Stanley's

Stanley's was a hollow right-hand reef break that peeled over shallow sandbars formed between two creeks north of Ventura. Spring and summer swells from the Channel Islands combined with afternoon offshore winds to create glassy barrels. Surfers described it as one of the best waves on the California coast during its prime.

Stanley's was destroyed in 1970–1971 when Highway 101 was extended over the coastal site; the decision to route the freeway through the break rather than inland reflected infrastructure priorities of the era. The wave sat in front of Stanley's Dinners, a steak house on the old Pacific Coast Highway about ten miles north of Ventura, and the spot has become a symbolic loss in California surf culture. The Stanley's Reef Foundation was subsequently established to attempt rebuilding the habitat through an artificial reef project, though recent progress on that effort is unclear from publicly available sources.

The original break is now inaccessible, buried beneath the Seacliff Highway 101 exit.