Surf Break Maps: Oceanside, San Diego, California

Oceanside is one of the most consistent areas of beach break in Southern California. It is a solid “work-horse” wave…one of those rare places that if there is any swell in the water, no matter how small, you will probably be able to find some rideable surf somewhere along its beach…and if it is flat, well then you are probably screwed because not much else will be working either.

Oceanside is the first town south of the USMC base Camp Pendleton and is located just north of Carlsbad. The beach area is about 3 miles long and is broken up by Oceanside Pier which is located in about the middle of the stretch. The most dominant feature, however, is Oceanside Harbor, which sits on the north end of town and is protected by several large jetties.

The waves around Oceanside are classic beach break waves, and the shape of the wave is determined a lot by what type of swell we have in the water at time. It will be walled and sectiony when there is only a single swell coming in from a steady swell direction and it will get peaky and crossed up when you have a good combo swell doing the work. Like all beach breaks it will be soft on windswells and then turn punchy and hollow when we get a good long-period swell.

Compared to other SoCal beach breaks I think I would probably say that it is similar to a mix between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach up in Orange County. (I know a lot of you San Diego guys just cringed when I started pulling in comparisons to OC waves but here me out.) The surf at Oceanside feels like it pulls the best of both HB and Newps and blends them together…you get the semi-slopey HB takeoffs but with the fast and hollow Newport inside sections…and the paddle to get to the outside is longer than Newport but a lot shorter than the trek to get to the line-up when HB has some size.

Like I said before Oceanside is a very consistent wave…and it is a rare day when the whole beach has gone totally flat…but it still takes a semi-rare combination of swell and weather to really get the place going. Combo swells of W and S-SW swells are definitely the best mix for O-side. You don’t really need both of the swells to be huge…but if one has some power and the other is just in the background helping to break up the primary swell you can get some insane A-frames spread around the beach. Add in a little offshore wind and a little lower tide and it goes all hollow and completely ripable.

Swell Exposure and local winds

One of the reasons Oceanside is so consistent it its swell window. It is exposed to swells from the S through the WNW (175-295)…and it has a wide open exposure to the magic SW (210-220) and NW (290-295) swell angles, which SoCal seems to be able to get any time of the year.

Another great attribute of the Oceanside area is the very consistent offshore morning winds. Really it is almost ridiculous how often the beach gets those gusty offshore breezes. They don’t always last that long but unless there is a strong weather system shifting around the local pattern the odds are that you will have decent winds right around sunrise. (From a meteorological standpoint (geek alert) I haven’t studied the cause of these winds that closely but it looks like it is caused by Oceanside’s location relative to those local coastal-range hills to the N-NE and the passes through them that take you over into the Temecula region.

Oceanside is generally broken up into 4 surfing areas



Those areas are:

DMJs
Oceanside Harbor
Oceanside Pier
South Oceanside

Surf Break Map: DMJs, Oceanside (on USMC Camp Pendleton), San Diego, California

DMJs is located on the Camp Pendleton side of Oceanside Harbor. (It is marked on the map below). DMJs is another beach break area and shares a lot of the same characteristics with the rest of Oceanside proper. It does have a couple of large advantages over the rest of the beach. The first, and probably the most coveted, is the lack of public access. In order to get to DMJs you have to get on the Base, which means that you (or a member of your family or friends) have to be in the military. I have heard of guys making a water assault (coming in from boat or paddling around the harbor jetties) but this is generally frowned on if not outright illegal. Personally I do my best not to get the base MPs all pissed off at me so I stick with riding in with my buddies that have legitimate access. Without public access the crowd is quite a bit smaller, and generally less aggressive in the water…some days it is possible to score solid surf with almost no one out.

The second advantage of DMJs is the jetty itself. The breakwall acts as a sand trap, stopping a large amount of sand that is moved down the coast in a sand transport system called the “longshore bar current”. The jetty disrupts this flow and sand piles up against the rocks and makes a near permanent sandbar that sort of slopes off to the north. Basically you get a sand version of a left reef break…or when it is really good, a left point break.

Thanks to the jetty DMJs is one of the few spots in the area that consistently gets good surf from a single S-SW swell. So while many other spots start seeing the closeout death walls DMJs will have a fast, hollow, but still very makeable left coming off the sandbar near the jetty. DMJs, like the rest of Oceanside, still gets very good on the combo W and S-SW swells too.

