Why Trestles — known for natural beauty and a long walk to get there — will host Olympic surfing

The 2028 Olympic surfing competition will be held at a famed break south of San Clemente, according to an announcement came with the reveal of nearly all of the remaining Olympic venues earlier this week.

Organizers chose Lower Trestles over Huntington Beach — literally trademarked Surf City USA — to host the sport’s third Olympic appearance. But why? Let's explore.

A 'surf jewel' for nearly 100 years

Lower Trestles, or Lowers, is one of several surf breaks at San Onofre State Beach, which stretches from Orange County’s San Clemente into north San Diego County.

The land is the ancestral home of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation and a site that marks the village Panhe is about 2 miles from the shore.

The name refers to a nearby former wooden bridge (it’s now concrete) south of the break that carries the Amtrak Surfliner train.

One of Trestles Beach's defining features are the cobblestones that help maintain the shore and create a distinct A-frame wave. Here a surfer enters the water prior to the start of the 2023 Rip Curl WSL Finals in 2023.

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The cobblestone reef offshore helps create consistent waves that have drawn locals and competitors alike to the “surf jewel” since the 1930s. The spot was once off-limits to the public because of the nearby U.S. Marine Corps training facility Camp Pendleton, but California has had a long term lease to operate the park since 1971.

“It is considered one of the best surfing destinations,” said State Park Superintendent Kevin Pearsall. “There are kids and there are people that travel from around the world to here to experience that and hoping for the best break they can.”

San Onofre State Beach shares its name with a now-decommissioned nuclear generating station that sits south of the surf breaks, seen here in the background on Sept. 19, 2012.

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Mark Boster

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While Huntington Beach had lobbied for years to host Olympic surfing, Brian Brower, director of administrative services for the city of San Clemente, said the city wasn’t involved in any pitch for the surfing event to be held at Trestles, which sits just outside of city limits on State Parks land.

Pearsall said the World Surf League, which regularly hosts contests at Trestles, submitted a bid to host the Olympics on the State Parks' behalf. We reached out to the organization for comment, but have not heard back.

Still, Brower, who’s a surfer, said the city would “embrace” an Olympic surfing event at Trestles. “It’s one of the more coveted surf spots in Southern California, especially in the summer months,” he said. “I think the majority of surfers, if polled, would prefer to surf Trestles.”

Largely untouched, widely respected

The break is beloved for its waves and natural beauty and short on man-made amenities — even the nonprofit that supports the state park describes the beach itself as “a bit sparse and difficult to access.”

Surfers (and spectators) have to hoof it about a mile down from a parking lot south of a Carl’s Jr. or park at the main San Onofre State Beach lot (Old Man’s) to the south and walk from there.

“You don't see hotels and residents and things like that,” Pearsall said. “It is a true dynamic of untouched, park-protected area.”

Surfers walk and bike on the path to Lower Trestles on July 18, 2024.

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Allen J. Schaben

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Fans gather to watch the Rip Curl World Surf League Final at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California on September 14, 2021.

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Apu Gomes

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The lack of infrastructure hasn’t hampered surf contests. The State Parks reports the first one was held at San Onofre in 1938. Then-teen Kelly Slater won his first pro contest at Lowers in 1990 and in recent years it's been an annual stop for World Surf League competitions — the next one will be held June 9-17.

Ahead of the 2024 Olympic surfing contest in Tahiti, Teahupo'o residents and surfers protested the construction of an aluminum judging tower and pushed back on proposals for large-scale construction projects.

Whereas the reef that creates Teahupo'o’s “wall of skulls” is made of living coral, Lowers break is shaped by cobblestones and boulders.

Pearsall said part of the agreement to host the Games was that the area would be returned “back as it was presented.”

What makes a good wave?

There are as many answers as there are surfers.

“That's the beautiful part of surfing,” said Peter Belden, founder of a Newport Beach surf club. “It's all up to the individual. Some people love a slow, cruisy, small wave, some love big scary waves.”

Belden, who’s surfed in about 30 countries, considers himself in the latter category.

A-frame waves, like this one at Lowers on September 14, 2016 during a surfing competition, offer surfers the option of going left or right.

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Joe Scarnici

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Cathy Young, who leads the Wahine Kai Women’s Surf Club from Huntington Beach, prefers to make her turns on a gentler swell.

“Some people want overhead, they want it fast, they wanna be flying down the wave and they don't care about getting pummeled,” Young said. “I'm 62 years of age and I don't want to be pummeled anymore.”

But in general, Young and Belden said, here are a few of the characteristics surfers of all types look for:

• Consistency: LA28 called Lowers waves the “best and most consistent waves for competition” in Southern California. 
• Face: The unbroken surfable part of the wave, not the whitewater that follows after a wave crashes down.
• Shape: For example, A-frame waves break in the middle and allow surfers to go left or right. A barreling wave creates a tunnel that surfers, with the right skills, can glide through.
• The right wind: An offshore breeze that blows from sea to land can smooth the face of a wave, whereas onshore wind that blows from the sea to the land makes the water choppier and flattens the waves.