Surf Break Map: San Onofre State Beach, San Diego, Orange County, California

Lets face it...if you live south of LAX there is probably a good chance that you paddled out at San-O at least once when you were learning how to surf. It might have been Old Man's, it might have been Trails...but you know you were drawn to the slow forgiving surf, laid back atmosphere, and the almost mythical quality that the beach has earned over the nearly 90 years of surfing history.

The official boundaries of San Onofre State Beach cover a very large area of the coastline, which includes a whole host of different surf spots. From a surfer's perspective the San-O region is usually broken into 4 areas, which are Trestles, Church, Old Man's, and Trails.

Generally when someone says they are surfing San Onofre they are referring to either Old Man's or Trails, which make up the two southern areas in San Onofre State Park. (This Surf Break Map will cover both of those areas...Click Here if you are looking for information on Trestles). San Onofre is located to the south of the City of San Clemente, (just south of San Mateo Point), and north of the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.




The two surf areas, Old Man's and Trails, actually bracket the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (yes I am talking about the giant boobs that you can see from the freeway). Old Man's is located on the north side (and sort of in front of) of the power plant. Trails is located to the south of the station.

Getting There
Getting to San-O is pretty easy. You either drive north on the 5 from San Diego...or south on the 5 freeway from everywhere else. From there you exit on Basilone Road and head toward the water...the road hooks around and becomes Old Pacific Coast Highway. You can either follow that road straight and it will take you all the way down to the Trails entrance and campground, or you can jump off at the lovely hairpin exit that is just before the power station and head down to Old Mans. (There are signs all over the place so it is pretty hard to get lost).

Parking
All of the parking spots at both Old Man's and Trails are inside of the State Park...so you will either need to have a State Parks Annual Day Use Pass, paid for an overnight camping spot, or you will have to pony up the 10-bucks to buy a daily parking pass. (Personally I think that, if you are committed to surfing, you should save up a little cash and buy the annual pass...yeah they are a little pricey but if you go and surf or park in any California State Park more and 12-13 times in the year then they have paid for themselves, anything after that is just gravy!).

The parking lot in both of the surf areas can get pretty crowded...on big swells, hot summer days, and on weekends don't be surprised if you can't find a spot. Sometimes on weekends, particularly holiday weekends, there can be a giant line to get into Old Man's before the park even opens.

Camping
There is no camping down at Old Man's but Trails has quite a few designated campsites for both tent/car camping and motorhomes. To get a campsite in the summer you should probably make a reservation online through the California State Parks. During the winter you can probably just drive up and pay for one at the gate.

Surfing Close to a Nuclear Generator (or good ways to have your 'nads fall off)
There are some pretty passionate politics, both pro and con, that go into the idea of nuclear power. Personally my opinion is that if they can keep it safe, dispose of the waste in a responsible manner that protects the environment (and the people living in the environment), then sure go ahead and generate some power. On the other hand I do always try and keep in mind that I am surfing next to a nuclear reactor that circulates its non-radiated (so I hope) coolant water back into the ocean. Lets just say that I wouldn't be super surprised to see Blinky the three-eyed fish swimming in the line-up someday.

The waves




Old Man's
Sometimes the problem with a surf break that people have been surfing for close to 90 years is that it has like a hundred names. Each generation and clique of surfers has a different name for each spot and sometimes each section of the reef. As you can imagine it gets pretty confusing.

Generally the surf area north of the power plant, where you can actually drive up and park close to the sand, is known as Old Man's.

Old Man's is a pretty large stretch of water with several different peaks that set up and break throughout the line-up. Each of these peaks/areas have their own name. The northernmost peak is known as The Point, the middle area is called Old Man's, and the southern peak is Dog Patch. There is actually another semi-sort of surf area that is further south than Dog Patch...I have heard it referred to by a bunch of different names but it is usually called Horseshoes.

