Welcome to Santa Cruz. Not that you need any reminder of your arrival here, as seemingly every single person around you is probably wearing a sweatshirt, t-shirt, beanie, or hat with the infamous Santa Cruz logo on it. Take some time to admire the stunning scenery. The ocean, the rocky cliffs, the golden poppies, the ethereal redwoods, the copious amount of iceplant…We pride ourselves in said scenery, but manage to tag, etch, or sharpie “eastside” or “westside” on any available surface (and the people caught somewhere in between the two have adopted the particularly quaint “midtown” label). Try to ignore this. I also advise against the boardwalk.
It wasn’t until I moved away from Santa Cruz that I realized the incredibly unique vernacular I had become accustomed to there. It is for that reason I have assembled this working list of Santa Cruz words. Lest we forget.
Bammer, bam: – shitty in quality.
“Your drug dealer has bammer weed, mine has the crip.”
Barge: When something is far.
“Ugh you want to go all the way to San Jose? That’s such a barge!” Synonym: cutts.
Cutts, In the Cutt, Cutty, Mob Cutty: all variations of the same overall idea, with slight, case specific variations.
Cutts refer to backcountry or a party that will take you longer than 15 minutes to drive to and where you will probably dent your car on a log or get stuck in a ditch.
In the Cutt is generally the same.
Cutty can be used as an endearing term for a friend (“sup cutt?”).
Mob Cutty means that we are going to drive or skate to a destination more than 15 minutes away.
Chundle, chundled, chundlecakes: Hungover or drunk to the point of exhaustion and/or vomiting.
Churdis, churdiling: When someone is awkward, they are a Churdis. When you are awkwardly lurking around, you are churdiling.
Chapped: in trouble or something that ruins your plans.
“I heard that bonfire got chapped. Cops showed.”
Dank, dankles: Something that is good.
“This sandwich is dank/the dankles.” Synonym: crip.
Dome: The act of performing oral sex on a male is called “dropping dome.”
Also used as a term for head (as in “I hit my dome”).
Eggy: used to describe and person or situation that isn’t chill
“My parents got so eggy when they caught me raging”
Frail: when something or someone is lame, a flake, or a downer.
“This party is frail.” OR “That girl never comes, she’s a frail.”
Grody: used to describe someone or something gross and/or dirty.
Kerk: to steal.
“Let’s go kerk a bottle!”
Loc: short for local, the term in Santa Cruz has taken on an entirely new meaning. Loc is used as a positive term for a person one thinks highly of, or that one thinks is chill
That guy is a loc.
Can also mean cool, as in “that guy’s car is so loc!”
Lurking: Hanging around without engaging in social interaction or without reason.
Mole, bloop: to smoke tobacco and weed through a bong.
“Dude lets go toke a mole.”
Meat: a dumb grom.
“You dropped my weed, you’re a meat dude.”
Nug: a girl that is attractive is a nug. Synonym: rigg.
Obviously it also means a lil piece of marijuana.
Nad, nadski, nord, nordels: no
“Yo, let’s mob downtown cutty?” “Nad I’m tired broski”
Pickling: Act of drinking alcohol, becoming drunk.
Pus: pronounced like “puss”, used to describe something very good.
“This burrito is pus.” I don’t really like this one.
Rigg: A hot girl. Synonym: nug.
Schralp: To power-carve with blazing precision and speed.
Synonym: Shwack.
Stew, stewy: stoned
“yo let’s go get stewy!”
Toke, tork: smoke.
“Let’s hit the cutts and tork?”
Trog: An unattractive girl.
Yicked: Drunk off one’s ass.
Yad, yadski, Yord, yordels: yes
“Yo les go skate?” “Yad”
ANNEKAMIA 
Word…
Cops Valley(Scotts Valley)
Snobs Valley )Scotts Valley)
Boulder Trolls ( lurkers that wonder around boulder creek)
Hipster
Groovey
Fur Surrree
Dude, dude, dudeee
Bro, broski
Crip/Fire (weed)
What about hesh, pitted, nar, sketch, firing, and grom
Nug = a righteous bud (fruiting body of marijuana), as in ‘That is a choice nug dude’. Example, a seller walking\trolling down the street muttering ‘nug’ until someone who knows what they mean ask for more information concerning a possible purchase. Meaning got translated to the best version of something as noted above, an attractive woman.
