ride. A lot of surfers make this mistake and it’s easy to see why. “These pros rip, so I’m gonna ride what they ride.” Do yourself a favor: if you’re riding a model that the best surfers use, add volume accordingly. What works for Kelly and SeaBass at Tavarua might not work as well for you at, say, Huntington Beach. Riding the same board that the pros ride—ultra thin, narrow, and with a 4oz glass job—might look great on the beach, but it’s not going to do you any favors in the water. [ Read full article at Surfer.com » ]

Best surf shop of Orange County

Killer Dana Surf Shop pays tribute to Orange County’s unparalleled right-hand point break of the same name, site of some of the biggest rideable waves in the county before it was eliminated by the building of Dana Point Harbor in the late 1960s. Photos on the shop walls offer testament to the legendary wave and heroic rides of the area’s top surfers of the time.

[ Read full article at The Orange County Register » ]