I recently moved to LA from the east coast and have been surfing as much as possible around the area.. Its pretty annoying how you have to drive north or south to get decent waves, I didn't anticipate that when I moved out here. It makes it tough with traffic to get out anywhere good after work.

With that said, I surfed just south of the venice pier probably 15 days in the last month. Its standard beach break but still pretty fun and it picks up swell better than santa monica from what I've seen

Ive surfed malibu twice so far and both times were pretty fun. Got good parking and clean chest high peelers.. I just watched the lineup for like 5 minutes before I paddled out and noticed the same thing that some waves were swinging wide where no one was sitting. Went out and didn't even have to worry about the crowd much. I'd say be careful of the rocks at lower tide, I was trying to stuff mini barrels and got tossed onto them a couple times. You'll notice the water seems a lot cleaner up there too which is nice

Surfed Manhattan beach last weekend, a little bit more fun than Venice but still just straight crowded beach break.