Lindamar

Surf Guide

Ever see the movie Harold and Maude? At the end, when Harold drives his hearse off the cliff, that's the north end of Linda Mar. Cool little factoid. Linda Mar is a mile-long stretch of beach between the north point and Pedro Point. Because this place is somewhat protected from swell and wind, it is a mostly beginner to intermediate wave that has become staggeringly popular with the gentry. Pedro Point has had a thriving surf scene since the '40s, but things have changed since the balsa days. There was a time when the only surfers in the parking lot at Linda Mar were a couple of guys in cut-off Levis with their boards strapped the wrong way to the roof of a GTO or a Camaro, or going further back, to the roof of a Woody. These days, the parking lot at Linda Mar seems to be full of SUVs and people with surfboards. Many of those people are women. Linda Mar has its epic days, but for the most part, the surf ranges from poor to so-so, and the water is crowded with beginners and intermediate surfers. "It's the poor man's Cowell's," as one local surfer described it. Linda Mar has a reputation for being gray and gloomy, but even in the thick of the region's summer fog season, there's often an inexplicable donut of sunshine beating down on the place. In the fall and winter and into the spring, it can be a very pretty place: green hills, offshore winds, blue water, nice surf. Linda Mar is at the end of a big valley that funnels south and southwest winds into offshores, and the surf can be cranking there during the winter, when the rest of the coast is blown out. The same condition can exist in the summer, when that valley will turn the onshore fog winds into offshores. Linda Mar can be sunny and nice when Ocean Beach is like Moscow in winter. From north to south, the first spot at Linda Mar is called Round House. Next is Wander Inn, named for a bar that thrived in the '60s and introduced a lot of young surfers to the evils of drink. South of Wander Inn, there is a parking lot and showers and some of the funkiest toilets in California. This area is called State Park or the Pump House. South of that is the best-looking Taco Bell you'll ever find, then The Creek, where a small, possibly toxic creek comes out to sea. At the south end of Linda Mar, The Boatdocks are lefts that break along the point in front of Dick Keating's house.