Popular San Francisco Bay Area Surf Spots

By Chris Warner

There are three popular surf spots within 20 minutes of Pacifica, California. From north to south, they are Ocean Beach (San Francisco), Linda Mar (Pacifica), and the Half Moon Bay Jetty (Half Moon Bay...obviously.)

Ocean Beach can be unbelievable. That is, unbelievably perfect or unbelievably bad. This place is miles of beachbreak. The swell can be brutal, and I've had days when I couldn't make the paddle out, even when it looked makeable from the beach. Other times I scored good waves here for my entire session, even when I didn't think anything was happening. Ocean Beach is exposed and picks up all the swell, as well as all the wind. It doesn't handle much onshore flow, but the sandbars are great. I like surfing it at all tides but prefer mid tide and any slack tide I can stumble on. The slack tide is nice because of the huge lateral current running north and south. There is good article on these currents from the SF Chronicle. Cardio conditioning comes in handy when you have to paddle against this current for a length of time and then jog a mile back to your car. I pretty much stick to small and clean days and leave the big days for the heavies that can make the paddle out. How do they do it? Steroids? Crack? I don't know, but I've been amazed to see the handful of guys out on triple-overhead days. Seasons have a big impact here with the wave count definitely higher in winter and, my personal favorite, fall. Fall has quite a few nice, clean, sunny, head-high days. Lots of room at Ocean Beach, but it can get filled up on good days, and there are quite a few Super-Technician barrel specialists at this popular surf spot in California.

Linda Mar is also known as Pacifica State Beach. This place is the McDonalds of surfing. The most crowded of the SF Area popular surf spots. Go at high tide most days and you'll find surf. Usually smaller on the south end with more longboards but plenty of all kinds of wave devices throughout: shortboards, fishboards, bodyboards, kayaks...you get the idea. Usually closes out on wave heights over 7 feet. It's pretty darned convenient, with showers, bathrooms, and a Taco Bell right on the beach....probably the only Taco Bell on the beach in California. It's not as good as Ocean Beach on the better days but it has a lot more rideable days than OB. It's often crowded and sometimes utterly hopeless on the weekends. Surfing this place can be fun, but the weekend crowds on some days definitely send me exploring other options. On rainy south wind days, it's pretty much the only surf in town.

The Half Moon Bay Jetty needs a southwest (not too south) swell, a big west swell, or an even bigger northwest swell. It's my favorite option in spring when northwest winds blow sideshore there and everything else is blown out. Of the popular surf spots it is not as nice as a fall day at Ocean Beach, but it's okay. It can also get really crowded but mostly on the main peak. The main peak has a wedge that forms off the Jetty and makes a nice fast right. That peak can get packed with really good surfers, and when it does, I like to paddle south were the competition goes from Kelly Slater to Jerry Lewis....the way I like it.

There are more popular surf spots between these but I stick to them because they're as far from secret as you can get in the SF Bay Area, California. Most other spots are easily seen from Highway 1 and can be found with time, a car, and a lot of gas money.

Chris lives and surfs in the San Francisco Bay Area and runs California Surfing, a California based website with surf reports, surf spots, blog, pics, videos, and more.

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