Cowell's Beach
Santa Cruz · near Santa Cruz · SF Bay Area
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- beginner
- Best season
- Year-round · Summer most beginner-friendly · Winter swells too big
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Break types
- beach
- Swell
- Northwest (filtered by Steamer Lane's point, which takes the brunt) · 2–5ft · Bigger swells stay at Steamer Lane
- Tide
- Any tide · Sand bottom is forgiving across conditions
- Wind
- Morning calm best · Afternoon sea breeze manageable at this protected spot
- Crowd
- Busy with beginners and learners. Genuinely welcoming — the entire surf culture here is oriented around teaching newcomers.
- Board
- Longboard or foam soft-top · Perfect for first lessons
- Wetsuit
- 4/3mm year-round in Santa Cruz · Water hovers around 55–58°F · No exceptions
- Intl tip
- The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum (in the lighthouse directly above Steamer Lane) has free admission and chronicles the history of surfing on this stretch of coast with boards dating back to the early 1900s. One of the best free surf museums in the world.
The guide
Directly in the protective shadow of Steamer Lane's point, Cowell's catches the gentle refracted energy of northwest swells whi…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Cowell's Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.9534, -122.0267