Is it true that the sea water around LA is COLD this time of year?

[raccoon]

Someone I know who just went to LA told me the sea water was COLD!

The Beach Boys never said a WORD about this. All those wonderful tunes, those wonderful songs of surf and sea and sand, and after all these years, and the Beach Boys NEVER mentioned this. The closest they came was this:

And if my woody breaks down on me somewhere on the surf route (Surf City, here we come)
I'll strap my board to my back and hitch a ride in my wetsuit (Surf City, here we come)

“Surf City” by Brian Wilson

and that was recorded by Jan and Dean.

:sigh: The cruel reality....

[Richard D]

1. There's a reason . . .

. . . you'll almost always see surfers wearing wetsuits.

[savistocate]

2. Plus pollution..should rinse eyes&nose with clear water/&blow/ after.wards.and wear ear plugs

[nolabels]

3. Actually 20 or 30 years ago is was more polluted around the So Cal beaches.........

than it is today. Nobody just gets a free pass just dump the shit out the sea anymore thank goodness. The water temp is between 68 an 71 depending on which beach you go to. That is a good temp really but at first it will seem kind of cold but you will get acclimated to it fast enough. Staying out in water for an hour or longer is no problem and even seems to do a lot of good for things (except your hair, it will really dry it out because the salt strips the natural oil out of it). Yea the beach is fun but get or bring something like bullfrog sun block or suffer the consequences :shrug:

[underseasurveyor]

4. Well it's not the Carribean

The water temps I think are nicer here for the fact that the cooler temps make it much more refreshing. Imagine surfing or paddle-boarding and you're hot and ya work up a sweat and you're looking to cool off and the water feels like a bath water? Not very refreshing IMHO.

Sea temps between 68 and 72 are very nice to play in.

[Kablooie]

5. It's freezing all year round. Much colder than the Atlantic.

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

6. Try the Oregon coast!

50-55 degrees most of the year, occasionally creeps up close to 60 if you're lucky.

But that is still warm enough to keep places near the coast mild and snow-free in the winter.

[proud patriot]

7. yes in northern California it's much colder than LA

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

8. Supposedly it doesn't get much warmer until (almost) Santa Barbara

The entire coast from about Lincoln City south to San Luis Obispo has similar water temperatures; interestingly the northern Oregon coast and Washington coast can actually be slightly warmer than the next few hundred miles to the south. Check this out: http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/
and click on the various squares along the west coast of North America. The dark blue that begins just north of San Francisco and continues north to the Oregon border is 14 degrees C. The lightest of the blue shades is 19C; the sea green is 20C; spring green is 21C, and the avocado-ish yellow green around San Diego is 22C.

[proud patriot]

12. that's interesting , thanks

:)

[Retrograde]

9. if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to

bring a jacket! Summer temps out near the ocean can be in the 50s, and foggy. The tourists are the ones wearing shorts and turning purple. And the Pacific current keeps the water nice and chilly. In northern California we bundle up to go to the beach!

And 30 miles inland it will be 90 and dry.

[proud patriot]

11. Yeah I live in the 30 miles inland area

we just got through with a heat wave

[Xithras]

10. All of the northern Pacific is cold, especially compared to the east coast.

Has to do with the lack of a continental shelf off our coast, and the fact that our ocean currents primarily pull water south from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja.

I was a bit surprised when I visited North Carolina a number of years ago and went walking on the beach. The water was much warmer than I had been expecting. I'd been in warmer ocean water in Hawaii, but I thought that sort of thing was limited to tropical locales. No such luck. It turns out I've just grown up next to a cold ocean and thought it was "normal".

By the way, I have to take exception to the San Francisco comment up-thread. I know lots of San Franciscans who walk around in shorts and tee's in 50 degree foggy weather, laughing at all of the lightweights who are bundled up like it's the middle of winter. While it's easy to identify the tourists (they're the pale blue ones in shorts, with chattering teeth), meeting a shorts-wearing San Franciscan is usually a good indicator that you're meeting a native who grew up in that weather.

Me? I grew up in the Central Valley, so I wear sweaters in SF.