High tides and big surf shut down coastal rail tracks just north of Trestles. Waves pummeled beachfront homes<\/a> in nearby Dana Point, rendering at least 10 of them uninhabitable.<\/p>\n At Lower Trestles, the surf break where the competition took place, seawater flooded the narrow beach, washed out the access road and pooled around several of the temporary structures.<\/p>\n Compared with other parts of the coast, the damage was minimal. But as sea levels continue to rise<\/a>, organizers of the 2028 Olympics will need to address some tough questions, especially with more hurricanes<\/a> and what forecasters are calling a \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>\u201d on the way: Where will ticket holders watch the event? How much infrastructure can the beach hold? And how will organizers get equipment there?<\/p>\n Getting to Trestles Beach generally requires a long walk or bike ride from the nearest parking lot. Its lack of development helps keep the area resilient to extreme weather.<\/p>\n What makes Trestles a world-class surf beach<\/p>\n SoCal Olympic surfing hopefuls were stoked when LA28 organizers announced<\/a> the surfing event would take place at Lower Trestles.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a dream,\u201d said local pro Griffin Colapinto, who was surrounded by autograph-seeking kids as he exited the water during the Trestles competition earlier this month. Colapinto, who\u2019s from San Clemente, competed for the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Games.<\/p>\n \u201cFocus on getting there, and then go for gold,\u201d he told LAist of his dreams for LA28.<\/p>\n The potential hometown advantage excites surfers like Colapinto. So does Trestles\u2019 reputation for delivering consistently good waves. People familiar with surf competitions say that dependability is clutch for international sporting events that depend heavily on environmental conditions.<\/p>\n The relatively pristine San Mateo Creek watershed is the secret to Trestles’ world-class waves. <\/p>\n The spot\u2019s consistency stems from its location at the mouth of San Mateo Creek, within San Onofre State Beach<\/a>. When flowing creeks and rivers meet a slower-moving body of water \u2014 in this case, the ocean \u2014 they drop heavy materials like rocks and boulders, which eventually form a cobblestone reef.<\/p>\n This is a defining feature of prized surf spots along the California coast, said Chad Nelson, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation<\/a>, a coastal conservation group.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s true at Rincon, at Cardiff, at Malibu,\u201d he said. \u201cAll these iconic places are these cobble river mouths.\u201d That underwater topography makes for amazing waves, Nelson said.<\/p>\n Also key to the excellent waves at Trestles is the lack of development upstream along San Mateo Creek. Nelson called it \u201cone of the last natural surf spots in urbanized Southern California.\u201d<\/p>\n Its isolation \u2014 there is no paved public road leading to the beach, much less a beachfront parking lot \u2014 bodes well for the area\u2019s resilience to extreme weather. At the same time, it presents some conundrums for staging a major international sporting event.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019ve had way worse\u2019<\/p>\n Matt Riggs has helped set up the beachside infrastructure for many surf competitions at Trestles. He said the damage from Hurricane Marie in 2020 was “way worse” than this year’s hurricane of the same name. <\/p>\n The beach at Lower Trestles is a narrow strip of sand, about 30 to 40 feet wide, backed by protected wetlands. The coastal railroad runs through the wetlands behind the beach.<\/p>\n On each of the four days before the World Surf League\u2019s competition began earlier this month, the tide at south Orange County beaches was high enough to flood part of the beachside competition area.<\/p>\n On one of those mornings, Matt Riggs, a contractor for the event, was out at the beach early with a small tractor, hauling sand and dirt to rebuild the beachfront access road the surf had washed away.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ll probably have to do [it] again tomorrow morning since there’s another high tide and another swell,\u201d he told LAist. Riggs and other workers also had to resecure some of the elevated structures used for watching and judging the competition.<\/p>\n But he said the damage wasn\u2019t bad compared to flooding at the competition a few years back. \u201cWe\u2019ve had way worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese stairs here,\u201d Riggs said, pulling up a photo of a previous year’s damage on his phone, \u201cthey fell into the ocean.\u201d (edited)<\/p>\n Planning around unpredictable weather<\/p>\n Much is still unknown about the planning efforts for the Olympic surfing event in 2028. How many tickets will be sold? How will spectators get to the beach? What about the many journalists who will want to cover the event, and all of their equipment?<\/p>\n LA28 declined an interview request for this story. But spokesperson Jacie Prieto Lopez emailed a statement saying, in part, \u201cWe are actively monitoring developments. \u2026 With less than two years until the Games, we remain focused on our shared planning efforts to ensure the safe and successful delivery of the 2028 surfing competitions.”<\/p>\n One of LA28\u2019s closest planning partners is California State Parks, which leases the land that includes Trestles from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Scott Kibbey, State Parks superintendent for the Orange Coast District, noted that surf competitions have taken place at the spot for decades. They\u2019ve had to adjust, he said, as the coastal environment shifts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a dynamic area,\u201d Kibbey said. \u201cRight now we’re looking at a beach that is much narrower than it has been in recent years, and we’re letting nature kind of dictate how we plan for future events.