Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach · near Huntington Beach · Los Angeles / SoCal
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Year-round · Fall best for quality · Summer largest crowds
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Nickname
- Surf City USA
- Break types
- beach
- Swell
- Works on any swell direction · Northwest dominant · 2–6ft optimal
- Tide
- Any tide · Peaks shift slightly with tidal movement
- Wind
- Morning glass · Afternoon sea breeze, manageable given beach break nature
- Crowd
- Crowds spread across miles of beach rather than funneling onto one peak. Less localism pressure than point breaks. Busy year-round but rarely unpleasant.
- Board
- Any board · Fish or funboard for the mushy sections · Shortboard around the pier
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm most of year · Shorty or boardshorts in summer
- Intl tip
- The Surfers' Hall of Fame (hand/foot prints of legends in cement, Grauman's Chinese Theatre-style) and the International Surfing Museum are both free or low-cost and genuinely interesting even for non-surfers. Main Street has the full spectrum of surf shops from massive chains to small shapers.
The guide
The spiritual center of American surf culture. Duke Kahanamoku visited in the 1920s, helping bring surfing from Hawaii to the m…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Huntington Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.6553, -118