Smoke in the Hills: The Santa Cruz Original Haze Story

Seeds in the Surf

1969, Santa Cruz. A young surfer known only as G plants a handful of Colombian Punto Rojo seeds from a random bag. He’s not a breeder—just curious. One tall Colombian sativa female gets accidentally pollinated, likely by another exotic sativa nearby. That unplanned crop becomes the spark for what the world would later call Original Haze.

The Hills Grow Wild

G links up with Robert Lund (R.L.), and in the early 1970s they move their work to the Corralitos and Santa Cruz hills. Each season, they plant, open-pollinate, and reselect the standouts. Over time, the imported landraces—Mexican × Colombian → South Indian → Thai—stack and recombine into a psychedelic polyhybrid. By 1975, they’ve shaped a 100% sativa unlike anything else on the coast. Locals start calling it Original Haze.

The Four Haze Sisters

Within that population, four recurring phenotypes emerge:

• Purple Haze

• Gold Haze

• Silver Haze

• Blue Haze
  Each carried a slightly different terpene balance, flowering length, and visual flair. Together, they formed a family that would shape global sativa breeding for decades.

Structure and Spirit

All the sisters shared core traits: tall, lanky frames; long internodes; ultra-thin leaflets; and the telltale red sap bleeding from fresh-cut stems. Their flowering ran 14–16 weeks or more, often finishing in late November or December—possible only in Santa Cruz’s mild coastal climate. The patience paid off with effects that hit clearer and higher than any indica could offer.

The Name That Stuck

Around 1975, G coined the term Original Haze—part nod to Hendrix, part description of the headspace. When imitators surfaced, “Original” became a badge of authenticity, separating the Santa Cruz line from the copies soon to appear across California and Europe.

The Poster That Told the Story

In 1976, R.L. immortalized the strain with a hand-drawn poster titled “Original Haze: The Cosmic Boogie.” It featured soil-mix recipes, germination notes, and harvest-moon dates—essentially the first-ever strain one-sheet. Sold quietly under the counter, surviving originals now fetch thousands, prized as relics of cannabis’s underground Renaissance.

Surf, Soil, and Serendipity

Santa Cruz in the ’70s was a meeting point of surfers, hippies, and world travelers bringing seeds from Mexico, Thailand, and Colombia. G and R.L. weren’t scientists—they were stewards. Letting nature and time work together, they unknowingly created the blueprint for every “haze” that followed.

Legacy of the Hills

Before Dutch seedbanks, before Super Silver Haze, Jack Herer, Blue Dream, or Piff, there was one surfer, one friend, and one happy accident in the Santa Cruz hills. Every electric, incense-laced sativa since carries the echo of that hillside experiment.

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— Nugg Notes