Cardiff Reef
Cardiff-by-the-Sea (Encinitas) · near Cardiff-by-the-Sea / Encinitas · San Diego
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Year-round · Fall and winter for the best-shaped reef peaks
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Nickname
- The Cardiff Kook
- Break types
- reef · beach
- Swell
- NW and SW · 2–8ft · The reef produces peeling lefts and rights for all levels
- Tide
- Mid tide is the sweet spot · Reef exposed at low tide
- Wind
- Morning offshore best · Sea breeze fills in by midday
- Crowd
- Can be a zoo on weekends, but plenty of peaks spread from mellow Tippers to the more advanced Pipes. Longboarders dominate — bring more board than you think you need.
- Board
- Longboard or midlength for the outside · Shortboard or fish for inside sections
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm most of the year · 4/3mm mid-winter · Water 58–66°F
- Intl tip
- San Elijo State Beach campground sits directly above Cardiff Reef — one of the best surf-camping setups in California. Cardiff and neighboring Encinitas (Swami's is 10 minutes south) make this one of the densest good-surf zones in the state.
The guide
Cardiff Reef is a consistent wave machine — a rocky reef that produces peeling lefts and rights for surfers of all levels, from…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Cardiff Reef — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.0172, -117.281