Swimming at East Beach today

Santa Barbara, California

Updated 1:00 AM PDT

64/ 100
Swimmable, with care Water temperature is 72°F — but surf calmness at 3.7 ft is what holds it back.
30–64 along this beach — 30 at Sycamore Creek, 64 at Mission Creek Partial data — Air quality unavailable, so this score is less certain.

What decides a swimming score

Weather & UV · Open-Meteo Water & waves · Open-Meteo Marine Tides · NOAA CO-OPS ⚠ Air quality · AirNow (unavailable)

Water quality

Where you swim changes the answer here — we score this beach 30 at its worst monitored point and 64 at its best.

Cleanest today

  • Mission CreekA+

Avoid today

  • Sycamore CreekF

These are storm drains and piers, which are sampled precisely because they are the worst spots on a beach.

All 2 monitoring points
Monitoring pointDistanceGrade
Sycamore Creek storm drain / pier 1.7 km F
Mission Creek storm drain / pier 0.2 km A+

Dry-weather bacterial grades from the Heal the Bay Beach Report Card, updated 2026-10-09. Grades reflect the most recent agency sampling and can change after rain.

Before you swim

Surf is running 3.7 ft today, which makes shorebreak and currents stronger than usual.

Swim near a staffed lifeguard tower, and check the National Weather Service surf-zone forecast for the official rip-current outlook — we report conditions, we don't forecast rip currents.

Better nearby for swimming

80 Santa Monica BeachSanta Monica, California

East Beach is also scored for

83 Surfing wave size 3.7 ft 72 Walking & shelling low-tide window 6:25 PM

About East Beach

East Beach sits on the California coast, where the water runs from about 57°F in March to 69°F in August.

The water here never averages above 70°F — even in August, the warmest month, it sits around 69°F. Most people wear a wetsuit.

Today it is 72°F. That is 6° above the October average of 66°F here.

Tide predictions come from NOAA station Santa Barbara about 1.3 km away on the open coast.

Frequently asked questions

Is East Beach good for swimming today?

Swimmable, with care — we score it 64 out of 100 today. The limiting factor is surf calmness at 3.7 ft.

What makes a good swimming day?

We weight water temperature (40%), surf calmness (25%), uv exposure (15%) and combine them into one score. Conditions we cannot read are left out rather than guessed.

When is the best time of year to swim at East Beach?

The water here never averages above 70°F — even in August, the warmest month, it sits around 69°F. Most people wear a wetsuit.

Nearby beaches

Zuma BeachMalibu, California Malibu BeachMalibu, California Santa Monica BeachSanta Monica, California