About Humboldt County Surf Travel
If you don’t mind taking a backseat to nature, the land here is truly awe-inspiring. In the south, abrupt coastal ridges caked with Douglas fir and madrona rain forests relax into soothing, rolling hills of green and cattle, then into miles of lazy flatland marshes, sand dunes and beach grass. Humboldt Bay — California’s largest port north of San Francisco — coalesces into Arcata Bay before the landscape is once again riddled with dunes, cows and weather-beaten farmhouses. The coast snaps back to attention at Westhaven, where ground levels rise and boulders resume their presence in the lineup. Nine miles of lagoons follow, before the drippy, fern-choked walls of old-growth redwoods come into view at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Sheer cliff is the rule until Crescent City (Wilson Creek exempted), where an intriguing balance of offshore rocks and islands mesh with some formidable summertime beachbreak up to the Oregon state line.
What about the surf along the Redwood Coast? Well, if you’re used to immediate gratification, we highly suggest you take a trip to Tavarua instead. Humboldt north is truly a land of feast or famine, with the big feedings few and far between. The reefs aren’t perfect, the sandbars are temperamental and it’s seemingly 20-feet and unrideable all winter long. But this isn’t to say that Humboldt is devoid of classic days. To the devoted residents and the serendipitous visitor, the Redwood Coast has proven to be more than capable of serving up a heaping portion of cold-water perfection.
Humboldt County Surf Crowds:
Arcata’s Humboldt State University is instrumental in sucking many surfers to these waters, much like the UC Santa Cruz phenomenon. Typically, crowds only congeal on weekends, sunny days and epic, rainy days. Every spot is sharky, so that’s not really a factor in crowd control. If you go to the popular spots, you may be passing some guys down the path, but if you know where to look, you can surf by yourself any time, any day.
Humboldt County Surf Hazards:
SHARKS. The land o’ plenty. Santa Cruz can claim the Red Triangle, but this is the Blood Red Triangle. As with anywhere, the rivermouths are the most hospitable areas for sharks, but reefs and pointbreaks can be just as bad. Surf with someone else, if you can. There have been two attacks here since 1997 (both non-fatal) and several during the past 25 years. If you dwell on the fact that this place is indeed a shark pit, you won’t enjoy yourself. If it happens, it happens.
Best Surf Seasons in Humboldt County:
1) Fall
2) Spring
3) Winter
The granddaddy. Too much giant swell, horizontal rain and gale-force wind. Per month, the unsurfable days outnumber the surfable ones. If you’ve got big brass-monkey balls and a sturdy gun bigger than 8’6″, you’ll be surfing more than the rest of us. Ask any NorCal surfer about wintertime, and you’ll hear this: for giant surf (15 to 30 feet plus), it rules. For fun-size surf, it sucks.
4) Summer
Junk surf, fog, onshore wind, freezing water, tourists galore. The time not to be here. Although the surf does get small and SoCal-esque, it’ll be hard to see since the months of June, July and August are so friggin’ foggy. Cold, too: spring winds lead to summer upwelling and water temps dip to 45 degrees Fahrenheit — a wear-your-hood-and-still-get-an-ice-cream-headache sort of cold. The surf sags significantly during summer, making a longboard a useful tool.