Huntington Beach #1 California Surf City?

HB is pretty popular for surfing, the only problem is the bad water quality. Newport has better water quality but waves aren't quite as good, I think Seal Beach is underrated.

Planning your trip to Mecca?

california has lots of stores that can offer you the best vibrations.

sorry, double post

Excerpt from my local online surf report:
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I'm sure you are aware about the trademark fight between Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach over the moniker "Surf City USA." Well, recently a Santa Cruz wharf t-shirt shop that's been there since the dawn of time printed and started selling t-shirts with the logo "Surf City Santa Cruz California USA." Some lawyer butt-heads (often a repetitive redundancy) for HB sent the t-shirt dudes a strongly worded "cease and desist" (what if they only desisted?) letter giving the shop until September 29, to stop selling the shirts or else.

So what does the t-shirt shop do? Pull the shirts and burn them, lest they offend the legal gods? No way, Jose. They drop the price and they're selling them lot hot cakes because of the publicity from HB's bad mojo.

But here's the point. Well . . . let me give you an example of the point.
See if you can divine the difference in attitude between HB and Santa Cruz local governments from these quotes (this is all from yesterday L.A. Times, California Section, pg. 10):

Santa Cruz: "Come on," said Christina Glynn, a spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz City Council. "It's only a t-shirt."

HB: Huntington Beach Mayor Jill Hardy said if Santa Cruz . . . . "wants to help a business violate trademark law, that's Santa Cruz's problem. The City of Huntington Beach would not take it lightly if a store was violating federal law."
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So, I say Santa Cruz = #1 Surf City

But, in SoCal, I'd go for Encinitas or Leucadia.

Consider also that Santa Cruz is home to some of the world's most respected big wave riders. They've got my vote.

huntington tends to get a bit overcrowded at times... i personally like laguna, just a better atmosphere overall.

??? The only big waves you see in Santa Cruz come in El Nino years, when huge walls of green foamy water smash into Seabright Beach and Seascape (Aptos). The break is impossibly short, uniform, and close to shore. No one surfs those. They can't be surfed. Only fools even swim in the water because the accompanying rip tides are so vicious.

The two decent Santa Cruz surf spots are Lighthouse Point and Pleasure Point (which is really Capitola). The breaks are nice and looooong but the waves are not big at all. However, the fact that they break so near to cliff walls introduces a spine-tingling element of danger.

The nearest big wave beach is Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, about 40 miles north. Those are big f@$#ing waves. Maybe a lot of the guys who surf there live in Santa Cruz -- I guess that's possible -- but it's pretty much an international beach.

I think surfing is a much bigger part of everday life in Huntington Beach, for a great many more people, than in Santa Cruz. So on that score I would have to give them the nod as "Surf City California."

Hey, Wilson Brother, congratulations on finishing SMiLE!

Wilson Bro., are you more interesting in the waves per se or more the "surf city" vibe? Huntington's a pretty good combination of the two. Newport and Seal Beach, imho, are a little to upscale for the latter. Hermosa Beach is stronger on the former than the latter. Malibu/Topanga/Ventura have generally mediocre waves but a strong and genuine surfer culture although parts of Malibu suffer the same afflictions as Newport and Seal Beach.
I love Santa Cruz, but imho it's too damn cold for a true Beach Boys experience.

"Hey! The water is 60! Heat wave!"

LOL, exactly. Perhaps that explains why so many women in Santa Cruz let their leg hair grow out . . .

WB: lawyerdad makes a good point. The true Beach Boys lifestyle is fundamentally a SoCal experiece. So pack your woody station wagon, stop by In-N-Out for a double-double, and get thee to Hawthorne, where the dream began ... Santa Cruz is a hippie town.