There’s a dwindling number of sand lovers on West Beach as the tangerine-hued sunshine dims during a recent weekday afternoon, and even the sailboats look languid, the last few skippers leisurely slipping into the harbor for the night. But on the shore, there’s a steady stream of gentle but focused activity, as Mike Edwards and his 12-year-old son, Ben, smoothly cast their lines into the lapping surf, hoping to land a halibut.
Edwards, who grew up and lives in the house two doors down from me in Goleta, spends most of his days looking at a computer screen as IT director for UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering. For years, his primary diversion was riding his mountain bike up Old San Marcos Road, which he still does at an alarming rate, not to mention occasional rides all the way to Solvang.
But he recently reconnected with surf fishing, a hobby introduced to him by his late father four decades ago. “When I was about 30, I got him back into it,” said Edwards, in between casts. That was about 20 years ago. “It took me a pandemic to get me back out here again,” he admitted.