San Luis Reservoir & O'Neill Forebay
Los Banos (Pacheco Pass) · near Los Banos / Gilroy · Gold Country & Central Valley
Wind Sports
At a glance
- Difficulty
- advanced
- Best season
- Spring–summer (afternoons)
- Water temperature
- Warm in summer (70s°F) — shorty or boardshorts
What is here
- Amenities
- One of California's windiest spots · Warm summer water · Huge open water · Strong reliable thermal
- Best for
- Getting nuked on warm water
- Features
- Ferocious Pacheco Pass thermal · Warm water, huge fetch · One of California's windiest · Big-wind proving ground
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Ferociously strong, gusty wind · Big fetch = big chop/swell · Remote — self-rescue distance · Powerboats
- Good for a first timer
- No
Guides, rentals and operators
- Lessons
- No
Wind Sports detail
- Discipline
- windsurf · kite · wing
- Conditions
- chop
- Venue
- lake
- Wind kt
- 26
- Wind
- NW, 20–40 kt — ferocious thermal funneling over Pacheco Pass (one of CA's windiest spots)
- Intl tip
- One of California's WINDIEST spots — a ferocious NW thermal over Pacheco Pass, 20–40 kt spring/summer afternoons. WARM water in summer (70s — rare for CA!). Huge fetch = big chop/swell. Advanced/strong-wind: gusty, remote, self-rescue distance. Rig your smallest gear. Between the Bay Area and coast (Los Banos). A big-wind proving ground.
The guide
San Luis Reservoir and its O'Neill Forebay, straddling Pacheco Pass in the Central Valley between the Bay Area and the coast, f…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to San Luis Reservoir & O'Neill Forebay — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.06, -121.07