Malibu First Point
Malibu · near Malibu · Los Angeles / SoCal
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Summer and fall · South swells June–Oct light up the point best
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Surfing detail
- Break types
- point
- Swell
- South swell (summer) and northwest (fall) · 2–6ft · Gets crowded regardless of size
- Tide
- Any tide · Mid-to-low typically best for the long walls
- Wind
- Morning offshore · Sea breeze fills in by noon · Go early
- Crowd
- Extremely crowded. On a summer weekend, 100+ surfers share the lineup. Arrive before 7am or accept the trade-off. Longboard culture dominates — shortboarders exist but feel out of place culturally at First Point.
- Board
- Longboard (9ft+). Anything shorter feels wrong here. The wave begs for noseriding.
- Wetsuit
- Shorty or boardshorts summer · 3/2mm spring and fall · 4/3mm winter
- Intl tip
- Malibu's most beloved food spot is Reel Inn, a no-frills seafood shack on PCH that's been feeding surfers since 1986. Cash preferred. The fish tacos are worth the drive from anywhere in LA.
The guide
The wave that launched California surf culture. In the 1950s, the first longboarders paddled out at Malibu and invented the spo…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Malibu First Point — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.0379, -118.677