Overview
Half Moon Bay is a four-mile crescent of beachbreak running south from Princeton Harbor, so some stretch of sand is almost always catching a signal from the north or south. It breaks both right and left over a sand-and-rock bottom, and the banks shift constantly, which makes the place genuinely hard to predict. Most days it's too exposed and the bottom too flat to be worth much, but when everything lines up these beaches can be mind-bogglingly good, and you can find a hot hundred yards with almost no one around. Overall it rates below average.
When It Works
The whole game here is timing a small-to-mid swell with clean conditions. It draws swell from southwest through west (SW-W), with west the best match, and it's usable from 0.9 m / 3 ft to 2.4 m / 8 ft. Because the sandbars are always moving, the same beach can fire one week and lie flat the next, so it pays to check up and down the strand. It can work at any time of year.
Wind and Tide
Look for offshore wind from the east-northeast (ENE), or a glassy morning with no wind at all; the workable wind window runs from northeast to east. It breaks across low, mid, and high tide, though a rising tide is generally the better call, with the exact window shifting as the sandbars change.
Local Tips
The lineup stays fairly quiet and the atmosphere is somewhat reserved, so crowds are easy to avoid. It suits everyone from beginners to experts, and shortboards, funboards, and guns all have their place depending on the size. Keep an eye out for currents and shorebreak poundings when it picks up.
Access
Most of the roads off Highway 1 lead down to the beach. Some end in State Parks, others in dirt parking lots.