The peaks are actually formed by a rocky cobblestone reef that extends a ways off the beach, which is probably leftover from some historic beachside bluff erosion of the Arroyo San Onofre waaaaay back in the day. The reef is generally flat with smooth rocks covered in a mix of sand and sea grass. The individual peaks are formed by the irregularity of the reefs outer edge...there are fingers of rocks that extend a little further out than the other areas...each one of those fingers forms one of the surf peaks.

The reef itself sits on a bit of a sea-shelf which acts as a buffer for some of the stronger wave energy. Essentially this shelf starts the shoaling process much further out to sea than where the waves actually break...as the waves start to feel the sea floor they begin to lose energy and eventually break with slow and soft lines as they move up the gradual sea-slope and on to the reef.

All three of the main waves at Old Man's have generally the same properties. They are slow, soft, and generally forgiving. The shoulders are on the mushy side and you almost never see the wave form any sort of a barrel except under very extreme conditions. When you get down to the nitty-gritty Old Man's is one of the best waves for beginners and casual surfers. The inside sections and whitewash are slow and steady letting first-timers and little kids get use to their boards and how the ocean is going to push them around. The outside peaks offer up a little more of a challenge (relative to the inside) with slightly steeper takeoffs and an actual wave face to work with.

Here is some video of San-O in action...





Getting the Best Surf
Old Man's (the spot not the peak) has a relatively open swell window with good exposure to the S, SW, W and even a bit of WNW. It will work on pretty much any combination of those swells...but depending on what peak you want to surf, it really likes the medium sized SW swells (with medium to long swell-periods) and the SW/WNW combo swells.

On the pure SW swells you will get a long slow left that sets up off The Point...Old Man's and Dog Patch will have some longer left sections as well but will throw an occasional sectiony right-hander back up against the grain of the swell.

On combo swells all three peaks get uh...peakier (damn public schools)...The Point will still have better lefts but you will have some longer rights setting up off the Old Man's and Dog Patch peaks.

Like most of Southern California the perfect combination of wind and waves is the mix of a good SW swell, or combo swell, with light/moderate Santa Ana winds and the low-to-high tide push.

The Vibe
It is important to understand the Old Man's attitude. Most of the people that consistently surf Old Man's do it because they love the spot...they like having friends in the line-up and they dig the extremely laid back attitude of the place. It is a great beginner-friendly wave because many of the people in the line-up are so welcoming and tolerant. If you aren't a total jerk they will forgive mistakes, share waves, and probably talk story to you in the parking lot until your ear falls off. If you approach surfing Old Man's with the same attitude you will generally have a good time...if you are planning on being a spaz then you should probably surf somewhere else.


Spot details:
Best swell direction: SW swell (185-220) or a SW/W combo
Best Wind: NE-E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Rock reef, sand, and sea-grass
Best Season: Year round...any old SW swell will do.
Crowds: Yep lots of people, lots of longboards, lots of parking issues. Mostly manageable during the week...but hectic on the weekends (double so when the weather and the surf are good).



Trails
If you are looking for a little solitude while you surf in the San Onofre State Park area then Trails is your place. While it isn’t always completely empty it does have plenty of room to spread out thanks to the miles of beach break that stretch from the campground’s entrance to the start of the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.

Trails is the southern section of the San Onofre area…and it is pretty easy to find. If you follow Basilone Road (old coast highway) past the power plant you will run right into the park’s entrance gate.

Trails gets its name from the way the campground is positioned. The campground is actually built along the Old Coast Highway that sits up on the bluffs that tower over the beach. Since you don’t park right next to the beach, and much of plant life in the park is protected, the State Park Service built a series of trails, hence the name, that lead down to the beach from the parking/camping area.

There are six official trails that are actually named Trail 1 through Trail 6, (apparently the California State Park system has trouble coming up with original names for things too). There are a few slight differences in the surf that you find along the beaches that sit in front of each trailhead. Trail 1 actually has some pockets of cobblestones that make for some more defined peaks. Trails 2 through 6 have almost exclusively sand bottoms and the shape and the quality of waves depends on how the sand bars are formed and what sort of swell mix is in the water.

