Surfing Vacations

Throughout the years I’ve taken several of these trips. Married now with three little ones to take care of, I still manage to get some waves on family trips.

You can plan all you want. You can check the best time of year based on previous swell and wind data and look at guides (maybe like this one) on the best surf spots and accommodations. You can use the Internet so much that you start to feel like you’ve been there before. But after all that, there’s still the element of blind luck. Sometimes the surf’s good, sometimes it’s fair, and sometimes it just plain sucks. I’ve experienced all of the above.

At the end of the day you just make your plans and hope for the best. Keep your expectations realistic and make the most of your time. A surf vacation is still a vacation even if the waves don't happen. At least your not at work. These days no waves equals quality family time. The waves are a bonus and get what I can.

Here’s how a few surfing vacations worked out for me:

Costa Rica — waves every day. Warm water, sunny weather, this was a good surf trip.

Hawaii — where I learned to surf. Still a good place to learn to surf. A bit crowded for the experienced surfer. Ok choice if you want a convenient place to surf and take the family somewhere warm.

San Diego — the perfect family surfing vacation . Go to North County off-season and score waves, good prices, and Legoland if you have little ones.

Australia — the waveless surf trip. Sometimes it just won't happen the way you hoped.

New Jersey — a suprise surf session. Don't know if I would recommend this as a surfing vacation destination, but at least I got some waves here.

California Camping — an affordable surfing getaway. Definate possibilities here for surf trips. I've had many good waves surfing and camping the Central and Northern California coast. .

There are many other places I would like to go. Some of the places I think would be fun are not where most people would consider taking a surfing vacation. I would love to surf the area around Tofino on Vancouver Island. I am use to cold water so the idea of relatively empty waves with a woodland sounds nice, similar to far Northern California. Similarly, Alaska would be a fascinating place to surf, especially the area around Yakutat. Another place would be Sardinia. It seems this Italian island gets the most consistent swell in all of the Mediterranean, and from there it would be short hop to mainland Spain for some waves. The list could go on but mainly I would like to go somewhere the family would enjoy as well.

How were the waves? Did the food suck? Do you get aemibic dysentery?