Mission Bay
San Diego (Mission Bay) · near San Diego (Mission Bay / Pacific Beach neighborhood) · San Diego
Kayaking & SUP
At a glance
- Best season
- Year-round · Water warm enough for boardshorts June–October · Wind picks up afternoons
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit. Multiple free public launches around the 27-mile shoreline. Parking at Mission Bay's various beach lots (day use fee on weekends). De Anza Cove, Fiesta Island, and Sail Bay all have launch access.
What is here
- Wildlife
- Brown pelicans · Cormorants · Egrets · Leopard sharks (in bay channels) · Bat rays · Spotted sand bass
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Kayaking & SUP detail
- Nickname
- The Beginner's Playground
- Water types
- protected-bay
- Exposure
- sheltered
- Sup friendly
- Yes
- Wetsuit
- Boardshorts or shorty in summer · 2mm spring suit in shoulder seasons · Warmest bay paddling in California
- Tidal note
- Mission Bay is highly sheltered with minimal tidal impact on most paddling areas. The bay's west end (toward Pacific Beach) is slightly more exposed. The inner channels and islands are tide-tolerant and appropriate for all experience levels.
- Intl tip
- Mission Bay is directly adjacent to Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach — San Diego's most active beach neighborhoods. The waterfront path connecting Mission Bay to Ocean Beach is one of the finest flat-water bike rides in the city. Belmont Park (historic 1925 roller coaster on the boardwalk at Mission Beach) is the architectural landmark of this stretch of coast.
The guide
The largest man-made aquatic park in the United States — 4,235 acres, 27 miles of shoreline, a network of small islands and cha…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mission Bay — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.7783, -117.2322