Leadbetter Beach — Attraction in Santa Barbara

Just had an amazing paddle session at Leadbetter Beach in Santa Barbara! If you’re looking for that perfect intermediate spot with easy beach access, this is it. We brought our Pau Hana Endurance boards and had a blast paddling through glassy waters, spotting dolphins in the kelp forests. The views of the coastline are incredible, and being only 1.5 hours from LA makes it a perfect day trip. Great for fitness paddling or just enjoying nature, but definitely bring your PFD and some paddling experience - this isn’t a complete beginner spot.

Location: Positioned north of the Marina, with East Beach to the south, Leadbetter Beach offers a quintessential Santa Barbara paddling experience. The beach provides stunning views of the entire coastline.

Accessibility: Incredibly convenient parking, just 20 feet from the sand. Easy gear transport with minimal hassle. The gentle slope of the beach makes for straightforward launching. Conditions: During our visit, we enjoyed perfect paddling weather - winds under 5mph, air temperature around 70°, water in the low 60s. The glassy surface created mirror-like reflections, turning an ordinary paddle into something almost transcendent.

Skill Level: Best suited for intermediate paddlers. The open ocean setting requires some experience reading swells and navigating light breaks. This isn’t your protected beginner’s pond - you’ll need to understand basic ocean dynamics.

Board Recommendations: Pau Hana Endurance VFT and Endurance Ricochet performed beautifully here. Their displacement hulls cut efficiently through the water while maintaining stability - ideal for both fitness paddling and nature exploration.

Experience: Paddling north around the point reveals the full panorama of Santa Barbara’s beautiful coastline. We encountered dolphins and fish weaving through kelp forests - the kind of California paddling experience people dream about. We paddled north specifically to have the wind at our backs on the return trip. The rhythmic paddling, warm sun, and salt air create a natural escape from everyday stress.

Safety Considerations: Always bring a PFD and leash. Check wind and swell forecasts before heading out. Being open ocean, conditions can change, so maintain awareness of currents and wind direction.

Progression Path: Start at the protected marina for basics, graduate to Leadbetter for intermediate skills, then tackle East Beach if you’re seeking waves and surf.

Post-Paddle Amenities: Convenient outdoor showers for rinsing off. Walking distance to excellent State Street restaurants and cafes - the perfect way to refuel after a session on the water.

Proximity: Only 1.5 hours from Los Angeles, making it an ideal day trip destination when city life becomes too much.

This spot delivers that rare combination of accessibility and authenticity that’s increasingly hard to find in popular coastal towns. Well worth the...

This is a full on beach, long soft sandy beach to enjoy, beautiful park facility, excellent lifeguard stations, maintained outdoor, easy to find public showers, toilets. The bike path, which accesses this beach leads to and from the city center hotel district, for a swim safari if you are a fly in type. The SB City college across the street, is quite a structure to embrace this atmosphere as well as to the Yacht harbor ambiance, sailboat racing marina close to downtown. In my opinion this beach is the #1 beach in Santa Barbara. Im opinionated of course. The swimming area which I've swam, and surfed, can be stretched to a 3.2 miles swim if you lap the front beach, then on the second lap swim out to the second farthest bouy, which took for me on a day with a swell, surfers were surfing there too, about two hours, which I'll suggest watch out for the outside currents, stay within the marked swim bouys. I went off course, racing a couple of other swimmers, and found it was challenging to manage a beach swim bouy, reentry to jettison back to less current, safely towards this beach. But fun, because I enjoyed the self made, challenge. The showers and toilets are well maintained with ample parking, easy access from the public streets with Shoreline Cafe, on the ready to serve up a variety of quick food, many delicious options, and sheltered seating for a relaxing day with your loved ones at a beach restaurant. While viewing the beautiful blue sea, kite, foil boarding and sailing are all possible here, which on a summer Wednesday you can see all out with the afternoon breezes getting their kicks, out there. Night moves is a community social athletic club like function, with out the clubhouse, they bring the band in to the park and set up a Summer nautical place, for all walkers and swimmers interested in gathering up the adrenaline vibe to make an evening to remember by competing and socializing together as a peaceful sunset kicks the day along towards ...

Fourth of July 2022! BeST place in the city to see the fireworks! It was a beautiful night! Not cold, not too warm, just right. Be warned, little crabs come out and night and will treat your exposed limbs like furniture! LOL! It was a treat! Not too many people where we were. And we walked. Believe me, it was much better than trying to navigate traffic anywhere near the waterfront of Santa Barbara. Back in college, we used to dig pits the night before and spend the night on the beach, protecting our "territory". Not a possibility any more. Ledbetter Beach is a great beach to explore. We walked down a bunch of wooden steps from Shoreline Park to the beach. It was perfect. Hopefully we can do it all again next year! Be warned though, the tide came in and we couldn't return the way we came. If you try to exit via the dirt path, make sure you have a flash light, and someone to help you up the first giant step. I slipped in the dark, fortunately a couple friends were there to catch me. Thank goodness for...