Emma Wood State Beach
Ventura · near Ventura · Los Angeles / SoCal
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Year-round · Winter for the outer reef (Ventura Overhead)
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Break types
- beach · reef
- Swell
- W and NW · 2–10ft · A-frame inside peak plus a big-wave outer reef
- Tide
- Mid tide best for the inside peak
- Wind
- Morning offshore (E, down from the mountains) is excellent
- Crowd
- Consistent and popular but spread across several breaks. Camping right at the beach.
- Board
- Shortboard or fish for the A-frame · Step-up for Ventura Overhead
- Wetsuit
- 4/3mm most of the year · Water 56–64°F
- Intl tip
- Emma Wood sits at the north edge of Ventura, gateway to the Rincon zone just up the coast and the Channel Islands National Park offshore. Ventura itself has a great low-key surf-town food and brewery scene (Topa Topa, Surf Brewery).
The guide
Emma Wood State Beach is one of Ventura County's most consistent surf spots and one of its best surf-camping setups — you can p…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Emma Wood State Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.287, -119.323