Rincon Point
Carpinteria / Ventura County Line · near Carpinteria / Santa Barbara · Central Coast
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Best season
- Nov–March · January is peak · Summer is too small
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Surfing detail
- Nickname
- Queen of the Coast
- Break types
- point
- Swell
- WNW — ideal direction 250–272 degrees · 4–12ft · Three sections link on big clean swells
- Tide
- Low-to-dropping tide · High tide flattens The Indicator
- Wind
- Santa Ana winds offshore (fall) are magic · Morning calm before sea breeze otherwise
- Crowd
- 200+ surfers on prime days. One of the most competitive lineups in California. Arrive at dawn. The Rincon Classic draws top talent from across the state in January.
- Board
- Mid-length for The Cove on smaller days · Shortboard for The Indicator on solid swells
- Wetsuit
- 4/3mm Nov–March · 3/2mm rest of year
- Intl tip
- Rincon sits at the Ventura/Santa Barbara county line on Hwy 101. On the Carpinteria side of the lot, the stretch of Hwy 101 that follows the coast toward Santa Barbara for the next 15 miles is one of the most scenic coastal highway drives in California.
The guide
The standard all other California point breaks are measured against. Rincon is split into three sections — The Indicator, The R…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Rincon Point — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.3738, -119.4728