Spot details:
Best swell direction: S through WNW (180-290), but it really like the combo swells.
Best Wind: NE-E or light and variable winds
Sea Floor: Sand
Best Season: Breaks year round but is best late Spring through late Fall.
Crowds: Generally not crowded but it can get busy on weekends. Remember that many of the guys in the water will be members of the Armed Forces…so cut them some slack if they are just learning.

Surf Break Map: Oceanside Harbor, Oceanside, San Diego, California

Oceanside Harbor is probably the most consistent surf area along the public beaches of Oceanside. The break is located just south of the harbor entrance and stretches to the southern jetty that stabilizes the mouth of the San Luis Rey River. (Though a lot of people consider the sandbar at the river to be part of the break as well).

Because the of the positioning of the harbor jetties to the north you don’t get a lot of sand being pushed down the beach…the sand between the entrance and the south jetty stays pretty consistent and when a good sand bar forms it has a tendency to last for a while. There always seems to be a lot of sand around the south jetty, thanks mostly to the river dumping out sand during heavy rains and runoff. It doesn’t make for the cleanest water but it does make for some decent shaped waves.

These sandbars help to keep Oceanside Harbor in consistently rideable surf…even when we get the single (and mostly walled out) swells. While it doesn’t do quite as good as DMJs on the S-SW swells it does have some pretty makeable sections and if the sand is right it can get very good. One thing to note though…there is a little shadowing of NW swells for the north end of the beach because of the harbor jetties…you will still get some swell through that area but it is usually bigger as you move south into a more exposed area.

The best swell for the Harbor is the combo swell mix…usually when you get a bigger S-SW swell and a smaller W swell (or W windswell) to help break it up. Shape gets very peaky, and the crowd can spread out. With the right tides and winds it can get fun, workable, and sometimes hollow corners.

Spot details:
Best swell direction: S through WNW (180-285), but it really like the combo swells.
Best Wind: N through E winds or light and variable winds
Sea Floor: Sand
Best Season: Breaks year round but is best late Spring through late Fall.
Crowds: It can get crowded, parking can be a pain in the butt, but there are a lot of days where you can score a few waves without many people in the water. Summer weekends are the worst but any weekends or big swell seem to help clog up the line-up.

Surf Break Map: Oceanside Pier, Oceanside, San Diego, California

Oceanside Pier is a decent surf spot…not quite as good as Oceanside Harbor or DMJs…but the pier does help to pile up some sand so it can get a decent sandbar going.

Most times, it seems, that the pier area and all the way down to South Oceanside you only really see local Oceanside surfers in the water. Not really from any sort of localism or anything like that…it is more “hey there is surf right out in front of my house (or street)…I might as well just go out there because it only takes me like 2 minutes rather than the 30 minutes it would take to get over to the harbor”. If I lived there I would probably feel the same way.

The wave at the pier is pretty much your standard beach break with a pier…nothing super exciting. It gets closed out when you get a single big swell (either from the WNW or the S) but it is usually a bit more makeable than the other areas.

Again, like most of Oceanside, it shines on the combo swells. The extra sand and the pier itself helps set up peaky crossed-up shape…and the occasional hollow corner.

Spot details:
Best swell direction: S through WNW (180-285), but it really like the combo swells.
Best Wind: NE through E winds or light and variable winds
Sea Floor: Sand
Best Season: Mostly Fall and Spring but can get good anytime you have a mix of swells.
Crowds: Generally not too bad…it does attract more guys than an open beach break would, just because people sort of gravitate to the pier structure. Weekends and summer can get frustrating occasionally.

Surf Break Map: South Oceanside, Oceanside, San Diego, California

South Oceanside is about 2 miles of mostly open beach break that stretches from Oceanside pier down toward the Carlsbad city limits.

The surf is like most of the beach breaks in Southern California and it depends a lot on what type of swell we have in the water. It closes out around head high on bigger S-SW swells and at about the same size on bigger winter swells. Occasionally you get some shifting sandbars moving down the beach that sets up a little better shape.

Again, like most of Oceanside, it does the best on the combo swells. What is nice though, is that when it gets good you can surf pretty much anywhere along the stretch and score similar waves. So if you don’t like the crowd at that peak…and the longboarders on the next section keep burning you…and the knee boarders are pissing you off because they keep getting sick little but deep barrels…then you just move down the beach and surf pretty much the same wave with less people.

Spot details:Best swell direction: S through WNW (180-285), but it really like the combo swells.
Best Wind: NE through E winds or light and variable winds
Sea Floor: Sand
Best Season: Mostly Fall and Spring but can get good anytime you have a mix of swells.
Crowds: Not bad most of the year…but they do get heavy in the summer. Weekends in the summer are probably the worst that it gets.