Strands Beach
Dana Point · Orange County · California
Visibility Breakdown
Visibility by position
Solid = diver report · outlined = our reading
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.
✓ = reading reviewed by hand
auto = reading not yet reviewed by hand
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Why it reads 11 ft
High 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
Dana Point, CA 92629
Free public lot at Strand Vista Park on the bluff off Selva Road. The lot is open during park hours and fills on summer weekends. Three trails connect the lot to the sand: a north stairway, a center Switchback Trail with stairs at the bottom, and a south stairway tied into the residential boardwalk.
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Strands Beach
Strands Beach is the sand beach below The Strand at Headlands development in Dana Point, Orange County, between Salt Creek Beach Park to the north and the Dana Point Headlands to the south. The central beach is sand, and the south end transitions into cobble and boulder structure at the base of the Headlands, with rocky tidepools open at low tide. Offshore from the rocky south end, the San Juan Rocks reef structure sits in 21 to 25 feet of water and is a documented local boat-access dive and spearfishing site (DiveBuddy.com dive site 6539); from the beach it shows as a band of dark substrate on satellite imagery. The Strand at Headlands is a 118-home gated residential development above the bluff, with the beach itself fully public via a trail system mandated as a coastal-access condition of the development. The Headlands Conservation Area, a 70-acre coastal preserve, sits at the southern Headlands. Strands at 33.4665 N falls inside the Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area, which runs from roughly 33.4550 N to 33.5008 N along the Dana Point coast.
Biomes here
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
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