Located in Marin County, California, Drakes Estero is a good river mouth/estero that offers up some fast tubes when the conditions line up. The waves here can be a bit tricky to surf and break for up to 100 meters over the sandbars. This spot is one of the hottest spots for Great Whites in all of California. It is common to see multiple sharks feeding here when checking the waves. Don’t surf outgoing, the current becomes a river and will take you straight into packs of our finned friends who are most likely to feed on the outgoing water rich with seals. A lot of Marin surfers will not surf here due to the shark risk, so don’t expect crowds.
What are the best surf conditions for Drakes Estero?
Gets good between chest high and double overhead. We recommend riding a longboard when smaller and a shortboard as the size picks up. This break is suitable for intermediate and advanced-level surfers. The surf here is not the most consistent (4/10) and will be uncrowded (3/10). Locals are chill if you are, but don’t drop in. Local legend states that Kelly Slater lost a lot of street (surf?) cred here after dropping in on the locals who took him to this break before it was a better-known spot. This break is offshore in the predominant summer winds from the North and Northeast. And even better picks up Southwest and South swells like a magnet. You can surf this spot on any tide depending on the sandbars, but only ever on an incoming. Doing otherwise is pretty darn close to suicide.
We recommend wearing a 4/3 in the summer and a 5/4 in the winter. Water temperatures range between 15 and 10 degrees. See the temperature chart below for more data on this.