\u201d<\/p>\n The last few years have been busy for Kibbey and his staff, as storms and rising seas have posed increasingly thorny challenges. In June, heavy surf and high tides<\/a> caused a lifeguard stand to collapse at Crystal Cove State Park. One of the park\u2019s historic beachfront cabins was also damaged, and the public access trail flooded.<\/p>\n \u201cOld Man\u2019s,\u201d a beloved surf spot at San Onofre State Beach south of Trestles, has suffered severe erosion in recent years, forcing officials to rethink public access<\/a> to the beach.<\/p>\n At the same time, record-high temperatures, fueled in part by El Ni\u00f1o, sent visitors flocking to state beaches this summer, straining staff and infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cOur state park resources, our staff have been hit incredibly hard,\u201d Kibbey said.<\/p>\n High winds and rough surf didn’t deter beachgoers in Malibu this summer. <\/p>\n Environmental concerns<\/p>\n Kibbey said sustainability is at the forefront of planning for the Olympic surfing event. Surfers and others who cherish the spot will be watching closely, given past environmental activism at Trestles, plus concerns that erupted over the previous Olympic surfing event at the Paris 2024 Games, which took place in Tahiti.<\/p>\n Two decades ago, surfers, conservationists and members of the Acjachemen Nation<\/a> joined to fight a toll road that would have cut through San Mateo Creek, potentially destroying some of the tribe\u2019s most sacred sites<\/a> and ruining Trestles\u2019 perfect waves. A few years into the project\u2019s public approval process, several thousand people showed up to a California Coastal Commission hearing<\/a> to voice opposition<\/a> to the project.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an epic fight,\u201d said Nelson from Surfrider. Given that history, Nelson said his group met the news that Trestles would host Olympic surfing with a mix of excitement \u201cand a little bit of trepidation.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson noted that surf competitions at the famed big wave spot Mavericks in northern California have brought problems in the past. In 2006, hundreds of spectators walked out onto the reef and scaled coastal bluffs to watch the contest, trampling the delicate ecosystem<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a Mavericks’ event in 2010, huge waves tore through contest infrastructure, knocking people off one of the watch towers<\/a> and injuring 15 spectators.<\/p>\n Environmental concerns also tinged preparations for the Olympic surfing event<\/a> at the 2024 Paris Games, especially over the drilling of a new judging tower into the delicate coral reef. <\/p>\n \u201cThat was definitely a cautionary tale,\u201d Nelson said. Still, he added, \u201cI’m pretty confident that we’re going to be able to find a solution down here that’s well managed and takes this special place into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n Erosion has also shut down train traffic through San Clemente State Beach numerous times in recent years.<\/p>\n El Ni\u00f1o \u2018not all bad\u2019 for coastlines<\/p>\n After Hurricane Marie, the cities of Laguna Beach, San Clemente and Dana Point declared states of emergency to address coastal damage. Orange County and Gov. Gavin Newsom followed with their own emergency declarations, in part to prepare for potentially worse damage from even stronger El Ni\u00f1o effects<\/a> in the coming months.<\/p>\n The Orange County Transportation Agency recently announced plans to place 690,000 cubic yards of sand on beaches just north of Trestles in hopes of protecting the coastal rail corridor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kibbey, the State Parks superintendent, said the expected heavy precipitation from El Ni\u00f1o could also bring some benefits. If San Mateo Creek flows strong enough to reach the ocean, he said, \u201cit would bring a bunch of sand here naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Its beach may be narrowing, but Trestles has actually fared much better than its neighbors, thanks largely to its natural state, Nelson from Surfrider said.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually the problem isn’t coastal erosion,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s when coastal erosion meets human infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter what Trestles looks like in 2028, Nelson thinks the Olympic spotlight will bring more benefits than drawbacks.<\/p>\n Surfing is one of the only Olympic sports \u201ccompletely reliant on the health of the coastal ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a million people learn the lesson that we need to protect our coasts and protect our ocean, or millions, then I think that’s probably ultimately to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n How to reach me<\/p>\n If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is @jillrep.79.<\/p>\n For instructions on getting started with Signal, see the app’s support page. <\/a> Once you’re on, you can type my username in the search bar after starting a new chat.And if you’re comfortable just reaching out by email I’m at jreplogle@scpr.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent storms have brought an epic run of big, surfable waves to Southern California. But they\u2019ve also wreaked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-481684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790867409_920_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Tall](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790867410_61_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790867411_328_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ocean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790867411_273_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Train](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790867412_240_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n