California

Why San Diego

Southern California packs an enormous range into an hour's drive, and San Diego is its friendliest corner.

• La Jolla Shores is a soft, sandy-bottom beach break and one of the safest places in California to learn.
• Pacific Beach and the North County breaks (Encinitas, Moonlight) are the everyday beach-break diet — fun, inconsistent, sometimes excellent.
• Lower Trestles, an hour north, is one of the best performance waves in the country and one of the most crowded.
• Blacks Beach is a heavy, canyon-fed beach break for strong surfers only.

Wear a wetsuit. Even in August the water rarely gets truly warm, and in winter a 4/3 is standard. People underestimate this constantly.

When to go

• May–Oct: the warmest water and the south-swell season — the friendliest window, and when lessons run.
• Nov–Apr: bigger northwest swells, colder water, better waves for experienced surfers.

Getting around

Fly into San Diego (SAN). You will want a car — the good breaks are spread up the coast, and the difference between a great day and a wasted one is often a twenty-minute drive. As in Hawaii, there are no surf-and-stay camps here: you book lodging and a surf school separately.