Newport Beach is probably one of the most famous beach areas in Southern California ranking right up there with Malibu, Venice, and (thanks to that horrible faux-reality show) Laguna Beach. From a surf standpoint Newport is a veritable smorgasbord of spots packed into a small section of coastline. In Newport it is possible to surf [...]

The Santa Ana River Jetties is actually one large area…but it has several distinct sub-areas. Most people consider the zone that starts directly south of the Brookhurst Outflow and runs to a couple hundred feet south of the Santa Ana River Mouth to be the actual River Jetties surf spot. Personally, because the influence of [...]

The jetty at 56th street is the most popular and famous surf spots in the Newport Jetties area. It is sometimes called the “100-hottest yards” (and other similar sorts of nonsense by the marketers in the surf industry)…and the name stems more from the type of surf talent that surfs there than the actual surf [...]

The lower Newport Jetties are sort of like 56th street but without all of the bells and whistles. The jetties are a little shorter, the sand doesn’t groom out quite as well, and it doesn’t really get that great until you get a good combo swell. In fact the lower jetties are actually notoriously known [...]

Blackies is a stretch of beach located between the 28th street jetty and the Newport Pier. It has a style and presence that is unique to the Newport surf scene and can only be found in a few other areas in Orange County (Doheney’s Boneyard, Old Mans in San Onofre, and sometimes Bolsa Chica all [...]

Newport Point is located right on the bend of the Newport Peninsula where it goes from facing SW to facing due S. The wave is just south of the Newport Pier and is sort of lined up with 18th street. For all intents and purposes I consider Newport Point to be a “gadget wave”…in the [...]

The lower streets in Newport…which is basically the area from Newport Point through Balboa Pier and down into the lettered streets of the Balboa Peninsula isn’t really the greatest surf zone. In fact most of it is mix of shore break with a few sandbars setting up a marginally more rideable section. Most of the [...]

The Wedge is probably the most famous wave in Newport Beach…it is definitely the most dynamic and dangerous wave. It is located at the very end of the Balboa Peninsula snuggled right up next to the beach side of the northern jetty of the Newport Harbor entrance. The wave itself is a freak of human [...]

The Harbor Entrance wave is definitely a gadget wave. It takes a hell of a lot of swell to start a wave breaking in the deep water of the harbor entrance. When we have an extra-large S swell there will be left section that forms on the South Jetty of the Harbor entrance, out past [...]

Baby Beach on the Corona Del Mar side of the harbor entrance is another gadget wave. Most of the time Baby Beach is basically flat…the waves are mellow shorebreak and can barely be ridden by the small kids that flock to this place…in short it is a great place to take your baby. It does [...]

Huntington Beach, or HB, (or “Surf City USA” if you listen to the lame tourist board marketing hacks) is located along the North Orange County coastline. It stretches almost 8 miles from the Bolsa Chica State Park in the North down to the Santa Ana River Mouth in the South. In general HB has the [...]

Most of the year Bolsa Chica is a longboard break and decent beginner spot. Now I know that most of the Bolsa warriors don’t really want a bunch of brand-new surfers spastically paddling around and getting in everyone’s way any more than guys at other spots do…but you have to admit that the slow rolling [...]