Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

A. A beach and the ocean.

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. In Newport Beach, and in the Pacific Ocean off Newport.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In the pilot episode (Episode 1, Season 1). Ryan and Seth have just met for the first time, and Sandy suggests that Seth show Ryan around.

Seth asks Ryan what he wants to do, and Ryan (being new to the O.C.), asks Seth "What you guys do around here?"

It cuts to a shot of Ryan & Seth out sailing on Seth's catamaran, the Summer Breeze, on the blue Pacific.

Seth tells Ryan that he's planning to sail to Tahiti the next July, and tells Ryan that his boat is named after a girl, Summer Roberts... then admits that he has never even spoken to her

The scene cuts again, to the boat now up on a beach, with Seth & Ryan taking down the sails.

Sandy comes walking across the beach and invites them to a fashion show. Seth doesn't want to go, until he learns that Marissa has asked Ryan, and that Summer might be there...

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. Same ocean, different part of California.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. They shot those sailing scenes in the waters east of Point Dume in Malibu, CA. You can see the familiar Point Dume silhouette behind Seth's boat in those scenes.

Once they're back on dry land, they shot the beach scenes in Malibu, on a beach on the east side of the Point Dume peninsula, between Zumirez Drive (to the west) and Paradise Cove Road (to the east).

In that beach scene, you can see a pier in the background.

That pier is the Paradise Beach Pier, right next to the Paradise Beach Cafe, which is located at 28128 Pacific Coast Highway, in Malibu.

Point Dume is about 7 miles east of the Malibu Pier, the Colony and the Malibu Country Mart, via PCH (and about 19 miles northeast of the Santa Monica Pier).

To reach the exact spot on the beach (where Seth landed the Summer Breeze), your best bet is probably to park at Paradise Pier and then just walk back (southwest) along the beach - about a third of a mile.

Try the Paradise Pier Cafe for lunch while you're there. If you've ever seen a rerun of the '70s TV series, "The Rockford Files", you might be interested to know that detective 'Jim Rockford' (James Garner) lived in a trailer on Paradise Cove beach. )

"The O.C." filmed the scene where Summer & Seth said goodbye at a bus stop (in the series finale), about a mile and a half southwest of this beach, on the other (west) side of Point Dume.

And the beach location is about 7 miles southeast of the Cohen home in Malibu, and about 2 miles southwest of Caleb & Julie's mansion.

Here is a birds-eye view of the beach from an aerial photo from Live Local.

Here is a map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. I recognized the Point Dume profile behind Seth's boat.  But the beach location was discovered later by a fan, Max S, who emailed me to let me know about it.  (Thanks, Max!)