Huntington Beach Pier
California, USA · beach break · forecast read at 10 m depth off the pier
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Next three days
How the pier breaks
Two lineups. The pier splits the beach in two. The north side, in AYON Ecosystem field records on south groundswells, breaks mostly as lefts peeling north-west away from the pier, with short rights back toward it. The south side is the contest side, with peaks that peel away from the structure. Lessons usually run south of the pier, away from the pilings.
The peak moves with the tide. On a 4.3 ft high tide the north side's A-frames broke at the pilings; on a 2.7 ft low tide the peak sat 50–90 m north of them, with a dark, unbroken lane beside the pier where surfers sat. Two records on two tides point to a channel against the pier and a sandbar north of it — a hypothesis being tested, not a conclusion.
The rip. Water runs out along the pilings. On 19 and 20 October 2026 it showed as a brown sediment plume pushing out past the take-off zone: surfers use it as the paddle-out; swimmers should stay clear of it.
Counting the sets. At the pilings, waves broke about 15 s apart on 19 October and every 11–12 s — in pairs — on the low tide of 20 October, when the shorter waves between the swell's crests broke too. A count at the pier is the breaking cadence, not always the swell's period.
Field records at the pier
20 Oct 2026, 11:59 PDT · low tide 2.7 ft. Swell (observed, CDIP buoys) 4.4–4.8 ft at 14–15 s from 205–212°; at 10 m off the pier (modeled, AYON Wave nearshore, in validation) 4.5 ft, 15 s, from 198°; NWS (official) surf 3–5 ft, sets to 6, rip risk High. Field observation: peak 50–90 m north of the pilings, lefts up to 10 s, closeouts beyond ~150 m north, 20–24 surfers on the north side.
19 Oct 2026, 11:19 PDT. Swell (observed, NDBC 46253) 4.6 ft at 16.7 s from the south; water level (observed, NOAA Los Angeles gauge) about 4.5 ft, 1.2 ft above its prediction. Field observation: lefts peeling north off the pilings, hollow close to the pier; the rip plume along the north pilings; breaks about 15 s apart.
17 Oct 2026, 14:43 PDT · high tide 4.3 ft. An 18 s south groundswell from about 204°. Field observation: A-frames at the pilings, mostly lefts north-west, a right toward the pier; 17th Street, a kilometre north, closing out on the beach.
AYON Ecosystem field observations: drone and GPS-located video, read frame by frame. Nothing here is a verified measurement of wave height; distances from the drone are ±50%.