Best Surf Break

Ocean Beach

Great Highway & Fulton

Maverick's gets all the press, but you shouldn't surf it unless the locals extend an invitation, due to the spot's many dangers (the waves, the rocks, the locals throwing rocks). Ocean Beach is also risky, of course, especially according to our city officials, who won't even post lifeguards for fear of sending the wrong message. But that doesn't sway your average San Francisco surfer, who, equipped with deep lungs and a strong sense of self-preservation, survives the battering long enough to discover a startling thing: The waves can be really good out there. The sea floor has an uncanny way of forming sandbars, which allow for A-frame peaks to appear up and down the coast. Given the right swell, these can barrel like freight trains, making Ocean Beach, for a second or two, home to the best wave on the planet -- or at least within city limits.