The Walk
It is quite a long walk down the trails to the beach and you can expect a couple of steep inclines. It isn’t all that much if you are just hiking the trail but when you add a big surfboard, your surf gear, and probably a backpack full of food and water then the distance and elevation start to add up. While the surf is just a gentle as Old Man’s the walk can be a bit of a struggle if you don’t have a ton of upper body strength (or some sort of good sling to carry your longboard).

Trail 7 (you got sunburned where?)
I mentioned that there were 6 official trails…well there is one unofficial trail at the very end of the park past where the official ones end. Out of all the trails it is probably the most famous (or infamous if you look at it that way) since it is known as “clothing optional” once you make it down to the sand. The State Park Service has been directed to start busting (no pun intended) people for going nude…I believe that they are already starting to issue citations…so if you plan on shedding your clothes you might want to keep an eye out for the Rangers. In the past the Park, while not really tolerating the nudity, sort of left it alone, which I am sure led to a lot of interesting sunburns for surfers and beachgoers alike (not to mention getting some wax stuck is some really uncomfortable places).

The Waves
The waves at Trails are very similar to Old Man’s except since the majority of the beach is wide-open beach break it doesn’t have many peaks that stay in place very long. On most average swells the waves are soft, slow, and sort of roll towards the beach as they start to break. It generally likes the lower tides…the high tide pushes most of the surf up on the beach as shorebreak. On bigger swells, particularly when there is only one swell in the water, the waves have a tendency to wall up and get all sectiony…it is usually better to surf other spots when you have a single large swell pushing through.

The best surf
Trails is best when you have a mix of swells in the water. The best mix is usually a medium sized SW swell crossing up with a small-medium W swell. Like most SoCal spots if you can time the tides right and get lucky with some light/moderate offshore winds then you can have a pretty darn good time. Even when it gets good it never really is that short-boardable, you can do it if you have the right board (like a fishy shape) or have the right body type (skinny and light), but most of the time it is better to bust out the longboard or a really thick funboard.

Spot details:
Best swell direction: SW swell (185-220) or a SW/W combo.
Best Wind: NE-E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Sand, with some cobblestone piles up around Trail 1
Best Season: Year round but best in the late summer and fall.
Crowds: It can have a few guys on it on busy summer weekends but it never really gets crowded.

Another Shark Attack - Swimmer Killed off Solana Beach

Seriously I am so sick of talking about sharks...but it is hard to ignore a story when someone is hurt or killed by one.




From the initial news reports a man, in his 60's, was swimming with a group of other swimmers in the ocean while they trained for a triathlon. They were a ways offshore when according to witnesses a large "grey" shark attacked the man, who eventually died from his wounds.

Here are some links to the News Stories that I found online...

Terry Rodgers' report from the San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE is probably one of the better ones...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080425-1113-bn25shark2.html


Here are a couple of others...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080425-0926-ca-sharkattack.html


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sharkattack,1,2305377.story


Here is some video...

http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=244777


Think that this is going to become a more of a trend or is it still just another case of bad luck? Drop me some comments on the blog and tell me what you think...

Official Surf Forecast for the 6.0 Lowers Pro

Hey gang!

Since I am the official forecaster for the (Nike) 6.0 Lowers Pro this year…and I have this cool blog that lets me post all kinds of random poop…I thought I would throw out the official forecast that I sent on to the contest guys today. I normally don’t post a lot of commercialized stuff but since I am involved this year I thought it would be ok. (well that and the fact that I am still working on getting my own special contest heat where I get to surf Lowers with 3 other guys)

Anyways check out the forecast…(I did the layout too...my wife is going to let me hang it on the fridge!)



I dig the contest posters/images as well…

Here are a couple of those.






