El Porto
Manhattan Beach · near Manhattan Beach · Los Angeles / SoCal
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Fall and winter for size and consistency · Summer is beginner-friendly
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Nickname
- The South Bay's Wave Machine
- Break types
- beach
- Swell
- NW and combo swells · 2–8ft · Catches more swell than most LA beaches
- Tide
- Works across tides · Mid tide for cleaner peaks
- Wind
- Morning offshore best · The refinery smokestacks are the landmark
- Crowd
- Consistently crowded because it's consistently good — the most reliable beach break in the South Bay. Parking fills early.
- Board
- Shortboard, midlength, or longboard depending on the day · Versatile
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm most of the year · 4/3mm mid-winter · Water 58–66°F
- Intl tip
- El Porto sits at the north end of Manhattan Beach, one of the South Bay's most pleasant beach towns. The Strand bike path runs right past it — 22 miles of paved coastal path from Pacific Palisades to Torrance. Combine a surf with a beach-cruiser ride.
The guide
El Porto is the South Bay's wave machine — a long stretch of beach break just south of LAX, recognizable by the two smokestacks…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to El Porto — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.901, -118.421