Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

I am going to be spending some time in Santa Barbara this summer. How do south swells hit the area? It seems spots in Goleta and south of Rincon will break. How do the Ventura points and beach compare?

SB is in the wave shadow of the Channel Islands. Ventura and all points south are usually the call..........or north to Jalama.

or to the islands

..

I spent five years surfing the area from Topanga to Pt. Magu and got way more than my share of waves even at Malibu with a 8-10 south running and over 200 people in the water ( I counted....couildn't believe the mass of bodies).

I would check Zuma and Zeros (if you like lefts). Clowny Line always has something breaking.

I grew up in Santa Barbara County, and your best bet if you don't want to travel outside the swell shadow is to hope for a wind swell. Best surf I've got there in the Summer is overhead peaks at Sands (about a mile walk up the beach from Isla Vista) after a stiff wind's been blowing in the Channel. But, yeah, as for Southern Hemis, if you can't get to the Ranch, try Jalama, or head south.

Get a boat, or find someone who has one and knows the area. We scored some large, epic surf on the last big south at both Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands with very minimal crowds at the latter. It can get very rough out there and is not for the timid, but with the right boat and someone who knows the area, you can score big time.

yeah! except there are at least 3-4 hundred other's these days with the same plans. I sold my boat 3 yrs ago when everytime I went out there it looked like a marina.It's alot of effort and expense . I would rather surf beachbreaks and travel to surf on a 747! Besides ,every spot out there is heavily surfed and has been for the last 20 yrs.