LOOKOUT PM: Two fire features, big surf at Steamer, and the deal with your compost bin

Happy Wednesday, folks,

I hope everyone’s made it through the halfway point of the week without much trouble. The weather’s been pretty great, so that certainly helps get us through the daily grind.

Any surfers reading this probably beelined to Steamer Lane yesterday to catch some of the massive waves on display. However, if you couldn’t make it out, our photographer Kevin Painchaud and local surf expert Mark Conley (who also celebrates his 🎉birthday🎉 today) have some photos and a quick sum-up...

South swell lights up Santa Cruz surf breaks

(Photo by Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

Big Tuesday at Steamer Lane: The heftiest south swell of the season brought Santa Cruz’s iconic surf breaks to life on Tuesday — and the board riding fiends of Surf City rejoiced as always. Photographer Kevin Painchaud captured an artistic assortment of the action at Steamer Lane mid-morning, once the fog had cleared. See the photos and quick write-up here.

Peter Gelblum’s new film tells survivors’ stories in their own words

(Screen capture from ‘CZU Fires: In Their Own Words’)

The voices of CZU: It’s Santa Cruz’s version of “verbatim theater”: The drama comes solely from people telling their stories to an audience, and the script comes directly from first-hand accounts, as seen in Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” about the aftermath of the Rodney King riots, and “The Laramie Project” about the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. You can catch “The CZU Fire In Their Own Words” in August in Ben Lomond, at the Del Mar in downtown Santa Cruz and elsewhere around the county. Wallace has the story.

➤ TRAILER: ‘The CZU Fire In Their Own Words’

LOOKOUT TRIVIA NIGHT: Wallace is hosting a new trivia night event, the first to take place Tuesday evening, July 26, at Abbott Square. We’re going to have a lot of fun. Register and find more trivia night details here.

And that officially puts us over the hump for this week. Enjoy your evening and check back with us tomorrow.

Max Chun
Correspondent