Mission Bay Aquatic Center

The Mission Bay Aquatic Center was started in 1970 when Glen Brandenburg, an SDSU student at the time, signed up to take a sailing class at the city run sailing center.  Part of the way through his class, the instructor suddenly stopped showing up to teach the class and Glen assumed the role as the new instructor of the class.

Glen began taking on more responsibilities and worked with Associated Students of SDSU and UC San Diego Recreation to assume the lease of the then dilapidated, old boathouse.  In 1973 both universities entered a lease with the City of San Diego for the building and the Mission Bay Aquatic Center was born. Since then, both universities have built the center in to the world-renown program that it is today.

Glen served as the center’s director for 40+ years and served a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of the aquatic center. In 2013 Glen became the Facility and Sustainability Director for Associated Students of SDSU and has continued to share his wealth of knowledge and passion for sustainability with all campus facilities. 

Located in San Diego’s beautiful Mission Bay Park, the Mission Bay Aquatic Center is the ideal location for a wide variety of watersports. MBAC is located on the east side of Mission Bay and only ¼ mile from the ocean of Mission Beach. This centralized location allows for surfing the waves of San Diego beaches, rowing the sheltered waters of mission Bay, sail the afternoon westerly winds, kayak or paddleboard the nearby coves, or ride the morning glassy waters on the best wakeboarding equipment and boats available. 

Nowhere else in the world can you find such a diverse mix of watersports equipment and instruction all under one roof.  Similar facilities worldwide have looked to Mission Bay Aquatic Center as a model of excellence in watersports programming and instruction.