North Orange County Surf Guide
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Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide Purchased: 10/28/11 Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide Table Of Contents Regional Surf Overview Regional Map Surf Spots Seal Beach South Side/13th Street Surfside Anderson Street Bolsa Chica Goldenwest 17th Street HB Pier, Northside HB Pier, Southside HB Waterfront Overview Santa Ana River Jetties West Newport 54th/56th St. Newport 40 St. Newport 36th St. Newport Blackies Newport Pier Newport Point The Wedge Corona del Mar Crystal Cove Current Forecast Travel Info Local Surf Shops And Schools Surfline Tips and Tricks Related Content The Bill Of Lefts And Rights 2 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide North Orange County Map A - Seal Beach L - West Newport B - South Side/13th Street M - 54th/56th St. Newport C - Surfside N - 40 St. Newport D - Anderson Street O - 36th St. Newport E - Bolsa Chica P - Blackies F - Goldenwest Q - Newport Pier G - 17th Street R - Newport Point H - HB Pier, Northside S - The Wedge I - HB Pier, Southside T - Corona del Mar J - HB Waterfront Overview U - Crystal Cove K - Santa Ana River Jetties 3 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide Seal Beach Need more detail? View this map online Description Seal Beach Pier takes what is big and walled up at Huntington Pier and Best Tide: grooms it into nice, snappy little peaks. The most consistent spot to medium surf is on the north side of the pier, where you get all kinds of surfers Best Swell Direction: ranging from the clueless to the talented. North Side of the Pier is also SSE, S, WSW; W prefers mid and a great place to learn how to surf with good surf school instruction long-period 16sec+ and small, gentle waves on most days. South side only works on Best Size: winter swells from the WNW -- the bigger the better -- and is a hot River 3-8ft; NS Pier; 3-7ft, SS Pier 3-8ft; spot for bodyboarding and skimboarding with steep bowly shorebreak. Cloudbreak 10-25ft On a large WNW swell North Side becomes a very demanding wave with Best Wind: Glassy, E, or NE Santa Anas steep "pier bowls" that are reflected off the Anaheim Jetty to the south and sweep through the pier. South Side begins to imitate Hawaii with Perfect-O-Meter: powerful thick bowls that break countless boards each day it pumps. 4 (1=Lake Erie; 10=Jeffreys Bay) Bottom: At the north end of the beach is Ray Bay at the mouth of the San sand, pier, jetty Gabriel River, where you can sometimes find long fun rights on big Ability Level: south swells -- but may actually be best on huge west swells. The toddler to thrasher to old longboarders to sandbars in the San Gabriel river are currently very good with steep heavy barrel rider hollow sections beginning at the end of the jetty -- especially on bigger swells and lower tides. Most of the time the River is best for a Bring Your: longboard and beginners. Warm water from the Edison Plant inland skimboard, bodyboard, longboard, shortboard, kite board, 10' deepwater guns keeps the water temps in the high 70's, which also attracts thousands for Cloudbreak of stingrays so stay off the bottom or do the shuffle. Best Season: Seal Beach is in a wind tunnel due to its location below the Palos winter, summer, fall Verdes Peninsula, and the place is a favorite for kite boarders on windy Access: days. Seal Beach may also be one of the cleanest spots around when Off PCH, take Main Street and when you the wind is strong out of the northwest due to the south facing get into Seal Beach, a parking spot is $5 a coastline and protection from the jetties. day. Free 1 hour spots on side streets. Crowd Factor: More Seal Beach Travel Info: Usually crowded with beginners and Places To Eat, Places To Stay, Things To Do longboarders, or rippers when it's on. River can be an obstacle course on good swells during the summer. Local Vibe: Usually mellow although the Northside pack and the Southside bodyboarding pack can be brutal on good swells Bicep Burn: 1-5, if Cloudbreak is on it's an 8. (1=1ft Waikiki; 10=15ft Ocean Beach) Poo Patrol: Usually clean, unless it rains and the San Gabriel River is flowing, then it's an 11 (1=clean; 10=turds in the lineup) Hazards: 4 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide stingrays, beginners, old grumps on the Northside, stingrays, sand implants on the Southside, did we say stingrays? 