Black's Beach
La Jolla, San Diego · near La Jolla / San Diego · San Diego
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Best season
- Winter · Northwest swells Nov–March
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Surfing detail
- Break types
- beach
- Swell
- Northwest · 4–10ft · Bigger swells jack up dramatically on the steep sandbar
- Tide
- Lower tides best · Sand bar gets shallower
- Wind
- Offshore mornings · Sea breeze deteriorates conditions by afternoon
- Crowd
- Moderate — the access commitment keeps casual visitors away. Serious surfers only. No lifeguards. Two significant rip currents flank the main peak.
- Board
- Shortboard or step-up for bigger winter swells · Fish for smaller days
- Wetsuit
- 4/3mm fullsuit Nov–April · 3/2mm rest of year
- Intl tip
- Black's Beach is clothing-optional, one of few legal nude beaches in Southern California. The Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve above is one of the rarest coastal ecosystems in North America — combine both for a full afternoon.
The guide
Below the 300-foot Torrey Pines bluffs — and below the famous Gliderport where paragliders launch overhead — Black's catches se…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Black's Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.8902, -117.2543