November Surf Trip....help me decide where.

[surfrat]

Gonna have november and most of december off work. wanna go somewhere consistent and quite warm.
Options so far:
Sri Lanka.....warm, nice easy waves for the mrs, interesting culture, too many Brits??
Senegal....wildlife, waves, consistent?? different
Puerto Rico....hawaii of atlantic?? expensive? consistent that time of year tho right?
Barbados....too windy? will i get bored after 6 weeks?
Durban/J Bay.....chance of a jeffries off season swell. expensive tho right? safe?
Mexico but i been there before
Costa Rica....bit pricey now innit?

[swiggy]

Hawaii? Early season on the north shore? Maybe another island with less crowds?

Call me a pussy but I don't fancy S africa at all. My mate who went got mugged at gunpoint 3 times in a month, its got the highest murder rate in the world, and sharky as fuck, that would always be on my mind. West oz it didn't bother me too much as long as others were out, but s africa is another level of sharky. Cold water too. Surf looks fun, but theres a hundred places in the world I'd rather go to.

Is that east or west coast season for S lanka? My dad went in november and I think the winds were less than ideal around hikkaduwa region and it never got over head high in 3 weeks. If I'm flying halfway around the world for a surf trip I wouldn't want to surf chest high onshore waves, although I'm sure it would be pretty fun in boardies.

What about a bit more of an adventure from morocco, head south into the desert, dodge some landmines?

Southern australia? From margaret river round to bells region?

I would also like to take a trip somewhere warm with consistent barrels. I can probably stretch to 200 quid. Any suggestions?

Off-season in tahiti? Good uncrowded waves, not as nuts as peak swell season. Dec might be pushing it for swell though, and its expensive.

Peru or chile?

[surfrat]

yeah thats why i'm not sure about sri lanka...don't wanna spend the money and get skunked. i'd be so pissed off it wouldn't even be funny. god i'd probably cause a diplomatic incident
not doing morocco not interested this time...want boardies.

So Senegal or Puerto Rico then!??

[swiggy]

Senegal looks like a cool place to go, have a flick through this thread I saw the other day http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showfl ... art=1&vc=1

I don't know much about it though other than seeing some fun looking pics, no idea on consistency/seasons. Same with puerto rico, I didn't think that it was that consistent? I dunno though, does it get the same east windswell that other caribbean spots get? Best surf is the north groundswells though right? Which aren't going to be as consistent as some places. Don't fancy peru or chile?

[Philshoz]

Senegal will be chilly, we needed 3/2 all the time in December. Stayed at Ngor opposite the island and surfed the right most of the time. Rented an 'appartment' in the village and the dugouts took us out to the break each day,(watch out when you put your leash on prior to jumping off boat, don't wrap it round the seat.... ) Nice trip. Locals were cool and we had a lot of bongo sessions with them. There is a surf camp there now and much busier I suppose. We went in '94 and the cheapest way was flying to the Gambia with a budget airline and an 8 hour taxi to Dakar!!

Costa Rica is warmer but more crowded of course. South of Tamarindo you will get better value and less of a zoo scene. Take time to visit the volcano at Arenal and visit the thermal pools. Nice place to stay was a lodge at the opposite end of the lake, Mystika. Great view of the volcano doing it's thing.

If the budget would allow go to New Zealand, so laid back. Great variety, head up to ninety mile beach, mellow waves for the better half. Keep an eye on the charts and you can nip over to either coast chasing swells.

Decisions, decisions....?

Have a great trip................

[roreee]

+1 for North Island, NZ if you get the chance. Rent a campervan, the place is really well set up for campervanning and its a pretty enconomical way to go. I went in November for a month, loads of swell and minimal / no crowds. the surfers we did meet were very relaxed and friendly and seemed genuinely keen to share their waves with an irishman and an english lass!
as Phil said, Northland is great because you've an east and west coast within a few miles of eachother. Henderson Bay can be very good, and although fickle, when they're on, the left points around Shipwreck bay are really something! Further south, and you've got Raglan, New Plymouth, Gisbourne, the coromandel.....more waves that you can shake a stick at and a load of non-surf stuff to do as well.
Only downside for you though - you'll need a wettie (3/2)

rb

[perusurf]

Gonna have november and most of december off work. wanna go somewhere consistent and quite warm.
Options so far:
Sri Lanka.....warm, nice easy waves for the mrs, interesting culture, too many Brits??
Senegal....wildlife, waves, consistent?? different
Puerto Rico....hawaii of atlantic?? expensive? consistent that time of year tho right?
Barbados....too windy? will i get bored after 6 weeks?
Durban/J Bay.....chance of a jeffries off season swell. expensive tho right? safe?
Mexico but i been there before
Costa Rica....bit pricey now innit?

Peru is also an option, it'd be low season but nice weather beginning of summer, nice water temp, and you got many places to check out, Punta hermosa, Bermejo, Huanchaco, chicama, pacamayo, lobitos, might get some of the surf season up in cabo blanco, mancora, organos, not much crowd since it'd be off season, low budget for you guys for sure.

