Zachary, I have never fished the way you are talking about but I have seen some of it on TV.
We have only a few real flat beaches, most are steep and the type of fish we catch are different for the most part.
Off the southern California beaches, Barred perch and corbina are usually the target fish, northern California has stripers. The more advanced surf fisherman catch Halibut, bass, sharks, stingers etc.
If you cross the border down in Baja the whole world changes for the surf fisherman. You fish reefs and beaches, the northern part of Baja is almost the same as southern California but once you get about 250 miles past the border things change.
I'm talking the more remote Pacific side not the Sea of Cortez. The weather can be a problem at times but that holds true with most surf fishing, it's what you can catch that makes up for it.
Do you know what white seabass are? If not, it's kinda like your red drum and reaches weights over 50-60 lbs with the fish normally in the 25 to 40 lb class, that is usually our target fish. We also catch other fish of course, some we don't even know what they are? lol.