You can’t visit Santa Cruz without surfing. It’s one of the most iconic surfing cities in the world. Even if you aren’t a surfer Cowells Beach is rated the #1 surf spot in the world for beginners. It’s also a popular spot for long boarders because it offers long easy waves to have fun with. It’s located right at the Santa Cruz Pier which makes it conveniently 

located. I tried to go surfing at Cowells 2 days but both days the waves were small and I was ready for some real action so I headed about a mile up to Lighthouse Field State Beach. The waves were hitting! This is such a unique surf spot. It gets great waves and they break right next to the cliffs! 92 people have died surfing at this spot in the past 40 or so years so don’t go here if you’re new to surfing.

There are 2 access points to the surf spot, you can climb down the rocks of the cliff with your board or you can jump off the cliff into the deeper water and throw your board while in the air. I didn’t know about the cliff jumping until I was already in so I had climbed down the sketchy rocks to paddle out.

It was a beautiful morning and there were only around 10 surfers out. This area is known for the local surfers to be very territorial and I saw a little bit of that later when more people came out. Just follow the basic surfing rules and you’ll be fine.

There was a big crowd overlooking on the cliff and a few photographers catching the action. I found a pic on instagram of myself surfing from someone up on the cliff. The seals came right up to me and I haven’t gone through my gopro footage yet but I’m confident I got some pretty awesome footage of surfers, seals and fish. Make sure you are subscribed to this blog so you will get the updates when the video comes out.