Moonlight State Beach | |
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Location | San Diego County, California |
Nearest city | Encinitas |
Coordinates | 33°2′51″N117°17′51″W / 33.04750°N 117.29750°W |
Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation |
Moonlight State Beach is a state beach in Encinitas, California. It is located one fifth of one mile beyond the point where Encinitas Boulevard turns into B Street after it crosses Highway 101. [1]
The beach area is well equipped for both children's and adults' recreation. [2] It is popular with both tourists and residents, and it is one of the most visited beaches in Encinitas. [3] This sand beach is used for surfing, swimming, surf fishing, beach volleyball, and bonfires. [4]
Early female settlers washed clothing in nearby Cottonwood Creek, then provided picnics for their families while the laundry dried. [3] Land prospector J. S. Pitcher, who owned much of Encinitas, built a bathhouse, playground, boardwalk, dance hall, and several picnic areas. [1] Between 1915 and 1925, Moonlight Beach began to attract North County residents for social outings. [1] Popular events included horse races. [5] At that time, during low tide, one could drive a Model T north on the beach all the way to Oceanside. [1]
Linda Benson, five-time women's world surfing champion, who learned to surf at Moonlight Beach in the late 1950s, says that “Moonlight Beach is not a great longboard wave anymore. It's changed and it's pretty much a shortboard wave now. It really breaks hard and fast now. It wasn't like that. It was a fun beach break”. [1]
The wave breaks best during a southwest swell with a rising tide. The sandbars also have a tremendous impact on the quality of the wave. [6]
Since the early 1950s, two-man volleyball has been played at Moonlight Beach. Several of the players from the Pro Tour practice their game at Moonlight. Originally there was only one court in the middle of the beach, but currently there are three courts at the north end of the beach. Every year since 1964 in the month of October, a Mixed Doubles Volleyball Tournament is held here; many of the top beach players in the world participate.
Because of the presence of harmful bacteria in dry-season urban run-off into Cottonwood Creek, a small creek that runs into the ocean at Moonlight Beach, water quality has been an issue at Moonlight Beach in the past, especially after significant rain events. For example, in 2002, the beach earned a "D" grade from "Heal the Bay", a Santa Monica-based nonprofit organization which monitors water quality along the California coast. [7] Water quality in Cottonwood Creek has since however improved significantly because of UV treatment carried out routinely in the urban run-off treatment facility on B Street at 2nd Street; from April 2005 through March 2007, the beach earned five As and one B from Heal the Bay.
The beach is open for use all day except between 2 am and 4 am. There is a parking lot above the beach which is open from 5 am to 10 pm. No dogs, alcohol, or glass are allowed on the beach. The lifeguard towers are open from 10 am to 6 pm during the summer months. Facilities at the beach include handicapped access, a picnic area, numerous restrooms, outdoor showers, a telephone, concession stand daily (Easter through Thanksgiving), surfboard and boogie board rental, fire rings, playground equipment, and volleyball courts. A tennis court is available nearby in Cottonwood Creek at Moonlight Beach, a small nature reserve with many native plants.
During midsummer, Moonlight Beach hosts Switchfoot's "Bro-Am", a charity event which is a surf contest and a massive beach party hosted by the alternative rock band Switchfoot, and sponsored by Hurley. The event runs over two days (usually a Friday and Saturday) that are filled with music, charity, and surfing on this beach where Switchfoot's lead duo, the Foreman brothers, learned to surf.
On the third Saturday of September each year is an event known as "Wavecrest", a major meet of woodies, which are vintage cars in which the rear portion of the bodywork is made of wood; these vehicles are a traditional part of West Coast surfing culture. [8]
Also during the fall, Moonlight Beach is the venue for the Surfing Madonna 5K/10K & 10 Mile Beach Run/Walk, which is also a charity event that gives the proceeds back to the community for programs such as youth scholarships, free surf camps for special needs kids and the wounded warrior project, as well as marine mammal rescue and recovery equipment. The entire course of the event is on the hard-packed sand, starting and ending in the Moonlight Beach cove. Roughly 8,000 people attend this event each year.
Encinitas is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of San Diego, between Solana Beach and Carlsbad, and about 95 miles (153 km) south of Los Angeles. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a population of 62,007, up from 59,518 at the 2010 census.
Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,137 at the 2020 United States census, down from 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles (22.7 km) south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles (8 km) northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico.
North County is a region in the northern area of San Diego County, California. It is the second-most populous region in the county, with an estimated population of 869,322. North County is well known for its affluence, especially in Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, and Solana Beach, where house prices range, on average, above $1,000,000. Cities along the 78 freeway have more mixed incomes.
Rincon(Spanish, "angle" or "corner") is a surf spot located at the Ventura and Santa Barbara County line in Southern California, United States. Also known as the "Queen of the Coast", Rincon is one of the most famous surf spots in California, known around the world for its well-formed waves and long rides. The book 100 Best Surf Spots in the World rates Rincon at 24. It is best at low tide during the winter months when swells are coming mostly from the west and northwest. There is a gated residential community that occupies most of the Rincon beachfront. Public access is provided at parking lots on both sides of the gated community, with restrooms and a picnic area in the upper parking lot, Rincon Beach Park.
