The most popular beach in Santa Barbara is East Beach, which faces due south. The beach is very wide, providing plenty of room for numerous volleyball courts, frisbee throwing, sunbathing, and sundry other activities. The water is still warm enough to swim during the summer as the cold southern-flowing Arctic current is diverted offshore by Point Conception. The Cabrillo Pavilion is the beach landmark, serving as a recreational center and bathhouse; I enjoyed fish and chips under an umbrella on the patio. On the other side of the harbor is Leadbetter Beach. It is a better place to watch the big waves and those who dare to surf them. If you want more peace and quiet, then travel westward to Goleta Beach County Park, which has excellent facilities and fewer people. The long, sandy beach is just east of the University of California at Santa Barbara - what an idyllic setting for an academic institution. The rocks on the upper beach are soft sandstone and oil-bearing; just knock off a piece to smell the fresh surface. This is the only place in the country where petroleum-grade rocks are exposed on the beach face, and natural seeps occur offshore, resulting in some small tar balls. The only real blemish to this wonderful coast is the offshore oil platforms that continue to pump money into the state economy.

Santa Barbara is the most northern of the warm-water Southern California beaches. At Point Conception, the shoreline curves abruptly and the coast becomes more rocky and rugged. While the Santa Barbara beaches face away from the storm waves coming from the northwest, this Central California coastline generally bears the brunt of these storms and is subject to the cold Arctic currents flowing southward.

Pismo Beach is a cold water, western-style version of Daytona Beach, but without the bathing beauties. The water is cold, averaging less than 60 degrees year-round, so most of the action is driving ORVs (off-road vehicles) on the hard-packed sandy beach at Pismo Dunes Vehicular Recreational Area. Here you can find the most extensive sand dunes available to the public along the California coast. On summer weekends the campers are lined up along the ocean beach facing the water; they're so densely packed that you wonder how people can consider this relaxation. Fortunately, some dune areas and the shoreline at nearby Shell Beach and Pismo Beach are only open to pedestrians. Pismo Beach was named for the prized clams that can be dug on the beach face. These large clams, which can weigh as much as a pound, live underwater in the sandy beach several feet below the low tide level. Digging for these tasty critters in the cold water on a big surf day is quite a challenge, but can be quite rewarding now that the stock of Pismo clams has been allowed to recover.

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