On Jan 12th and 13th, hundreds of surfers, from Coronado to Santa Barbara, made the trip to Church’s for the Gathering of the Tribes, a club coalition contest organized by the Doheny Surf Club. The event was an incredible success: highly organized and with great surf.

On Saturday morning, starting as early as 4am, a crew of Doheny club members pulled up to the gate north of San Onofre and rounded up the team in charge of the logistics of the event. When the gates officially opened at about 6am and surfers started pouring into the parking lot atop the bluff, the contest's infrastructure was already in place: the rangers were in their posts, the tents setup, the shuttle in full drive, and the breakfast burritos in the making.

And complementing the stellar organization was the outstanding quality of surf. Waves were in the shoulder-high range, winds relatively mild, and sets fairly consistent. And as if that wasn't enough, the low crowd (six competitors in the water at a time) made the $80 entry fee worth every penny, some surfers remarked. Indicative of the event's success, a handful of surfers already vouched to participate in next year's Gathering. With that in mind, as Sunday late afternoon came around, competitors, family, and friends greeted goodbye and slowly started heading up the trail, making their way to the parking lot.

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