Swami's
Encinitas · near Encinitas · San Diego
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Best season
- Fall and winter · Sept–March for primary northwest swells
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Surfing detail
- Break types
- reef · point
- Swell
- West and northwest · 3–8ft · Point needs some size to wake up
- Tide
- Low-to-mid tide preferred · Reef gets very shallow at dead low
- Wind
- Morning offshore · Afternoon sea breeze degrades it quickly
- Crowd
- Busy on weekends. North County SD surf community is tight-knit but generally civil compared to spots further south. The bluff staircase is the only access — crowds self-regulate somewhat.
- Board
- Mid-length or shortboard · Longboard works on smaller days
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm most of year · 4/3mm Nov–Feb
- Intl tip
- Encinitas's downtown (Coast Highway 101, one block from the water) is one of the best surf town main streets in California — independent surf shops, excellent tacos, and a community that takes surfing seriously without taking itself too seriously.
The guide
Named for the golden lotus-shaped towers of the Self-Realization Fellowship temple perched on the bluffs above — the same templ…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Swami's — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.0285, -117.2963