Best Beginner Surf Spots in New Jersey
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Download LazySurfer →These 6 New Jersey breaks are at their best on small, forgiving surf — the most approachable size to learn on — ranked by how highly LazySurfer surfers have rated them. Conditions change daily, so open any spot for its live report before you paddle out.
- Ortley Beach — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, high incoming tide
- 5th St — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, high outgoing tide
- 16th Ave — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, high outgoing tide
- Manasquan Inlet — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, high outgoing tide
- Ship Bottom — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, mid incoming tide
- Mantoloking — best on a 0–2 ft swell from the south, mid outgoing tide
Frequently asked
What's the best beginner-friendly surf spot in New Jersey?
By LazySurfer's session ratings, Ortley Beach is the top-rated beginner-friendly surf spot in New Jersey. 5th St and 16th Ave rank close behind. Each spot's page shows its ideal conditions and a live NOAA buoy and tide report.
How does LazySurfer rank surf spots in New Jersey?
LazySurfer ranks each break by the surf-quality ratings real users logged there, and trains a custom deep-learning model — a PyTorch neural network with per-user embeddings, retrained weekly on those logged sessions — to predict the 1-to-5 star rating you personally would give, rather than a single average for everyone.
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