At the southern end of the beach is the Burleigh Heads/Mowbray Park Surf Life Saving Club, that dates back to 1919. It is located in the reserve, together with dressing sheds, a kiosk and a car park.

The rocks of 90m high Burleigh Heads begin just south of the Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park SLSC clubhouse, with a pool on the rocks. There is also a small rock groyne crossing the beach just to the north of the clubhouse. The entire beach faces east-north-east and picks up most of the predominantly southerly swell, with waves averaging 1.5m. These have produced a wide, low high tide beach fronted by a 200m wide surf zone containing inner and outer bars. The inner bar is usually cut by several deep rip channels that flow into the deeper longshore trough, with the outer bar cut by more widely spaced rips. In addition, there is a permanent rip against South Nobby and a large permanent rip running out against Burleigh Heads.

The safest swimming is in the two patrolled areas at North Burleigh and Burleigh. There are usually six to eight rips along the beach, together with the permanent rips at each end, so use care if swimming and stay on the inner portion of the attached bar, clear of the rip channels and outer trough.