Surf: Wide, sandy beach with various sandbar peaks; often very hollow and always powerful. Gets epic during offshore winds, funnelled by Trancas and Zuma canyons, and a peaky SW swell. Holds up to a foot or two overhead. Wicked currents and rips. Use caution. Environment: A huge pay-parking lot borders the entire three-mile-plus stretch of beach. It’s where all the Valley people come for their beach parties. Think Disneyland-by-the-Sea. Surf: General: This three-mile long beach is a popular summer spot for the Valley kids. Plainly marked restrooms, picnics, snack bar, blackball flags...bring the whole barn. The area serves up a punchy shorepound, with mostly lefts during summer. Great place for bodyboarding, but gets heavy with size and is absolutely nuts over 10 feet. Your best chance is to catch it on a crossed-up swell, stronger from the south, with Santa Ana winds. A great family beach, except for that big gang brawl back in 1992.

At the very southern end of Zuma is a stretch called Westward or Drainpipes, one of the heaviest beachbreaks in Southern California. How heavy? This is where one of California's most promising amateurs, Jesse Billauer, hit the sandbar wrong and is now paralyzed from the waist down. (Today, he helps fellow spinal cord victims with his foundation, Life Rolls On). The wave is no joke, and it's always thicker, hollower and bigger than it looks. Big summer south swells wrap around the point, grinding out bathing suit-stripping lefts. Follow Westward Beach Road as it snakes a mile-and-a-half out to a dramatic rock cliff at the north side of Point Dume. Voted most likely to blow out. Tides: medium Size: waist high to double overhead and beyond Wind: NE, E, can handle SE Swell: S, SW, W Bottom: Sand Paddling: Not typically too bad but can turn into a lot of duck diving if it's solid. There's no shortage of rip on solid Southern Hemi swells. Spot Rating: Average beachbreak, but if you catch it on the right combo or tropical swell you may call it world class. Access: Easy. Right along PCH. Look for the signs. Crowds: Crowd Factor: The good days will have a crew, but there's plenty of room. Local Vibe: Not much. Environment: Not great after a rain. Hazards: Heavy shorepound, shallow sandbars, possible sharks near Westward and the Pt. Dume Deepwater Canyon where a couple kayakers were attacked years ago. Season: March-October