Pinner = comes from the emaciated version of a doobie (rolled marijuana cigarette). Thus the meaning got construed as something of a lessor version of whatever is being described.
Don’t forget “6 up” its what you say when someone spots a cop car.
(Adding to the list)
Shlapped-very commonly used to describe the feeling from any drug that fuuuucks you up
Takes a fat mole
“Man I’m shlapped”
In a rave rolling balls
“How you feeling cutty?”
“Took three points and I’m SHLAPPED”
I’m 18 and 90% of these terms I’ve never heard used. Even the ones in the comments. Most of these haven’t ‘survived through the generations’. The only ones I’ve heard used or that are common are :
Valleys
grody
shwoop
sketchy
gnarly/gnar
lurking (Which is DEFINITELY not local Santa Cruz lingo)
chapped, brah/bro/dude
The rest I haven’t even heard of. It was interesting to read about the slang used ‘back in the day’, but the rest I’ve never heard from anyone, definitely not anyone born in the late 80s onwards. Also most of these are not local to Santa Cruz, teenagers use them everywhere. The only local Santa Cruz thing is Valleys, also grody and gnarly are more local to surfing communities.
Another slang word used nowadays is shafted/the shaft: getting screwed over, something that sucks. i.e. she got shafted, that’s the shaft.
I don’t know, I was born in ’96 (I’m 20 now) and I used most of these in my high school days. I still use some of them with old friends, I think maybe there might have been a dip in usage when you were growing up? Entirely possible that you just didn’t hang out with people who used these words.
She brewed with a bunch of Barneys. That’s why she never heard ’em lol.
Mishin (not sure on spelling), mobbin, yuked, don’t forget rad, legit, gnarly
Cutty was slang from Vallejo and macdre. Crestide… Crestide cutthoat not cutthroat. Was not started in sc
Cutty is SC slang for a shortcut braham.
you forgot “WHATDUDE”
Toenard: kook, idiot, meat. That kook’s a toenard dude.
Brew: all purpose verbadjectivenoun. Can mean literally anything. Dude, let’s just brew here. Nah dude lets brew. Dude that minnow fully brews. Etc.
Froached: stoned as hell
Shaka is Hawaiian and Gnar is a general surfer term, but I’ve never heard Shaka gnar-gnar anywhere but home sweet home. Kinda like an exclamation.
Keebler, to keeble: a thief or a generally sheisty maneuver. Dude that little keebler fully pilfered my lighter!
Scabrous P. Slimestria: (not widely utilized) a disease ridden woman of loose morals.
Cloner: copy cat
Deeyoden: how dude is pronounced with a full accent
What about chincey, chapped, eggy bagels, ridic, bogging, gromm, pinner, leftskis, rightskis, mission, kryp, and chillax?
Pretty much all the phrases you said are used in Santa Cruz, i grew up there and heard all of those. But it is not a good thing necessarily, it is illiteracy and how is using those things a good thing? People in Santa Cruz complain about slang, but yet almost half the population uses it. All the things you stated in the first paragraph pretty much is a good summary of what Santa Cruz is, it is a pretentious town filled with Hippocratic people who say they “Accept All” when really everyone in the town judges based on money, looks and where you live in the city of Santa Cruz. There is no “soul” in a town like Santa Cruz.
This tranny’s chapped the locals told her kookballs to bail.
words I use on the reg- dude, nar, eggy, weak, sic, rank, skeevy, pickled, gaynar, barge, cuts(shortcut), tranny(transplant), cra(crazy), bird(chick)
Okay, NUG goes for both genders and just means a good friend. Tork I’m pretty sure is actually just toke. But the definition for dome and loc is spot on. And yeah what about grom, ripper and sesh? Overall good job tho haha
scope= too look at
Does anyone say Bird anymore. Used as a synonym for betty or chick. Used to describe a girl that is kind of silly, stupid, airheaded. “She’s just a bird” or “she’s such a bird”. It is also synonym for girlfriend “Jan is Johns bird”. It was very popular in the 90s. Also what about gromet Or Grom.
Clipped: shut down, not allowed…..
What about “classic”?
Most of these are used on the east coast. Mostly in Florida / south Florida. Along with bizarre facial expressions.
