The Pacific Airshow and Downtown Huntington Beach: what buyers should know before moving near the beach.

Let's be clear up front: the Pacific Airshow is one of the best weekends of the year in this town, and I say that as someone who grew up here. Hundreds of thousands of people come down to the sand, the energy is incredible, and watching aircraft come in low over the Pacific is the kind of thing that reminds you why people love living near the water in the first place.

It also means something. This show is a tribute to aviation and to the men and women who serve, and that part hits home for my family. My father-in-law is a veteran. My grandfather came home from World War II on the Queen Mary and went to work as a mechanic. So when the jets come over the pier, I'm not just watching a show, I'm thinking about them. I want to honor that, and I also want to be honest with buyers about what the weekend is actually like to live through, because both things are true at once.

The thing nobody tells you when you tour a Downtown home in, say, June, is what that same block feels like during Airshow weekend. The practice runs usually start before the show itself, so a PCH-adjacent or numbered-streets home can be living with low, powerful jet noise from Thursday all the way through Sunday. It's not background hum. It's the kind of sound you feel in your chest and in the windows.

If you love it, that's four days of one of your favorite things happening in your front yard. If you have a newborn napping, a dog that bolts at loud noises, a kid who's sensitive to sound, or a job you do from a home office with video calls, it's something to plan around. Neither reaction is wrong. The point is to know which one is yours before you sign, not after.

Proximity to the action is the whole story. The closer a home sits to the beach and the flight line, the more the weekend shapes it. If you're considering Downtown Huntington Beach, the numbered streets, anything near Main Street, the Pacific City area, or homes close to the pier and PCH, this is part of the lifestyle you're buying, in the same way that walkable nights out and ocean air are part of it.

Move a mile or two inland and the show becomes something you drive toward, not something that rattles your windows. Neighborhoods further from the coast still get a great view of the flyovers without the same intensity at home. That's not better or worse, it's just a different trade. Some buyers want to be in the middle of it. Others want the beach close but the noise at arm's length. Both are completely valid, and matching you to the right one is the job.

Outside of real estate, I play music. I front a barefoot beach reggae band called Cali Conscious, and I donate 100% of the proceeds from our song "One Love For You" to Reggae For A Reason, which helps fight youth homelessness in Orange County and Los Angeles County. The chorus is simple: "One love for you, one love for me, give a little love to everyone that you see." The full lyrics live at caliconscious.com/lyrics.

I mention it because it's the same instinct behind a page like this. The easy thing is to tell every buyer that every beach block is paradise. The honest thing, the thing that actually builds trust, is to tell you the trade-offs so you can choose with your eyes open. A great weekend for one household is a hard one for another, and you deserve to know which you're walking into.

If you're serious about a Downtown or beach-adjacent home, talk to the neighbors about Airshow weekend specifically, and ask your agent to walk you through the calendar of big coastal events, not just the Airshow. Think honestly about your household: a couple who loves a packed weekend will feel very differently than a family with a six-month-old or someone on back-to-back work calls.

None of this is a reason to avoid the beach. It's a reason to choose the right spot near it. Some buyers will read all of this and want to be as close to the flight line as possible. Others will decide they'd rather be a few blocks back, or a mile inland with an easy ride down. That's exactly the conversation Craig and I want to have with you before you buy, not after the first weekend in October surprises you.