Tourmaline Surfing Park
Pacific Beach, San Diego · near San Diego (Pacific Beach neighborhood) · San Diego
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- beginner
- Best season
- Year-round · Best summer and fall
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Break types
- beach · point
- Swell
- West and northwest · 2–6ft optimal
- Tide
- Any tide · Best mid-tide on push
- Wind
- Morning glass before sea breeze fills in · Avoid afternoon onshore
- Crowd
- Mellow and friendly. Officially designated as a surfing-only zone (no swimmers) — more space and less tension than most SD breaks. Longboard community skews older and welcoming.
- Board
- Longboard (9ft+). Designed for logging. Shortboards work on bigger days but feel out of place culturally.
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm fullsuit fall through spring · Shorty or boardshorts summer
- Intl tip
- Pacific Beach's restaurant row (Garnet Avenue, one block inland) is one of San Diego's best casual dining streets. Combine a morning session at Tourmaline with lunch in PB for a complete San Diego beach day.
The guide
San Diego's most civilized surf experience. Tourmaline is the city's designated longboard park — the parking lot fills with boa…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Tourmaline Surfing Park — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.8024, -117.2648