Moss Landing Surf Guide

Moss Landing Surf Guide

One of California's best beachbreaks. During the winter, when a W swell is filling the bay and the offshores are howling out of the Salinas Valley, Moss Landing will take your breath away, in more ways than one. Just offshore, hidden under all that water, the Monterey Canyon drops down to a maximum depth of over a mile, and the Canyon has an effect on what happens along the beach. The swell that hits Moss Landing has come out of very, very deep water and hasn't been slowed down by the continental shelf. The result is a very powerful, often frustrating, beachbreak. It can be almost impossible to get out at Moss Landing, and there is always the possibility of getting hammered by a triple-overhead wave.

In the winter, Moss Landing is a very serious surf spot -- big, powerful and challenging. The surf mellows the closer you go to the jetty to the south, and it gets gnarlier as you go north, toward the dunes. There also is surf on the other side of the harbor, in front of the Moss Landing Marine Lab and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.