And here is the website, for some reason it is really hard to find using google…bad SEO juju…

http://www.nike6lowerspro.com/

Surf Break Maps: Black’s Beach, La Jolla, San Diego, California

Black’s Beach is one of San Diego County’s most consistent, and heaviest, beach breaks…it is one of those swell-magnet breaks that works on almost any combination of swell. It is definitely one of the better surf spots in SoCal and like many other good surf spots it is somewhat a freak of nature.



Black’s is one of the few Southern California beach breaks that can legitimately hold a breaking wave anywhere from 2-feet to 15-feet+ on the face. It breaks year-round while most of South San Diego shuts down as the North Pacific Storm Track weakens over the summer. It has some protection from southerly winds while being able to pull in SW’erly swell (which is damn hard to do…). Like I said…a freak.

There are 3 major factors that drive the shape and the consistency of this wave…

1. Location – It sits in a good spot along the coast…with a fairly large swell window.

2. Orientation – The beach faces due west…opening it up to both SW and WNW swells.

3. Sea-Floor Bathymetry - The Scripps and La Jolla Submarine Canyons sit right offshore and act like giant amplifiers for incoming long-period swells (11…it is one more than 10!)


Going into a little more detail…
Black’s is located about 1km north of the Scripps Pier and just to the South of the Torrey Pines Glider Port (port or park I am not really sure…I just know they fly big kites there). Most of the Black’s beach stretch faces almost due west…which exposes the beach to both WNW and SW swells. The southern section of the beach has a slight hook-and-bend to it which swings the shoreline back towards the WNW…effectively adding that extra winter-oomph to the south peak.

It also helps that the geographical positioning of the beach means it is exposed to the SW-WSW swell directions, but more importantly, that it has a very large WNW window as well. With a first glance at a SoCal map you would almost think that a lot of NW swell would be blocked by the nearshore islands…but when you take a closer look you see a large gap just south of the Channel Islands that allows swell to pass through. And you also see that the swell would eventually hit the NW tips of San Clemente and Catalina Islands allowing a lot of the energy to pass around the islands rather than getting blocked.

The final factor is the Scripps Submarine Canyon, and to a lesser degree the La Jolla Submarine Canyon. The set of super deep trenches just off the coast allow long-period swells to refract differently than they would if they hit a more consistent coastline. On SW swells they wrap the energy that should have skipped past the area (or been mostly blocked by La Jolla Point) back into the beach keeping us in waves during the summer that should have been heading exclusively towards O-side and Trestles. On NW swells these canyons do about the same thing but, because the beach already has a more natural exposure to the WNW, it hooks excess energy back towards the beach causing it to double-up as it moves into the surf zone…effective peaking up a swell that should have been mostly closed out.

There are 3 main peaks at Black’s…they are appropriately named South Peak, Middle Peak, and North Peak (man who says surfers aren’t creative). South and Middle peak have a tendency to work better on WNW swells and strong swell combos of WNW/SW (along with some shorter period windswell). North peak works on the SW/WSW swells and again on the SW/NW swell combos.

WNW swells


SW swells



The Best Surf
While I have talked a lot about Black’s breaking year round (and it does)…the break really starts to shine when we get a clean long-period WNW swell (280-290). Black’s loves these types of swells…they hit the canyon just right and you get that nearly iconic hollow bowl forming the left at the South Peak. These are the types of swells where Black’s can maintain a makeable wave even when there is a hell of a lot of energy in the water…in fact it generally starts to break hollower, with a longer section, and is less tide sensitive, as the swell gets bigger.

Personally I like it when there is enough energy to set up some consistent head high surf with sets running to a couple of feet overhead on the face…(any bigger and I start to scream like a little girl when I try to drop in going backside…it is sad really). Unfortunately that is about the magic size for everyone…and the crowd starts crawling out of the woodwork.




Getting There is Half the Fun
About the only thing that semi-saves Black’s from being blitzed by an unbelievable crowd on a daily basis is that is located at the base of a pretty good sized cliff that is almost 200’ high in places. The length of the walk, and the brutal climb in elevation, keeps a lot of people from using blacks as a lunchtime or quick dawn patrol spot. Basically you need to have a good amount of time to make the round trip from your car to the surf and back again. Naturally Black’s is a great weekend spot…and the crowd can get ridiculous because everyone and their cousin have a couple of hours to kill surfing.



