Dawn patrol surfing in Tijuana

Baja Malibu is the beach break most San Diego surfers mean when they say the border beaches get heavy. It sits below the toll road north of Rosarito, and the sandbars here can turn a solid swell into thick, hollow peaks that break boards. It is not a mellow wave on a good day. Water quality is the other story: sewage from the Tijuana area reaches this coast, and surfing here in the days after rain is a bad idea.

San Antonio del Mar is the stretch of sand just south of the border on the Tijuana side, below the bluffs of the San Antonio neighborhood. It is an open beach break that takes swell from the west and northwest, and like most of this coast it is at its best in the morning before the sea breeze arrives. Rip currents form between the sandbars, and the water here is affected by the same runoff problems as the rest of the border region.