Q: How many Santa Cruz dudes does it take to screw in a light bulb??
A: HELLA!!!
Q: How long does it take them??
A: FER DAYYYYZ!!!!
How many. Lurkers does
it take…none what lightbulbs we don’t have electricity, we have mother fucking head lamps
Shaka- Gnar Gnar
Hella is valley slang you tranny
I grew up Mid Town S.C. 80’s & 90″s… Chapped, Slotted, Sketch, Weak, Bog, Barn, Meat, Wilbur, Gnarly, Nug, Nugget, Melon, Heckle, Mishen, Vallies, Trannies, Burn1, Burnt, Dusted, Trog, Troll, Late’z, Pinner, Rack, Gonj, Grommet, Hinch, Serial, Copitola, Burnt Lomond, Cops Valley, Slaptos, Shaft, Rank, Barge, Snake, Pinch, Irie, Dyke, Scope, Classic, Goggles, Stewey, Crippled, Chinsy, Eggy, Neg’z, Kryp, Minnow, Scroat, Schlarve, Doad, Yuke, K.D.- Kick Down, Flow, Cold Kickin’ it, Hook it up, Natty, Hesh(en), Fried or Froyd, Sigmund, Schwoop, Sprack, Schralp, Boost, Gank, Nards or Nads, Sesh, Ripping, Shredding,,,,,
grew up Mid Town S.C. 80’s & 90″s… Chapped, Slotted, Sketch, Weak, Bog, Barn, Meat, Wilbur, Gnarly, Nug, Nugget, Melon, Heckle, Mishen, Vallies, Trannies, Burn 1, Burnt, Dust (ed), Trog, Troll, Late’z, Pinner, Rack, Gonj, Grommet, Hinch, Serial, Copitola, Burnt Lomond, Cops Valley, Slaptos, Shaft, Rank, Barge, Snake, Pinch, Irie, Dyke, Scope it, Classic, Goggles, Stewey, Crippled, Chinsy, Eggy, Neg’z, Kryp, Minnow, Scroat, Schlarve, Doad, Yuke, K.D.- Kick Down, Flow, Cold Kickin’ it, Hook it up, Natty, Hesh(en), Fried or Froyd, Sigmund, Schwoop, Sprack, Schralp, Boost, Gank, Nards or Nads, Sesh, Ripping, Shredding, CurbSide…..
Braap, poach, squid, kill
Drugs ,, no drugs in the 1940s 50s early 60s
Krealer , unkown person walking in woods .krealen known person walking in woods
Nugget- hottie chick
Slug nug- UCSC hottie, Bent- pissed off something made me angry.
Aggro- goin off goin nutty acting out,
Sicky- something super rad beyond sick, like a trick that was was out of this world.
Dirts- hippies
Sadly I just asked a Staff Of Life Staffer for a new item I like to use, and she and the other recommended Whole Foods. I didn’t bother the owner who greeted me as he and I stood face to face over the hot buffet lunch. Sad sad sad- not even the employees of Staff Of Life know this store is the only local store besides Shopper’s Corner?
I am beginninng to think I am wierd.
from Santa Cruz.
Shaka- Gnar Gnar
Prostitot: underage raver ho.
Sahh du: whatsup dude
Brill : brilliant
Biddies: girls, pretty sure this came from sd though.
Rando: a random person.
Pelt= hot chick ie. I was kickin it wit a fine ass pelt.
Piled= You feel like a complied piece of shit ie. Bro u look piled after las night
Washed= feelin like a pile of dirty clothes
Spicy= weed and tobacco in a spliff ie. You rollin a spicy one bro
If u have not here these terms that is cuz u r young yadd
Gangk, dank, rank, sclarve, helgie, hesher, grom, grommets, bail, barge, chince, Darryl, poser, pinner, betty, ripper, shredder, dome, melon, sketch, squirrelly, flail, gleek, Crapitola, gnarly, burly, bute, kook, snake, rake, dishrag, burner, trannies & valleys are laaame…
Totes-totally, Obvies-obviously, SHAKA Gnar-Gnar-!!!!!!, Brew-rest, Heavy- something hectic.
One that I didn’t see is yaaaa meat = stupid grom and/or doing something stupid