Lake Worth Pier Surf Guide

Lake Worth Pier Surf Guide

Between the main cities of West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale are three smaller coastal communities, and each claim a surfing centerpiece that can be accessed off A1A. Lake Worth, which divides Palm Beach and South Palm Beach, has a pier of questionable reputation. Lantana is a couple miles south of Lake Worth on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway, but also boasts a popular public beach. Boynton Beach, which has its own inlet and park, sits farther south between Manalapan and Delray Beach. Watch out for underwater rocks along the shore.

When the sandbars are established, this pier provides the most consistent surf in South Florida. It's inside Lake Worth Municipal Beach off A1A, with plenty of metered parking for $1/hour. Don't mess around; these babies are really enforced.

Lake Worth was once one of the most viciously localized break in Florida, which is probably why it's barely known beyond state lines. During the '70s and '80s, visiting surfers would encounter nightmarish ultra-violence of the "harass your girlfriend," "break your board" and "smash your windshield" variety. Once, after being dropped in on, a local followed his provocateur to the beach and proceeded to smash the surfer's board on a parking meter. The upset visitor took a swing at the local, but quickly found himself hog-tied around the very parking meter that took out his surfboard and was later found and untied by the police. Things have mellowed quite a bit since then.

Clearly, Lake Worth must house a good wave to justify such extreme measures; in fact, it offers several. First, just before the guarded area on the south side of the pier, a sandbar runs farther south in front of an old seawall called Blackwall. When north or northeast swells are running and the sand is settled, fast, hollow waves reel along this bar, earning it the hyperbolic name, Banzai.

The Pier's south side maintains an outside sandbar as well. Overhead swells will break off the end of the pier, mush out and then reform down by Blackwall. On the biggest swells, it gets steep and fast and occasionally connects all the way through to the inside. The south side is one of the better spots during nor'easter conditions -- if there isn't too much underlying groundswell -- as the waves are shielded somewhat from the wind.

While north swells can sometimes bypass Palm Beach and be bigger in Lake Worth, the pier gets juiciest during east/southeast windswells. Sandbars off Blackwall will throw good rights under these conditions. However, if Northside is working, it's arguably the best peak on either side of the pilings, throwing hollow, high-speed, top-to-bottom rights. Some of the waves break left through the pier, and if you like to tempt fate and arouse the ire of authorities, shooting the pier is a good way to do both. This once highly highly localized spot is a bit tamer. Go to spot on windswells and can be some fun chunky wedges even if the wind is onshore. NE swells can get big here with basically no continental shelf thanks to its position close to the Florida Current. This spot can handle any size thrown at it and have seen faces 20'+ on the biggest swells. When it gets big, grab a bigger board and be ready to paddle.