Black's Beach is a secluded section of beach beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States. It is officially part of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern portion of Black's Beach is owned and managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, while the southern portion of the beach, officially known as Torrey Pines City Beach, is jointly owned by the city of San Diego and the state park, but is managed by the city of San Diego. This distinction is important as Black's Beach is most known as a nude beach, a practice that is now prohibited in the southern portion managed by the city of San Diego.
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, usually referred to as Cardiff, is a beach community in the incorporated city of Encinitas in San Diego County, California. The Pacific Ocean is to the west of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, the rest of incorporated Encinitas is to the east and north, and a beach and lagoon to the south. With a population of under 12,000, Cardiff-by-the-Sea operates as part of the city of Encinitas, but unlike the other communities that comprise Encinitas, has its own ZIP code (92007). Cardiff is home to a few well-known surf spots, such as Swami's and Cardiff Reef.
Natural Bridges State Beach is a 65-acre (26 ha) California state park in Santa Cruz, California, in the United States. The park features a natural bridge across a section of the beach. It is also well known as a hotspot to see monarch butterfly migrations. The Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve is home to up to 150,000 monarch butterflies from October through early February.
Trestles is a collection of surfing spots between northern San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County and southern San Clemente in Orange County in California. Trestles consists of, from north to south, Upper Trestles (Uppers), Lower Trestles (Lowers), and Middle Trestles (Middles). North of Upper Trestles is the surf spot called Cottons. South of Middles is the surf spot called The Church. Middles gets its name because it was a middle area between Trestles and The Church (sometimes just called "Church". It is named after Trestles Bridge, a wooden trestle bridge that surfers must walk under to reach the beach, replaced in 2012 by a concrete viaduct.
Surf forecasting is the process of using offshore swell data to predict onshore wave conditions. It is used by millions of people across the world, including professionals who put their forecasts online, meteorologists who work for news crews, and surfers all over the world. It is impossible to make an exact prediction of the surf, but by knowing a few factors a good prediction can be made. One needs to have an understanding of how waves are formed, a basic knowledge of bathymetry, and information about the surf spot being forecasted to accurately forecast the surf.
Zuma Beach is a county beach at 30000 Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu, California. One of the largest and most popular beaches in Los Angeles County, California, it is known for its long, wide sands and excellent surf. It consistently ranks among the healthiest beaches for clean water conditions in Los Angeles County.
A surf break is a permanent obstruction such as a coral reef, rock, shoal, or headland that causes a wave to break, forming a barreling wave or other wave that can be surfed, before it eventually collapses. The topography of the seabed determines the shape of the wave and type of break. Since shoals can change size and location, affecting the break, it takes commitment and skill to find good breaks. Some surf breaks are quite dangerous, since the surfer can collide with a reef or rocks below the water.
Magic Carpet Ride is the official name of a 6-foot (1.8 m) high bronze sculpture (2007) of a surfer by Matthew Antichevich, an artist and sculpture instructor at Mt. San Jacinto College. The sculpture is mounted on a 6-foot high granite base with poetry inscription by Robert Nanninga, and is in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Encinitas, California, United States. Locals have nicknamed Magic Carpet Ride as The Cardiff Kook, a pejorative name popularized by the local surfing community.
Swami’s State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area that extends offshore of Encinitas in San Diego County on California’s south coast. The SMCA covers 12.65 square miles. The SMCA protects marine life by limiting the removal of marine wildlife from within its borders.
Surfline is a company and website based in Huntington Beach, California that specializes in surf forecasting and surf reports, live webcasting, photography, videography, as well as editorial coverage of the sport of surfing. Surfline.com is now ranked 1,180 in the US and 5,784 in the world in terms of popularity compared to other websites and is now the largest provider of streaming HD coastal cams. Since 2003 it has taken on buoyweather.com and fishtrack.com (2012), on average the family of websites receives 175,000 visitors per day. The site includes streaming video, surf reports and forecasts. Surfline.com offers over 500 streaming cameras at 150 surf breaks, and is one of the larger surf cam websites. Surfline currently has approximately 50 employees.
The Surfing Madonna is a 10 by 10 feet mosaic of the Virgen de Guadalupe created by artist Mark Patterson. It was covertly installed in Encinitas, California by Patterson and his friend Bob Nichols, who posed as construction workers during the installation. The city declared that the artwork was to be considered graffiti because of the illegality of its installation. Patterson came forward to accept responsibility for it, and was fined $500 and ordered to pay approximately $6,000 for the art's removal. It was removed in 90 minutes, and Patterson was allowed to keep the art.
The Cottonwood Creek is a stream in San Diego County, California. It originates in the Cottonwood Creek Park in the town of Encinitas, then flows towards Moonlight Beach, where it discharges into the Pacific Ocean.
Sand Dollar Beach is a .5 miles (0.80 km) long beach in Big Sur, California, one of the longest publicly accessible beaches on that coast. It is within the Los Padres National Forest and across Highway 1 from Plaskett Creek Campground. There is a picnic area, bathrooms, and barbeque pits at the parking area. There is a $10 access fee payable at the parking lot managed by a concession company. Dogs are permitted on leash while on the trail and off leash at the beach. Beach access is open daily from sunrise to sunset and is only available for day use. Swimming and wading are not recommended due to dangerous surf conditions and strong rip currents.
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