When I moved to San Deigo from Philly, I faced the same dilema. I'll give you the same advice I received from an old salt.
Practice.
BTW: you do put your thumb on the spool seconds before your lure hits the water? Of course you do...
I was able to go to the pier and practice before they kicked me off - "no overhead casting". Their are two main tyoes of casting in Socal. One tossing a bait, sardine/chovey with 20-40#.Two, slinging iron with rods 8-10feet 30#/40# test.
Bait - it's like a lob. The motion is smooth. Your just trying to get the bait away from the boat with tearing the bait. Try practicing with a fishtrap and a bait hook. No weight. Lob it 5 feet, then 10 feet. You will learn the rythm of the toss, when to release your thumb mid stgream and stop the spool before the baiot hits the water.
Iron - I was fortunate enough to spend time on the bow of the daily double watching the old dudes throw the iron. The first I noticed was the tempo. Then when I tried it, it was easy to see that if you get excited and try to tweak the distance 10% more, it ususlaly resulted in a backlash.
I played lacrosse, so my move is similar.
Eventually you will learn that the spool backlashes and catches up towrds the end of the cast.
Throw short and clean and accurate. Then as you get better, the distance and tempo will improve.
Pick a spot on the water where you want the iron to land and that will improve your tempo. If you throw at the horizon, it usually casts dirty.
Wind the spool level and the next cast is smooth.
When your line is kinked from throwing, change it
All good casters backlash.
I could talk about this for every. I wish I was younger so I could cast all day. Youth is wasted on the young