There are a couple of ways to get down to the beach…one is a series of semi-sketchy goat-trails up by the glider area…these are hazardous on the best days…and if there has been any rain, or even heavy dew, I wouldn’t even think about trying to get down that way.

The other, and more traditional route, is to park up off La Jolla Farms road and head down the gated and semi-paved trail. You need to watch where you park, the neighborhood is pretty freaking swanky and their panties can get in a serious bunch if you spoil their view by bare-assing your wetsuit change in front of their “estate”. Tickets and towing can be a definite issue so try and obey the local parking laws.

The Key
There is a near mythical key to the Black’s entry trail/road. Supposedly if you have a copy of the key you can unlock the gate and drive to the bottom of the road cutting out a ton of time that it takes to get into the water. There are very, very, very few of these keys and they owners of them guard them jealously. I remember reading a story recently (and if you know where this story is…send me the link) about these keys…and how one owner’s best friend basically ransacked his house looking for the key while he was out…it was pretty classic and yet messed up at the same time. The rumor is that the captain or coach of the UCSD Surf Team has a copy of the Key…I am sure there are a few others (other than lifeguards) but they aren’t as well known.

Nudists
Black’s has a reputation for being a nude beach and while it isn’t technically legal it is tolerated in certain areas. Personally I could care less if people want to take off their clothes…if it is warm enough to go prancing about in your birthday suit whatever floats your boat…just try not to hassle anyone. The general nude area is north of the surf spot…just a bit past the glider port. So if you were thinking about catching a few meaty barrels and then heading straight to the beach to drop trou…think again…not everyone on the beach (or many of the surfers in the water) want to see your junk…try and keep it to the designated areas.

Spot details:
Best swell direction: SW-NW (205-290+) the longer the swell period the better)…good combo swells work well too.
Best Wind: NE-ESE, light to moderate wind speeds work the best.
Sea Floor: Sand and a near bottomless canyon where sea creatures will come and eat you.
Best Season: Year round…but really shines on Fall/Winter WNW swells.
Crowds: Yes it does get crowded…there is decent sized dawn patrol despite the cliff but you can find a few openings here and there until it gets a decent swell. Weekends when it is around the head high range can max it out. (it does get surprisingly empty as sets near the 15’+ range)

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.

Surf Break Map: Cottons, Trestles Surf Area, California

Surf Break Map: Cottons

This is the most northern break in the Trestles area…and the most fickle. Cottons is generally known as a left that breaks along the most northern part of San Mateo Point. It will break on a bigger SE through SW swell’s but it takes a very large swell to get it working properly. It seems to like the medium period swells (and sometimes large hurricane swells) the best. When everything connects you can string together some long sections.

When Cottons is breaking it attracts sort of a weird crowd. The wave is sort of rolly in the deeper water at the top of the point, so you see a lot of guys with bigger boards, guns, longboards, big-guy fun boards. The extra-length lets them get into the wave way on the outside and get a pretty long ride. Since the wave sort of bogs out after setting up on the outside section you end up having a whole different pack of shortboarders on the inside taking off on deeper sections and generally getting faster more critical rides on the inside. As the tide drops the packs start to edge closer together and the wave starts to get a more consistent shape and speed.

Spot details
Best swell direction: Large S-SW swell (180-210)…generally over 6’+ works best.
Best Wind: E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Mix of rock, sand, and sea-grass
Best Season: Late Spring, Summer and Fall. Anytime you get a big southern hemi swell.
Crowds: It is fickle enough that it gets really crowded when it breaks.

Surf Break Map: Barb-Wires, Trestles Surf Area, California

Surf Break Map: Barb-Wires

Barb-wires is a short sectiony wave that breaks on the reef that, if the point was more developed, would have been the left off of Uppers. Located between Cottons and Uppers, Barb-wires is sort a crowd bleed-off wave…it is right in front of where the Cristianitos trail ends and it is sectiony enough that you can paddle out and grab a couple of ok (but not great) waves fairly quickly.

