Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach · Los Angeles County · California
Visibility Breakdown
Visibility by position
Solid = diver report · outlined = our reading
Break Zone: The range of water where the waves break and sediment is stirred up.
Post Break: The range past where any waves are forming, where the water starts to have a significant increase in visibility. There might be some sediment here, but swell energy is diffused and the water is calmer.
Open Water: This zone is far out enough from the shore that the water is at its clearest. It’s deep enough that sediment is not disturbed by the wave energy at the surface. Haze can sit near the surface, so the water is usually clearer the deeper you go.
Through the day
Today's visibility readings at this spot, shown at the hour each one was taken.
Every bar is a reading for the Post Break zone.
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Why it reads 12–16 ft
Medium confidence
7-Day Forecast
Today is the live headline above. Tomorrow onward is the algorithm's forecast from predicted swell, wind, and rain, updated each morning and at 6 PM Pacific.
Map and parking
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Paid municipal lots at the foot of Pier Avenue and along Hermosa Avenue, hourly rates during the day. Metered street parking on the Strand-adjacent residential blocks. Spaces fill before 10am on summer weekends; the Pier Plaza lot is closest to the pier base.
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach is a sand-bottom South Bay beach city on the Santa Monica Bay coast of Los Angeles County, anchored by Hermosa Beach Pier at the foot of Pier Avenue. The current concrete pier extends 1,140 feet into the bay. It was built in 1965 to replace a 1914 concrete pier that had been condemned in 1957, and was designed by engineer James Crumpley of Moffatt and Nichol. The Strand, a paved bike and pedestrian path along the back of the beach, runs in both directions from the pier base. Pier Plaza, the pedestrian shopping and dining strip on Pier Avenue, runs inland from there and includes the Surfers Walk of Fame, a series of bronze plaques honoring South Bay surfers. Several hundred yards offshore in about 60 feet of water lies Cable Car Reef, also called the Hermosa Artificial Reef, built in 1960 from a streetcar, 14 automobiles, and 330 tons of quarry rock. The reef is a boat-only dive site and cannot be reached from shore.
Species found here
Researched habitat and range candidates. A listed species may be seasonal or depth-limited; this is not a confirmed sighting at this location.
Spot strategies
Rocky Reef
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