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San Diego Surf Scene

On any given day, summer or winter, rain or shine, you can find people out enjoying the San Diego surf. For many locals surfing is a way of life, as much a part of their daily routine as a morning run is to other athletes.

A Demanding Sport

Although surfers are mostly in it for the fun, surfing is also a demanding sport that provides a strenuous physical workout. Whether alone with your thoughts or battling for waves in a crowd, it is always an essentially individual and introspective experience that comes down to you and the wave. As a result, surfers are a healthy and happy bunch with an optimistic attitude to every aspect of their lives.

Challenging Learning Process

As anyone who has ever wrestled a board out through the whitewater knows, surfing is hard. It takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to read the waves, find the sweet spot on your board, and make that first clean turn off the bottom that will set you up for a nice ride down the line. Fortunately, one thing about surfing is not hard at all - the water – and surfers usually walk away from even the worst of wipeouts with nothing more than a bruised ego. The learning process, if at times frustrating, is still plenty of fun, and there are plenty of good, easy places in San Diego to give it a try.

Waves to Satisfy All

There are many kinds of waves and as many approaches to riding them. Sandy bottoms usually make for the fast and shifty waves called beachbreak, while rock bottom reef breaks are more fickle but, when the conditions come together, can produce long and shapely waves. There are shortboards for quick, high performance turns, longboards for smooth, carving glides, big narrow guns for big hollow tubes, and fat little fish for fat little waves. Bodyboarding is a fun and rewarding alternative that gives you the sensation of riding a wave without the long learning curve of stand-up surfing. Purists can enjoy bodysurfing with no equipment at all. San Diego is lucky to have waves to satisfy surfers of all styles and skill levels and a climate that allows them to pursue their passion all year long.

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San Diego Surf Scene

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