[redhighway]

For the price alone of any one of the flights in your list you could do four weeks all in to Morocco, flights, food, appartment and those long right hand point breaks-

[dalejenga]

I'm in the same boat, got all of november and december to go somewhere. Aiming to spend less than £1300 inc.flights. been Morocco before, and not really lively enough for me as want something to do at night. Where would you guys suggest?

[Leven]

Off Season Bali?

Surfed Sri Lanka a couple of years ago, and it was fun, but not brilliant. Never got above head high, and by mid morning the wind was on it. That was in Dec/Jan. The locals all said Feb was the best month for Hikkaduwa/South.


Or you could maybe try and score late season Central/South America? Not sure if you'd be lucky or not, or what the flights would be!

[surfrat]

i'd do mexico but i been already and need to work when i come back and can't be arsed with the jet lag tbh

[chillybin]

NZ is a good place to go! South Island although a bit cold can get some nice nice waves and its quite! And even better we are now heading into spring down there! You should look at it, it really is a good place!

[Craivold]

Agree with Swiggy on the SA thing, I've got no real desire to go there above hundreds of other places. Used to play football with a bodyboarder from Durban and when I asked him why he came to England he gave a simple answer; crime. Said there was so much crime there you never felt safe when out and about.

Reckon Costa Rica or Barbados could be your best shouts, in Barbados, that time of year if you're there for a month or so you should have one or two good swells in the Caribbean and inbetween proper swells I've heard its surfable somewhere on the island everyday, you'd need a car to make the most of it. I went a good few years ago with the missus (before i surfed) and there was plenty to do in the evenings, fun bars and good restaurants around St Lawrence Gap area.

[Chris F]

Call me a pussy but I don't fancy S africa at all. My mate who went got mugged at gunpoint 3 times in a month, its got the highest murder rate in the world, and sharky as fuck, that would always be on my mind. West oz it didn't bother me too much as long as others were out, but s africa is another level of sharky. Cold water too. Surf looks fun, but theres a hundred places in the world I'd rather go to.

Pussy.

Australia has about the same no of attacks and way more fatalities, and very few of the attacks in SA are on surfers.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/White/World.htm

If you stick to the tourist route from CT to PE and avoid high crime areas like Joburg and Durban you would be very unlucky tocome to harm unless you blatantly look like a rich tourist with a bulging fanny pack, wallet full of notes, and a grand of camera gear around your neck.

[swiggy]

I imagine there are more people surfing in australia than SA though?

My mate was staying in Johannesburg when he was mugged 3 times in a month, I totally believe that it is area-dependent. It just seems that theres an awful lot of people that have moved away (I've met plenty, lived with a south african for 2 years) and most of them said it was a beautiful country but they have no desire to go back anytime soon, and wouldn't feel safe where they grew up

Whether justified or not, I wouldn't feel safe there.

I know you have SA connections, do have much family over there? Is it just durban and johannesburg that are sketchy? I've heard plenty of bandit stories out in the bush too, I know how stories grow like chinese whispers but I get the impression its a pretty lawless place. I don't like the idea of people having to live in secure compounds with armed security etc. Just seems a bit much, I have a real dislike of guns.

[Chris F]

Yeah, I lived there for 20 years, still got family there (in George, 5 miles from Vic Bay!). I moved away because of financial (and other) reasons not security. Joburg is a bit of a dump, but as a surfer why would you go there? Saying that I lived in a shitty flat in Hillbrow (which was on its way to becoming a ghetto then) while I was a student and never came to harm (perhaps being 6ft plus and knowing which street to avoid puts you out of target).

Yes, there are isolated incidents of crime in remote areas but these are usually on people taking chances and wild camping etc. Sort of think you wouldn't do in Morocco and pasrts of Europe.

I personally think that reports are out of proportion and if you have been around enough and are canny enought to recognise, anticipate and avoid potentially dangerous situations you are highly unlikely to come to harm.

And for every one person shouting loudly about the horror story from their visit there are probably 30 who have gone and wondered what all the fuss is about.

[surfrat]

Well i decided....
6 weeks surfing in Senegal and Gambia....perhaps even Mauritania....
starting off with 2 weeks at N'Gor surf camp to assess what my other options are. might even just stay there!
was gonna take 2 boards but now thinking of just one as it seems like the whole coast south of dakar would open up if it got big around N'Gor.
hoping to see some wildlife too.
taking a wettie but still can't decide if i really need in 24c water and 26c air....

[Chris F]

Excellent. I'm pretty sure you will see a fair bit of wildlifre, maybe more than you hoped. Blog it!

[madspedersen1983]

Hi

You say Senegal. And I can only recommend that. Try check these pages:

http://www.GoSurf.dk - here you can see some great pics from the last swell hitting Dakar, where you'll have the surf spots and surf camps only a few kilometers from the airport.

http://www.GoSurfAfrica.com - here you have a month by month guide, where you can see where the swell is on in which months - also november.



Happy surfin'
Mads