50 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {due west} words by JOHANNA HARLOW After decades of surfing, former pro-longboarder Julie Cox still fondly recalls the high of catching her first unbroken wave off the shores of LA County at 14. “I remember those moments and how much I just wanted more of it,” she reflects. “I’ve been chasing that first ‘green wave’ throughout my career.” In 2016, Julie said goodbye to sunny SoCal with its warm sands and tame water temp, left her job as director of the California Surf Museum and moved to foggy Pacifica some scenario would inspire a thriving business. As Julie and Rel acclimated to their new environment, they envisioned the ultimate surfer’s haven: a place to talk waves and gather for local events with access to changing rooms, board storage, a backyard lounge and beach-day merchandise. And warmth. Hot showers, heated patio furniture, a sauna—the whole nine yards. One day, after a Christmas Eve surf session, the two stopped to check out a possible location a block from the ocean. “It ticked all the boxes,” Rel recalls. OUTDOORS surf break PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF MIAH KLEIN with her partner Rel Lavizzo-Mourey. Though the area boasted great swells, the chilly water off Linda Mar Beach came as a bit of a shock. “I used to drive home in my wetsuit, getting my car seats all wet,” Julie recalls. Once home, she’d have to stow her surfboards—an “awkward, ding-prone process of guiding nine-foot ‘logs’ around a corner staircase and into a back room.” Little did she know that this cumber-
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