Shore Enough : Orange County’s 42 Miles of Beaches Assure Everyone a Place in the Sun

You can wind-surf the gentle waves at Seal Beach. Picnic on the broad sand at Huntington or body-surf the thunderous Wedge at the end of Balboa Peninsula.

You can sun and be seen at Corona del Mar. Scuba through rocky, underwater coves off Laguna Beach or ride the ocean’s edge on skim boards at Aliso Beach County Park.

Of course, at almost all of Orange County’s 42-mile sweep of beaches, you can swim--if you can brave the bracing 58- to 68-degree summer water temperature.

The county coastline has been consistently praised as among the most diverse and accessible in the state.

“The coast has sometimes been referred to as the California Riviera,” said Patti Schooley, a parks district supervisor for the Harbors, Beaches and Parks Division of the county Environmental Management Agency. “Traditionally in Orange County, there’s been a big push to have public access to these beaches. There are a lot of . . . activities and amenities and towns, and there really aren’t any better examples of sandy beaches anywhere along the state.”

This month marks the beginning of the massive yearly migration of residents to county beaches. They come by the thousands, sometimes by the hundreds of thousands--more than a half million on July 4, the busiest beach day of the summer.

From north to south, beach by beach, here is what they will find.

Seal Beach, Surfside, Huntington Beach--This strip of coastline offers the county’s largest, flattest and widest beaches, particularly along Huntington Beach. It draws immense crowds on the hottest summer days, but cooling breezes often provide the trade-off.

Seal Beach is “the king of windsurfing,” said lifeguard Steve Kumashiro, because of frequent, brisk breezes there. Anglers also make year-round use of the pier. The city beach is about a mile long, between the San Gabriel River and the Anaheim Bay jetties. It is not considered a good surfing spot.

“We occasionally have nice swells, but they don’t get as big as they do at Bolsa Chica or Huntington Beach. We get mostly Boogie Boarders and swimmers and body surfers,” Kumashiro said.

The summer crowd is generally high school age, and a lot of meeting and greeting goes on along the sand.

To the southeast, beyond Anaheim Bay, is the community of Surfside, and a beach administered by the county.

“It’s primarily a swimmer’s beach, although certain areas attract surfers,” Schooley said. “The swimming is typically safe, because the area isn’t prone to high waves or bad currents.”

Adjacent Sunset Beach offers a pedestrian and bike path along a grassy strip. Surfing is allowed off part of the beach.

Bolsa Chica State Beach begins to the southeast across Warner Avenue. In the late 1950s, before the state took over the area, the strand was known popularly as Tin Can Beach because thousands of rusting cans and other trash littered the sand.

Today, it is a clean, flat, 3.5-mile-long sandy beach with a promenade used by cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders and roller skaters.

The entire beach, lifeguard Lon Graham said, is “excellent for beginning surfers.” Fire rings placed at intervals make it popular for barbecues and picnics.

Grunion fanciers often come to the beach for runs between March and August.

Across Pacific Coast Highway is the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, a wetlands area popular for nature walks and bird watching.

The adjacent Huntington City Beach is known as surf city, said Mike Beuerlein, a city lifeguard supervisor. “The landmark pier is the primary point for most surfers. That’s where the OP Pro surfing competition takes place each year, and that’s the granddaddy of all surfing competitions. It’s the foremost international surfing event in the world, and we get crowds of between 75,000 and 100,000 people here over the five days.”

The prized waves are generated because of the effect of a man-made reef constructed offshore by the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1950s as well as currents caused by the pier’s pilings, Beuerlein said.

Chris Saenz, manager of the Huntington Surf and Sport store, praised the area for its consistent waves. R.B. Alexander, owner of Hobie Sports Ltd., in Corona del Mar, said the city beach challenges the surfer who has some experience and is ready to graduate to larger, more difficult waves.

Farther to the northwest is the area known as the Huntington Bluffs, which is more difficult to get to--by foot down the steep bluffs--but it offers gentler waves breaking farther away from shore.

Just to the southeast, Huntington State Beach is an intensely busy stretch for the lifeguards who work there, state lifeguard Jim Balok said. Because of its size and large parking area, it and the rest of the Huntington Beach coast often are packed.

“On Memorial Day, we had 110 rescues, just that one day,” Balok said.

The beach has designated surfing and swimming areas (south of Lifeguard Tower 2 and north of that tower, respectively). It also may be the beach barbecue capital with 700 fire pits available day and night.

The area offers good surfing because of two offshore sand bars that create a shore and an outside break and give the waves good tubular formation, Balok said.

Newport Beach, Corona del Mar--Come to this stretch of beach to see and be seen. The latest bathing suits, the best in new surfing gear, the most flamboyant sports cars, the most cultivated tans--they’re all here along Orange County’s wealthiest coast.

Parking, however, can be a nightmare, and enforcement of regulations stiff, but this area offers unique rewards, from the county’s freshest fish to its most vicious waves.

Said marine safety officer Eric Bauer: “In the summertime, you’ve got to get down here early and get a parking space (on the street, both free and metered) or you won’t get a spot. And if you park somewhere illegally, you’re guaranteed to get a ticket.”

Newport Beach’s six miles of oceanfront are rich with people-watching opportunities and waterside atmosphere, especially along the Balboa Peninsula.