5 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide South Side/13th Street Need more detail? View this map online Description South Side/13th Street 6 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide Surfside Need more detail? View this map online Description Surfside is a private beach colony located in the northern portion of Best Tide: Orange County adjacent to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and medium the Anaheim Bay harbor entrance, which provides ocean access from Best Swell Direction: Huntington Harbor. Surfers can catch a quick glimpse of the surf when SSE, S, WSW; W prefers mid and driving over the Anaheim Bay bridge on PCH. The Seal Beach Naval long-period 16sec+ Weapons Station and Anaheim Bay jetties were built around the end of Best Size: World War II by the Army Corps of Engineers for the loading of three- to eight-foot faces, the jetty up to weapons on Navy ships. The old beach cottages at Surfside Colony 20-foot faces were originally officer barracks for Navy personnel. Unfortunately, the jetties created a tremendous amount of sand erosion in both Seal Beach Best Wind: Glassy, E, or NE Santa Anas and Surfside, so there are continuous ongoing sand replenishment programs in place. The Surfside beach is replenished every 6-10 years. Perfect-O-Meter: The sand replenishment project destroys the surf for about a year 4 (1=Lake Erie; 10=Jeffreys Bay) before the sand bars have a chance to redevelop, and this cycle repeats Bottom: each time. sand Ability Level: Access can be an issue as there is no parking inside the colony for Intermediate to advanced when there's a non-residents, and there is limited parking outside of the gated swell with heavy bowls and shallow entrance. Parking is strictly enforced and the towing of illegally parked sandbars cars seems to increase on good swells. The local vibe is much better now than it was during the '70s when Surfside resembled many other Bring Your: longboard, shortboard, 10-foot deepwater heavily localized places with quite a few beat downs and vandalized guns for big outside jetty cars. That being said, the local pecking order still exists in the water, as well as serious anti-photo/video vibe toward non-local shooters on Best Season: the beach. winter, summer, fall Access: Good surf at Surfside is incredibly fickle. Swell exposure is naturally Off PCH, park in limited parking area limited to the straight west and south due to shadowing from the Palos outside the gate and the main entrance. Verdes peninsula, Catalina, and the other offshore islands. As a result, Observe the parking signs. If full, go down the waves are small most of the time - typically about half the size of to Anderson Street and walk all the way nearby Huntington. Although the jetties do create erosion problems back up. along the beach, they are the secret to the good waves at Surfside Crowd Factor: when a solid swell is able to hit this stretch of coast. The best swells Usually uncrowded when it's small but very bounce off the rocks as a reflected wave before traveling back and crowded in tight takeoff areas during good crossing up against the original swell direction, creating powerful thick swells. wedges along the beach. Local Vibe: Usually mellow but heavy local vibe during Strong long period west-northwest swells will often create a couple good swells heavy wedging bowls near the jetty that are often visible from the Bicep Burn: highway, while the rest of the beach and all of Huntington might be 1-5, if outside Surfside Jetty is on it's an 8. hopelessly closed out. Surfside jetties resembles a Sebastian Inlet on (1=1ft Waikiki; 10=15ft Ocean Beach) steroids when it is firing on a big west swell. Strong South swells also Poo Patrol: bounce off the jetty and travel all the way back up the beach to wedge Usually clean, but strong south swells can against the original swell direction with thick bowls and peaks along push up a lot of misc debris that is trapped the beach. The main spot is called "The Hole" near the main entrance to near the jetty. (1=clean; 10=turds in the the colony, appropriately named for the heavy barrels over the shallow lineup) sandbar there in the '70s. 7 of 61 | Table Of Contents Surfline's North Orange County Surf Guide sandbar there in the '70s. Hazards: Shallow sandbars, suck out bowls that are Most of the time the waves at Surfside will be bad, but when it's good, unmakeable, stingrays in summer, it's really good, and everyone will want a piece of it - especially the dropping in on a local locals. Like most spots, respect and a good attitude go a long way to having a great time and scoring lots of waves.