Newport Beach
Balboa Peninsula · Orange 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 14–18 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
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Paid lot at McFadden Square (Newport Pier) and at the Balboa Pier lot, both $1.50 to $2 per hour. Metered street parking on Balboa Boulevard. Spaces fill before 9am on summer weekends. Residential street parking inland is permit-restricted in some sections.
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Newport Beach
Newport Beach is the long sand beach on the ocean side of the Balboa Peninsula in Orange County. The peninsula separates the open Pacific from Newport Harbor and Balboa Bay behind it, and Balboa Boulevard runs the length of it, connecting the two pier areas. Newport Pier, originally built as McFadden Wharf in 1888, extends roughly 1,032 feet from the foot of McFadden Place at McFadden Square. Balboa Pier, built in 1906, extends roughly 920 feet from the foot of Main Street two miles southeast. The Balboa Pavilion, also from 1906, stands at the inland base of Balboa Pier. The Wedge sits at the south tip of the peninsula, where the east jetty of the harbor refracts incoming swell into a steep, peaking break that throws some of the largest bodysurf and bodyboard waves on the California coast.
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
Kelp Forest
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