Enjoying Stinson Beach

Stinson Beach includes a grassy 51-acre park adjacent to beach where visitors can find more than 100 picnic tables with convenient BBQ grills. Restrooms and outdoor, cold showers are nearby. At the snack shop you can rent kayaks and boogie boards. Across from the snack shack is a small playground area.

Caution: Check with rangers or lifeguards that conditions are safe for your planned activities.

Stinson Beach Surfing

Surfers at Stinson Beach enjoy consistent, left and right beach breaks. Waves are especially good with swells arriving from the southwest. Late spring and late summer usually bring the best waves. Often the waves collapse as quickly as they form. Stinson Beach attracts beginners and intermediates, but more experienced surfers usually look elsewhere.

Stinson Beach Surf Camps

Stinson Beach Surf Camp for Kids runs from mid-June to mid-September. The camps are for children and youths ages 7 and older. The camp works with both beginners and more experienced surfers, adjusting their instruction to meet the needs of their students. All of their staff is CPR and First Aid trained and there is always a Certified Ocean Lifeguard on duty during camp sessions.

During camp participants enjoy morning and afternoon sessions of surfing along with warm-up exercises, a lunch break, and beach games. Week-long sessions run from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, Monday through Friday.
Kids Summer Surf Camps

Windsurfing and Kitesurfing

Windsurfers at Stinson Beach often have to contend with an onshore wind and waves that break close to shore. Windsurfers are supposed to launch from the north end of the beach. Kitesurfers watch for the most favorable winds, most often arriving during the winter after storms. Lifeguards at Stinson Beach have requested that kitesurfers avoid the main beach during crowded weekends and holidays and launch to the north at Upton Beach.

Surf Shops

Live Water Surf Shop,
3448 Shoreline Highway (Highway 1), Stinson Beach, CA
Surfboards and skateboards for sale, along with clothing, gear, and accessories.

Stinson Beach Surf + Kayak,
3605 Highway 1, Stinson Beach, CA
Rentals of surfboards, stand-up paddle boards, boogie boards, canoes, kayaks, wetsuits, bicycles, and more.

2 Mile Surf Shop,
22 Brighton Ave, Bolinas, CA
Rentals of surfboards, stand-up paddle boards, boogie boards, wetsuits, skim boards, and more
Surf Lesson rental packages with Bolinas Surf Lessons. Bolinas Surf Lessons also offers surf summer camps from mid-June through mid-August for ages 6 and older.

Sports on the Sand

Soccer

Stinson Beach is a popular location for soccer tournaments. During tournament times the southern end of the beach is taken over by up to a dozen small soccer fields marked out in the sand.

Pro-Am Beach Soccer's Annual Stinson Beach Challenge

In past years the Stinson Beach Challenge was held in April. The tournament include Micro Soccer (teams of 4), U9 Division (teams of 6), and other divisions with teams of 5. Divisions for men, women, and co-ed. However, in 2016, the event was moved to Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Check their website to see if it returns to Stinson Beach this year.
Pro-Am Beach Soccer - Stinson Beach Challenge

Volleyball

Volleyball courts are available at Stinson Beach. Either bring your own net and ball or pick them up from the lifeguards.