Lake Worth Pier:
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, but the break is more famous for serving up steady beatings. Even if you don’t get punched, you probably won’t snag any good peaks, either. At least getting to the Lake Worth Pier is easy. It’s inside Lake Worth Municipal Beach off A1A, with plenty of metered parking.
Lake Worth is 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 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. Local Pro Baron Knowlton first learned to tuberide on this perfect little wave before moving on to places like Pipe and Honolua Bay. These days, he’s traveling less and is frequently heard at his old stomping grounds.
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 will often 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.
Hilton Hotel Backyard:
These sandbars are a good option if Lake Worth isn’t worth the hassle. They’re fun at mid-tide and only on east-southeast windswells. Short, fast rights and lefts break off the two buoys. Constant paddling is usually required to stay in position. The surf is far from epic, but crowds never present a problem — there are maybe a half-dozen people who surf here regularly — and it’s usually fun. Just be careful not to get your leash tangled in the buoy lines, and watch out for sheet-white tourists in the impact zone. Man-of-war are often present during windswells, and sea lice are vicious in the late spring and early summer. But if you attempt to park in the hotel parking lot, then tow trucks become the main hazard. It’s best to park down at Kruesler Park north of the Lake Worth Pier and walk north a quarter-mile.