The West Newport and peninsula beaches are used mainly for sunning and some surfing, Bauer said, and the beach near 18th Street, known as the Point, sometimes has what he called “some of the best big-wave surfing. It’s rare, but sometimes there have been waves up to 15 or 20 feet with very good shape.”

The beach at 56th Street usually features waves requiring skill and experience, said Alexander of Hobie Sports. Consequently, surfers there show off their finery as well as their athleticism.

A well-used bicycle path runs the length of the beach, and there are boardwalks near the Balboa and Newport piers. The Newport Beach Dory Fleet sells daily fresh fish next to the Newport Pier.

For body surfers--good ones--the Wedge is the legendary mecca, with its vicious V-shaped break off the western jetty of the harbor mouth.

Across from it in Corona del Mar is Big Corona, a favorite family picnicking and sunning spot. And just southeast is Little Corona, a marine preserve with tide pools that draw beachcombers.

The Newport area in general is a highly social beach, when beach-goers often take advantage of the Fun Zone, Balboa Pavilion, restaurants, harbor tours and other bay attractions.

“We can get as many as 100,000 to 110,000 people here on a good weekend,” Bauer said. “It’s the place to be in the summer.”

Irvine Coast, Laguna Beach, South Laguna--Rugged, often steep, with thin slices of beach, the south central coast is more varied than its northern counterparts. It’s also the shore diver’s dream with sheltered coves, mild waves and easy access.

Crystal Cove State Park on the Irvine coast between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach is an underwater reserve for scuba divers. Nearby is Seal Rock, where elephant seals and California sea lions often sun themselves and occasionally swim with divers.

Farther south are a series of rugged coves--principally Shaw’s Cove, Diver’s Cove, Fisherman’s Cove and Main Beach--considered ideal for diving classes, scuba diving and snorkeling, said Michael Janssen, sales manager of Black Bart’s Aquatics in Dana Point.

“It’s probably the best beach diving in the area,” he said. “The nice thing is, you can make a dive or two by noon and eat lunch and you have the rest of the day to do something else. On a boat dive to Catalina, you spend all day. You can stay near the rocks, or dive with the seals at Seal Rock, or swim out to the kelp beds and sandy areas. And there are steps down to the coves, so they’re easily accessible. It isn’t like you have to haul your gear down steep slopes to get to the water.”

Most Laguna Beach coves are encompassed by a marine preserve; underwater hunting is not permitted.

Laguna’s Main Beach is the most visible spot along that part of the coast. It has a curving boardwalk, volleyball and basketball courts and lifeguard tower, which is a popular meeting place for young visitors, lifeguard Seth Berger said.

Farther south, Aliso Beach County Park is a favorite of sunbathers and swimmers, “although it tends to have a pretty treacherous shore break with a lot of power,” said Schooley of the Environmental Management Agency. “It’s popular for skim boarding, but very little surfing.”

Many small coves dot the South Laguna area, such as Coast Royale--good for swimming--and Thousand Steps Beach--good for swimming, body boarding and volleyball. The name is apt: It takes a strong pair of lungs to negotiate the steps from the highway to the beach.

Dana Point, Capistrano Beach, San Clemente--The southernmost beaches are an amalgam of the others: wide, flat and accommodating at Doheny State Beach and along much of San Clemente, yet haunting, rocky, even lonely as the beach approaches the open spaces near San Onofre at the county line.

Salt Creek Beach is a well-liked surfing spot with picnic facilities and a half basketball court.

Doheny State Beach at Dana Point is one of the best to “take a neophyte surfer and say, ‘This is the sport. This is what it’s all about,’ ” Alexander said. “You can send a guy there at any stage of his surfing career, and he can have a good time.”

The beach usually offers overnight campsites, but they are being renovated this year and are closed for the summer, park aide Ginny McVickar said.

The beach does have an “interpretive center” with three aquariums, an indoor tide pool and a gift shop.

Farther south, Capistrano Beach Park, with its eight volleyball courts, fire pits and metered parking, offer a half-mile-long beach mainly used for swimming.

Nearby San Clemente city beaches have long been known as family retreats, as well as good year-round, designated surfing beaches, said city marine safety officer Steve Lashbrook. The three main surfing areas are south of Trafalgar Street, on the north side of the pier and at a nearby beach known as 204 (for a railroad mileage sign marking the spot).

The lively, youthful social life of Huntington and Newport beaches usually is not seen in San Clemente, Lashbrook said, “because people’s interests here are so diverse--surfing, skim boarding, swimming--and because of the family orientation.”

At the southernmost tip of the county San Clemente State Beach offers some of the finest surfing on the coast, particularly at Trestles Beach (below the old Western White House) and adjacent beaches. The 72 hookup sites there for recreational vehicles are being refurbished and will be available in mid-July, said Allen Oliver, district superintendent for the Pendleton Coast State Parks District. When the RV sites reopen, the family campsites will be closed for the duration of the summer for refurbishing.

The state beach as well as the adjacent San Onofre State Beach over the county line reminds Oliver of uncrowded beaches from the ‘40s: “It’s like taking a step back in time.”

Patrick Mott is a regular contributor to Orange County Life.

SAND, SURF, SUN A guide to the county’s beaches. Clipboard, Page 2