Click here for a link which lists all the Santa Cruz beaches. Scroll down to find "Moran Beach County Park" - that is Moran Beach/26th right near the house.

Click here for an article where the local paper rates this beach as the “BEST SEE-AND-BE-SEEN BEACH” in Santa Cruz.
 
The public paved footpath/bikepath to the beach, which would be off to the left of this picture, goes right by the driveway of the house directly to the beach. It's like a 1 minute walk to the beach. There are no stairs, cliffs, or dirt paths or anything to get there. You do have to cross a crosswalk at the street, but the beach is right there (sand goes right to the street). The beach there is flat and sandy and goes for quite a long way if you walk or jog it, as you can see, it goes all the way to what's called the Cove beach which is at 17th Ave. The beach is called 26th Ave Beach sometimes, although it's not close to 26th Ave, its closer to 30th; locals call it Moran Lagoon Beach because across the street there is Moran Lagoon. So that makes the beach stretch right there at least 13 blocks long.

26th Ave Beach is not big wave surf spot but for kids and boogie boards it is perfect. It's REALLY nice for skimming (you can see why from the photo above).

Click here for some local comments on the skimming at this beach.

When the tide is right the waves do work and short boarders have a great time. Regardless of the tide there's always plenty of beach and there are always tons of little kids, building sand castles, and people laying out for example. In the evenings the beach is open for bonfires till at least 10PM, or later, which is always a lot of fun.

Bonfire on the Beach - open fires are allowed in the evenings at the beach right near the house, look at this view! There are blankets and even Tiki lamps at the house for you to use - make some memories!

Now just the other way from the house, about 2 blocks, is the area called Pleasure Point, which is a long cliff with footpaths and stairs down to the water, which is a major surf spot of Santa Cruz.

Bike or Stroll along the cliffs:

Or for the surfers, there are several large breaks there along the cliff. The first breaks go right near the rocks, it's an advanced area. Down the cliff farther closer to Capitola the breaks go to some sandy spots, are much tamer, and are where beginners go. It's quite a long set of breaks. EVERYONE knows Pleasure Point rocks!
 
Click here  for some info from wannasurf.com on Pleasure Point surfing. Also Click here for some Pleasure Point info from surfonline.com.

Some Choice Shots of Surfing on the Point: