Three Chicagoans, bored with white-collar life in the rustbelt, chuck everything and move to Hawaii, where they open up a surf shop, live happily, and take part in all the standard sitcom pratfalls. The name of this CBS program, which ran last summer, is “Big Wave Dave’s.” And whether or not it returns, the fact that it was made at all proves something: People are surfing again.
As with any outdoor skill-rock climbing, sailing, kayaking-surfing can add new dimensions to any standard-fare vacation. In addition to exercise and thrilling chills and spills, you’ll get an adrenaline-rich view of some of the world’s most beautiful beaches from atop a moving ridge of water. And, with many surfing destinations, you don’t have to know how to surf before you go-you can enroll in surf school when you get there.
Actually, surfing never really went out of style; it just got harder to do. In the 1960s, when “Good Vibrations” and “Surfin’ Safari” were blasting on radios from Malibu to Wichita, Kan., the shaggy-haired kids who crowded the California beaches were hauling 9-foot surfboards. These portable barges were so stable that, with practice, anyone with decent swimming skills and good balance could catch waves-and look good doing it.
But in the 1970s and 1980s, the fun-for-all big boards took a back seat to sleeker, more maneuverable 6-foot craft-perfect for teen-age kamikaze hardbodies, but impossibly wobbly for almost everyone else. As a result, the number of average Joes on the waves dwindled.
But that’s changed. The reason? Many of the surfboard companies now are owned by those surfing hippies from the ’60s, and they’ve designed a line of boards that combine the hydrodynamic sleekness of the 6-foot boards with the stability of the big boards.
“It’s like comparing a World War II P-40 with an F-15,” says John Moritz, a board shaper at Stewart Surfboards and a lifelong surfer.
And, voila, surfing is a populist sport again.
“It used to be a physical sport for me. I loved the rush of chasing big waves,” says 42-year-old Southern Californian Bob Edwards, who started surfing 31 years ago and now runs a surfing school. “But now I have as much fun just being out there in clear water and nice air, losing the stress, watching the dolphins. If you try to take all the nature in on killer waves, you’re toast.”
For the expert surfer, nirvana is Hawaii-more specifically, the north shore of Oahu, where coral reefs brew the ocean swells into monster walls of water. But Oahu’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Surf Report, a Dana Point, Calif.-based newsletter, lists conditions at several hundred surf destinations throughout the world, including Ireland, Samoa, the Republic du Congo and Trinidad.
But in North America, the last surfing frontier is still Baja California. With more than 1,000 miles of coastline and reliable northwesterly winds, Baja is ideal for surf/car camping trips. Start in Ensenada, a small town in the north and work your way south to such gnarly point breaks as Puntas San Jose, San Telmo, Abreojos and El Conejo. For a more remote feeling, charter a boat out to Islas de Todos Santos or Isla Natividad, often home to 10- to 12-foot wave faces.
Most surfing spots in Baja can be reached in a two-wheel-drive vehicle, and camping is usually allowed on or near the beach. As you sit beachside after a day of riding the waves, stirring a pot of frijoles, you’ll take in Baja’s stark beauty and possibly make friends with an iguana or two.
Surfing vacations don’t have to be so primitive, however. By booking with a surfing vacation outfitter, you can travel to a resort where you’ll chase waves by day and, apres-surf, chase nightlife.
One of the most-established travel agencies specializing in surfing vacations is World Wide Surfing Adventures. In addition to the traditional hotspots in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, World Wide offers trips to a few more exotic “breaks,” including Nicaragua, Barbados, Panama and Costa Rica. The trip to Barbados, for example, costs just $499 and includes seven days of surfing, six nights in a luxury hotel, round-trip airfare from Miami, and detailed surf maps of the local hot-spots. Lessons can also be arranged.
As for start-up costs, surfing is not outrageously expensive. In fact, it’s cheaper than skiing. A good longboard costs about $400. A wetsuit, which you’ll need if you surf anywhere outside the South Pacific, costs about $200. And you’ll need a block of surf wax-about 50 cents. The “lift ticket,” of course, is free since you’ll be paddling yourself out to the waves.
Don’t forget to factor a few surfing lessons into your start-up costs. Two-hour lessons run about $30. At Kahuna Bob’s Surf School in Solana Beach, Calif., beginners start with a 10-minute session covering the fundamentals: the physics of surfing basic safety, where and how to stand on the board. Then the instructor leads the students into whitewater-small surf that breaks close to the shore. Following a quick lesson in how to go from lying to standing without tipping over, the coach shoves the neophyte into a wave, shouting when it’s the right time to stand up.
By the third class, students are beginning to catch waves without help. “If you practice two to four times a week,” says Edwards, “at the end of a month you should basically have the hang of it.”
Of course, it will take some time before you’re hanging five, hanging ten, or riding the nose of your board like an old hippie longboarder. But even if you don’t catch on right away, you could chuck your job, open a surf shop in Hawaii, and, who knows, be the subject of a TV sitcom.
Launching a surfing vacation
– Baja Surf Adventures, P.O. Box 1381, Vista, Calif. 92085; 800-HAV-SURF.
– Beginning Surfing Lessons, Newport Beach Recreation Dept., 3300 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach, Calif. 92658; 714-644-3151.
– Eastern Surfing Association, P.O. Box 582, Ocean City, Md. 21842; 800-WE-SHRED.
– E.T. Surfboards (Manager George Beard, private lessons), 904 Aviation, Hermosa Beach, Calif. 90254; 310-379-7660.
– Fountain of Youth Surfing Adventures, Specializing in Indonesia, P.O. Box 933, Sunset Beach, Calif. 90742; 310-592-1001.
– Kahuna Bob’s Surf School, 1058 Hermes Ave., Encinitas, Calif. 92024; 619-943-7009.
– TourTech International (Costa Rica), 17780 Fitch, Suite 110, Irvine, Calif. 92714; 800-882-2636.
– World Wide Surfing Adventures, 400 Avenue B, Melbourne Beach, Fla. 32951; 800-777-6853 ; Calif. number: 213-481-1966.
