The Santa Cruz coastal terrace fringes much of the northern Monterey Bay region, California. It consists mainly of a regressive sequence of high-energy, barred nearshore marine sediments deposited during the last (Sangamonian) highstand of sea level. This sequence can be sub-divided into several depth-dependent facies on the basis of paleo-current data and vertical sequence of sedimentary structures. These include a lower shoreface facies deposited in 10–16 m water depth, an upper shoreface facies (including both a storm-dominated assemblage and a surf zone assemblage) deposited in 0–10 m water depth, and a foreshore facies deposited in the swash zone, up to 3.5 m above high tide. The magnitudes of the storm events responsible for depositing these sediments were estimated by calculating paleo-wave heights using a variety of criteria (e.g., critical threshold equations, breaker depths, berm heights). In addition, the climate and paleogeography during the deposition of these sediments were essentially the same as today, allowing the use of present-day wave statistics to estimate the frequency of these storm events. The largest storms formed offshore-flowing currents (e.g., rip, wind-forced, and possibly storm-surge ebb currents) that resulted in the deposition of approximately 30% of the sediments seaward of the surf zone; however, the magnitude and frequency of these events are unknown. The remaining 70% of the sediment beyond the surf zone was deposited in response to smaller storm waves which were, on the average, at least 1.6 m high; such waves presently occur no more than 15% of the time. Sediments deposited during “fairweather” conditions (i.e., the remaining 85% of the time) have a low preservation potential, and are generally not preserved in this facies. In contrast, surf zone sediments were deposited by a variety of processes associated with waves whose maximum offshore heights were probably ≤ 2.2 m; such waves presently occur up to 92% of the time. Sediments within the swash zone were deposited by waves up to 3 m high, the largest of which presently occur approximately 2% of the time. Most of the sediments were deposited by storms of intermediate magnitude and frequency; different facies, however, appear to preferentially record events of different recurrence intervals. In particular, surf zone sediments were deposited under relatively small storm and post-storm conditions, whereas sediments deposited farther offshore record increasingly larger, less frequent storm events. Relatively rare events (e.g., the 100 or 1000 yr events) do not appear to have significantly affected sedimentation in these nearshore environments.