Tamarack surf put-in

Directions:

Map of Tamarack Ave At Carlsbad Blvd in Carlsbad, CA 92008
Finding it is easy. Take the 5 freeway, get off at Tamarack, and turn toward the ocean. When you reach the ocean, keep going into the parking lot (wait for the light to turn green). Go to the south end of the parking lot.

Launch:

Get out of your truck. Carry your kayak 100 feet to the water. Launch and turn left around the north jetty into the channel. Your there!

The channel is about 50 meters wide, and the distance from the end of the jetties to the bridge is about 100 meters.

Why:

While there is decent surfing in the shore breaks to the north and south of the jetties, its really not good enough to come here unless you live in the area. The real attraction is the channel between the two jetties that connects the Aqua Hedionda Lagoon to the sea. When tide is going from high-to-low on a spring tide, the current leaving the channel can cause the waves to build to 1.5x-to-2x the size of those on either side of the channel.

Click for a view of the put-in and channel from the air.

They're steep, they reform multiple times, they move slowly (almost standing at peak current), and they sometimes keep a green face while continuously crumpling off the back. The rides can be short and terrifying (but fun!) or very long as you link together successive waves.

When viewing a surfer from the jetty, it looks like they are barely moving. When your on the wave it's like being on a rocket sled. The current, which is in the 3-to-5 knot range, makes all the difference.

When:

As in the aerial photo, when the tide isn't running, don't bother going. Come on a spring tide and plan to be in the water about 2 hours after the high-high for the day. You'll have at least a good two or three hours of excellent surfing, and in two hours you'll be exhausted form catching wave after wave anyway. Obviously the fun or fear factor will change depending on the swell, but this spot can turn a lackluster swell into a real blast.

Who:

This is not a place to learn surfing. Things happen too fast, the area is too small, and the waves too crowded. Having control of your boat on waves is essential for safety reasons. Also, hitting the jetty is not a real issue if you start from the inside, but the main break moves outside the jetty as the tide drops. Once on the outside, hitting the jetty must be avoided at all costs.

Everyone I know who has surfed here has had fun and been challenged so get some skills before coming.

Manners:

There are so many waves and action in here that SURF ETIQUETTE seems to take a beating. Nevertheless, know what the rules are and try to follow them, especially if you are sharing this spot with board surfers.

Very few of them use this spot because the way the waves break doesn't seem to work for them. They get trashed. A few brave and skillful boardies do use it, however, so be especially careful around them since they are not wearing armor.

If you venture either north or south of the jetties you will be sharing the break with board surfers. In the few times I have been here, relations have been cordial. Please keep them that way by not running any of them over or being annoying in any other way.

Safety:

TIP: Use the north side of the channel for getting back out to the line-up. The outgoing current is stronger there, and on the typical NW swell, the wave smaller as well. This will help keep paddlers separated.

Since this page was first posted a lone skilled kayak surfer with a bomb-proof roll hit the south jetty on a day with a strong northerly swell. He broke his paddle on the jetty and swam. He was well dressed for the water and an excellent swimmer so the 1/4+ mile swim and 20 minutes he spent in the water were no big deal.

Retrieving his boat is a longer story then I have room for here!

Safety? Look at the party wave photo at the top. You'll have a lot of company here on a good day so be careful! Collisions happen, so far none serious, but there is always next time. A helmet is obviously a necessity, and your PFD becomes a flak jacket to protect your vital organs. Be ready to flip away from any paddler who is about to run you over. Flipping leads to rolling.....

Combat rolls happen often here, so have one! If you don't, you'll do a lot of swimming. If you swim, the current will eventually carry you out past the outer break. You'll take a beating on the way, but once on the outside a friend can help you back into your boat.

Don't even think about surfing here alone unless you have a bomb proof combat roll! Not that I am recommending it even if you do. Without outside help, if you do a good job of swimming laterally out of the current, you would still likely end up swimming more than 1/4 mile with your boat to get to shore. If you do a poor job getting out of the current, your badly decomposed and partially eaten body will wash up on shore in Hawaii a few weeks later.

It can get big and steep and grabby. One paddler got caught on the outside and side surfed into the north jetty. Luckily he was a skilled rock garden paddler and instinctively turned his hull toward the rocks. He was uninjured, but his plastic boat has a permanent dent the size of a half section of a softball. Don't do this!