Windansea Beach
La Jolla, San Diego · near La Jolla, San Diego · San Diego
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Best season
- Fall and winter · Nov–March for best swells
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Surfing detail
- Break types
- reef
- Swell
- Northwest and west · 3–8ft · Reef handles size well
- Tide
- Low-to-mid tide · Very shallow at low on the reef sections
- Wind
- Offshore mornings are ideal · Kelp mats slow onshore wind chop
- Crowd
- Heavy localism historically. Windansea has one of the most territorial reputations in San Diego. Show respect, sit on the shoulder first, don't paddle straight to the peak. Locals have surfed this reef for decades and take it seriously.
- Board
- Shortboard 5ft8 to 6ft4 · Step-up for bigger winter swells
- Wetsuit
- 3/2mm most of year · 4/3mm in winter
- Intl tip
- La Jolla's upscale village is a ten-minute walk from Windansea. The combination of world-class reef surf and one of San Diego's finest dining and gallery districts in the same neighborhood is genuinely unusual.
The guide
One of San Diego's most powerful and most storied waves. Windansea's reef produces fast, hollow walls that reward experienced s…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Windansea Beach — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.8333, -117.2774