Most times, if you are a decent surfer, paddling out at barb-wires when you have 3 really good waves close by is sort of like torturing yourself. You end up riding these short little sections while waaaay better waves peel down the close-by points. The wave itself can be very sectiony and almost walled up on certain swells, particularly when there is only one swell in the water. Barb-wires is a semi-friendly spot for people that are learning (but aren’t just beginning to surf), not ready to battle for waves, don’t like crowds, or don’t like surfing long waves because it makes their legs tired.

Barb-wires is at its best (best being a relative term of course) on a combo swell of S and W-WNW energy. The crossed up swell mix treats Barb-wires more like a beach breaks and helps to add a touch more definition to the wave. There will still be better waves at the other areas but you won’t feel like kicking yourself quite as much.

Spot details
Best swell direction: Small to medium swell combo of S-SW swell (180-220) and W-WNW swell (260-280)
Best Wind: E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Mix of rock, sand, and sea-grass
Best Season: Pretty much the same year round but more likely to get the swell combo in the Spring and Fall.
Crowds: It is fickle enough that it gets really crowded when it breaks.

Surf Break Map: Upper Trestles, Trestles Surf Area, California

Surf Break Map: Upper Trestles

Uppers is one of the most consistent waves at Trestles…and while it isn’t quite Yin to Lowers’ Yang, it is a pretty good ride.

The wave is a long right-hander that breaks along a rocky section of point just to the south of Barb-Wires and Cottons. It breaks on both S-SW and WNW swells but works best on the winter W-WNW’ers. Uppers can be sectiony at times, particularly on bigger swells, but it does consistently crank out some long makeable sections.

Uppers generally works best on a medium- to long-period W-WNW swell (270-285) and it likes to have some water underneath it…not a full blown high tide but at least the tide-push after the low-tide. Enough sand on the sea-floor also plays an important roll in wave shape…years where there has been a ton of run-off, (and the sand berm near the creek has been breached), sand fills in a lot of the imperfections in the rocks that make up the Uppers point helping to smooth out the wave and letting it connect for longer rides.

Spot details
Best swell direction: W-WNW (270-285) and swell S/WNW swell combos
Best Wind: E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Mix of mostly rock, with some sand and sea-grass
Best Season: Fall, Winter, Spring…but still fun in the summer.
Crowds: While not quite as bad as lowers it does get pretty crowded. Weekends, Santa Ana wind days, and big swells are particularly bad.

Surf Break Map: Lower Trestles, Trestles Surf Area, California

Surf Break Map: Lower Trestles

Lower Trestles is one of the “Crown Jewels” of California surfing. Generally referred to as Lowers the wave is located south of Uppers and north of Middles.

Lowers is the most well-defined point/reef in the Trestles surf area. The point sticks out a bit further than the others in the area, and the rock reef that extends off of the point is both better shaped and extends further out into deeper water. The combination of those two features helps to create a long, but very workable right and a shorter, but faster (and sometimes more hollow) left that breaks back towards Uppers.

Lowers works on almost any swell that it is exposed to but it breaks the best on large S and SW swells.

Even on big swells the peak and takeoff area are pretty small, which concentrates the crowd. Big but inconsistent swells will turn the pack into an ugly feeding-frenzy mess with lots of people dropping in and burning each other. You can pretty much always count on a crowd at lowers, and to be honest not many waves sneak through the peak unridden. The best you can hope for is lots of set waves in a big swell to help thin out the group at the peak and weed out some of the more timid surfers.

Spot details
Best swell direction: S-SW swell (170-220)
Best Wind: E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Mix of mostly rock, with some sand and sea-grass
Best Season: Summer, Fall, and when we get big SW’ers in the Spring.
Crowds: On bad days it looks like the LA marathon starting line.