Is This Southern California’s Most Crowded Surf Spot?

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
25

Crowds, man.

They’re inevitable, yet seem to be getting heavier and heavier, year after year.

And one of the most crowded surfing zones in the world has to be southern California. But if you had to guess, which spot would be the most crowded?

Lowers? Rincon? HB? South Bay?

Some might say Malibu, and that would be a good guess; but perhaps there’s an even more crowded spot in SoCal, as investigated by surf videographer, Brad Jacobson:

Doheny.

In a recent post, Jacobson posed the question, “Is Doheny more crowded than Malibu?”

To which, many commenters had thoughts (mostly in the affirmative):

“Yes, but it’s more acceptable for multiple people to be on a wave because the waves suck and everyone pretty much goes straight anyway”

“Yes but it’s a just a novelty wave for people to learn on. Like Californias Waikiki. Where as Malibu can be a world class wave but unfortunately it’s become kook central.”

“I see dollar signs for the surf industry. Covid created surfers.”

“Party wave central. My favorite is the old kooks who think every other wave is there’s and there’s only and throw a fit about it in the lineup.”

“Doheny crowd is chill at least.”

Once famed as a spot for progression and big-ish wave pioneering, Killer Dana was a premier surf spot in southern California. But that ended in 1966, when the Army Corps of Engineers closed the area to all marine activity and began construction on the harbor. With that, Killer Dana died; in its place came the beginner-friendly wave we see today.

Hence the heavy crowd.

Stay tuned for a full video breakdown of the crowd situation at Doheny, which is most certainly in the works from Jacobson and coming soon.

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