Moored observations and numerical model results are used to describe the circulation during 1998 in Santa Maria Basin (SMB) and Santa Barbara Channel (SBC), located to the northwest and southeast, respectively, of a bend in the southern California coastline. Singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis of observed wind stress and currents yields a first mode that represents large-scale alongshore flow variability that appears to be wind driven, and a second mode which mostly represents flow variability in SBC and appears coherent with wind stress shear there. A three-dimensional numerical ocean circulation model is used to simulate the flow. The model-derived surface heat flux is most similar to observation-derived values in summer and least similar in winter, and more similar in SMB than in SBC. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of the Coriolis and pressure gradient terms for modeled near-surface currents supports the hypothesis that the large-scale flow variability of the first mode is wind-driven. It further suggests that an alongshore pressure gradient drives the poleward flow along SBC's northern shelf. Wind stress curl (of which the shear along SBC is a part) or its gradient may govern such a pressure gradient, although this could not be ascertained. Modeled and observed currents are similar in their directions, but both the annual mean and variance tend to be smaller for modeled flow. SVD analysis shows that modeled and observed flows have similar modes of variability. Remotely driven flow may play a role in SMB, especially in summer.