SUP SURF in SoCAL & SD

Hi all! I'm travelling to Los Angeles in September and would like some info if possible about best SUP SURF spots there and general situation on that coast.
1. First of all, i'm confused with the TOO MANY spots in the area and cannot decide where to stay! Malibu, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Venice Beach or even southern in Huntington or Even San Diego? Mainly looking for some point break with a good swell of max 5-7ft. Currently riding an 8.2 115 litre surf SUP and got 5 years of surf experience.
2. Heard most of the Santa Monica area is really polluted, is that true? Is it sth to worry about?
3. Are there beaches are are mainly for SUPers and not full of surfers?
4. How are surfers treating SUPs who try to surf in their spot? I've heard about localism there but how tough can it get?


Thanks in advance!

The SUP quota has been exceeded. So you'll need to work on that. Santa Monica pier is great for SUP.

Pollution is rainfall driven so this time of year not much of a problem.

Localism is off the charts. Don't let surfers see your SUP or they'll smash it kook.

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some point break with a good swell of max 5-7ft

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Really? You are basically asking for most people's dream wave in one of the most crowded surf locals in the world. I'll leave whether to stay in Ventura, LA county, south bay, the OC or San Diego up to you. I'd think that you could just check Surfline and drive PCH and figure it out.

That said, if you want to paddle out at the best spots on the best days with your sweeper, you better know what's up. You can call it "localism" or "no tolerance for SUPs sitting outside, taking all the set waves and beatering though the line up" but either way SoCal, like almost anywhere I've ever surfed, has various degrees of regulation.

I can't comment of September swell and favored breaks but my honest advice is as follows. Start out in North County SD and go to the lesser known breaks and figure it out. It tends to be a more tourist friendly zone and I'd rather to hanging out in Encinitas than Santa Monica.

But what do I know, I'm just a kook traveling surfer like you.

The Wedge.

Lunada Bay

September will be hopefully the start of winter direction wind swells. If a south is running, go to the Wedge. If a winter direction is running, go to Lunada.

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Dude, Lowers has everything you are looking for. A pumping head high point break. Just be sure to paddle from way on the outside as te line up can get crowded with kooks. Don't worry if some kid on the inside in a brightly colored wetsuit is wildly paddling for it, just go. Just be sure to calling him out as a kook as you run over/by him, and put him in his place when you paddle back. You have to get all alpha there, but it is cool. That is just the spot. And occasionally remind the crowd that you could wack then with a paddle if they act out of hand.

Or old mans or trails or such. Seriously, I'd get a park pass for the week and just get irradiated and not think about it. September is often good.

And you should head up this way. A little less hate for the SUP crowd here. A little.

The best spot in orange county you can get away with surfing decent waves on a paddle board without getting your face smashed in will be at churches just north of san onofre. No surfer is willing to share their spot with SUPers and also it's considered a vessel and illegal to ride at most beaches.

"It all started in 2008 when the U.S. Coast Guard and the California Department of Boating and Waterways declared stand-up paddleboards to be vessels, putting them in the same category as kayaks and wave skis.

That definition, adopted last year by state beaches in Orange County, has led to restrictions on where stand-up paddleboarders can be at some beaches and, consequently, to conflicts between traditional surfers and paddleboard surfers. Paddlers say the new rules favor traditional surfers, and surfers say paddlers make the surf line unsafe."

IMO forget the SUP board, rent a real surfboard, go down and park at san onofre and figure out how to get up. Get a lesson from a surf shop.

If I were you I would stay to the North of Los Angeles. Try Oxnard.. Great spot for SUP.

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Mainly looking for some point break with a good swell of max 5-7ft.

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Yeah, arent we all?

Dogpatch on the very South end of San Onofre. Boneyards just to the North of Swamis. Cardiff straight out.

I personally don't like surfing around SUP's, but if you must, they are fairly common @ Bolsa Chica (far north end of Huntington Beach) and Doheny (Dana Point by the boat harbor).