Ben Weston Beach

Ben Weston Beach is the only place on Catalina that gets real surf, a sand-and-cobble crescent below the bluffs on the windward southwest coast. The whole front side of the island sits in the lee of the prevailing northwest swell, but the back-side beaches face directly into it. At Ben Weston the swell wraps in unobstructed and breaks on the bottom in clean lines. The beach is empty most days. There are no facilities, no signage, and no lifeguards.

Public access is hike-only, roughly a nine-mile round trip on foot from Little Harbor, the closest road-accessible point. The interior dirt road is on Catalina Conservancy land and requires a permit to drive. Boaters can land in calm conditions, but the beach is exposed to swell, so most boats anchor at Little Harbor and walk over.

The open sandy shoreline with breaking surf makes this a surf zone biome. At the southern end, the bottom transitions into bare rock and boulder at Ben Weston Point with no kelp cover on the exposed faces, which is a rocky reef biome.

Fishing and spearfishing are legal along the open beach under standard California regulations. Farnsworth Onshore SMCA wraps Ben Weston Point at the south end of the beach with stricter take rules inside that boundary, and the line should be verified before any harvest near the point.