Dave Skelton took this water shot at the “Parking Lot” near Avenida 12. Ray Smith is the surfer. The year was 1973. The beach was a bit less developed then. You could easily buy a house for $20k, or rent one with a few friends for $100 a month (total). Beach houses were much smaller. You could park pretty much anywhere you wanted. Gas was $.38 a gallon, but within a year it surged to $.55 due to the OPEC oil crisis. Wax was about $.25 a bar. There were very few hotels/condos.
Dave says the surfers owned the beach back then – especially in the winter, because no one else wanted to be at the beach in the off season.