All Inclusive Vacation w/ Surfing???

R

rshackleford

Member
I was thinking of going on one of those all inclusive vacations during chrismas break and was wondering if anyone knew of somewhere decent where I could take some surfing lessons.

I'm on a budget, so obviously I can't go to Hawaii or Australia or anything. Somewhere in the Caribbean, or Cuba, something like that. I'd like to avoid Mexico, since it seems that killing Canadians is practically legal there.

Thanks
 
good observation about mexico. that place is fucked. they need to get clean up their corruption problem and then start arresting/shooting some criminals- cause they are overrun with those bastards.
 
yes, its the best. I surfed til my body stopped working. I had to lay in bed for a day cause I was so sore.
 
Never surfed before, or swam in the ocean for that matter. Snowboarded for 10 years before coming back to skiing, not sure if that'll help any though. Wakeboarded a few times. Sucked ass at skateboarding.
 
dude its pretty easy. the hardest part is the swimming in the surf - very tiring and wave selection. good luck and have fun- you get up once and it will be totally worth whatever time you feel like you wasted paddling around, trying to get up etc.
 
well, if you've never been in the ocean before you'll be in for a hell of a surprise. just please don't be one of those people who is like omg the waves are 10ft! when they're only a foot or two max. I've been going to the ocean all my life and surfing for years, it's the funniest thing when I'm standing there and someone is like. "see, I don't like it when it's this rough." when it's soooo small. believe me, when the waves hit 10ft+ they usually only let in surfers/body boarders with fins and you sure as hell have to know what you're doing.

anyway, the first day you'll be constantly pushed, pulled, knocked underwater and scared shitless. you'll probably awkwardly get up a few times if you have a big log of a board, but surfing isn't a sport you can get good at in a season, or even years. be prepared to be very tired, especially your upper arms and shoulders.
 
that's the funny thing about surfing, I can be sitting there for 45 minutes and not catch one wave but then when I do it makes that wait completely worth it.
 
I don't expect to get any good at it, and certainly don't plan on surfing 10ft waves. I've just always wanted to try it and figure it'll make the week more fun than just sitting on the beach all day and drinking. I'll be fine with the 2 foot waves on a long board. If I learn to handle more than that, even better.
 
I will challenge you on that one, I want to give it a shot and I'd bet I can get good at it in one season. I have a few questions though if you could help out. I wanna start but I want the agility of a short board, would I totally kill myself trying to learn on something shorter than 7ft. I realize I most likely won't be able to turn right away and will have a harder time standing up. I just don't wanna buy a longboard to learn on and then not get much use out of it later(those things ain't cheap), I feel that the tricks are what i would have more fun doing so I don't really wanna have two boards.

 
im in no way trying to dissuade you! go surf, hopefully you'll love it like I do. the feeling I have after a good session is amazing, you get stoked just by being in the water. as far as places I suppose costa rice would be good, I have a friend who went down there to "look at land to buy" ?? and to go learn to surf and he enjoyed it. I live on the east coast and it's the only place I've ever surfed, so im not too sure of all these tropical locales, other than I want to visit them!
 
well, it's not something easy to start, especially someone not used to the ocean but i'm sure if you did it a lot you could get decent in a season. it all depends on the person. id take a lesson first just to get the basics down. I ended up getting into it because one summer years ago I was watching the surfers at the beach and I was like mommy I want to do that! it was the end of the summer though. the next summer quiksilver was holding a day surf camp for free for kids who wanted to learn. so I went to a local shop, asked for advice and rented some behemoth of a board and went to it. I got one wave and I was hooked. sometime later I went to another camp which was daily for a week and used their boards and learned. then I bought my own board. at this point I was able to ride them straight in, not really cut yet or anything. I went with a 6'8" "funboard". it's wide and easy to paddle and stand up one which is why I went with it, it's also a good board that once you start to advance it's still useful. I still use it often depending on the waves. luckily for me I have some neighbors who gave me two of their really nice short boards, one is 6'2", and the other 6'8". I got lucky in that respect because now I don't have to go and buy one.

IN short,

start with a few lessons to get a feel of what you're doing, using rental boards. (you don't have to take a lesson when you rent a board, you can just rent it and go but it would likely help to have lessons.) after awhile you'll probably start wanting your own board. I went with the fun shape because it's wide for easy paddling and buoyancy and it's still fun when the waves get bigger, and I improve. from there, who knows.. I prefer shortboards, but some people prefer longboards. it's whatever you want.
 
Soooooooooo.......you got a board you wanna sell??????????

Where do ya rent em, at surf shops? Where do ya surf in jersey so it's not crowded too bad. My story is pretty much like yours at the beginning, we've been going to Cape Henlopen in Delaware and last time we found a spot with pretty good waves. I was watching the surfers all day thinking "I gotta get me one of those surfboards now". I have skateboarded for years when i was younger and I snowboarded last year for the first time and fell like twice. I'm very used to the ocean and have watched many instructional videos on surfing recently so I'm ready to give it a try. Would you be willing to be an instructor for a day?? I'm just above philly in PA so jersey shore is where we frequent already.
 
get a fish. they're smaller and float better than shortboards and you can do pretty much every thing on a fish that you could do on a shortboad.
 
Is that the kind with sort of a swallow tail?? like a V at the back. I was thinking about ordering a kit from GRAIN SURFBOARDS but even the fish is pretty expensive.
 
haha, sorry man not selling the boards. I still use them all. it's such a mesmerizing thing, you see someone in the water and you want to do it. you can check out surfline.com for wave info, news, photos, forecasts and that sort of thing. they have a forum too but I don't know how they'll respond to a beginner, I don't post there much. i try to be nice just because I still suck compared to so many people. wavewatch.com is a great free site for forecasts too, and dukestorm.com is a great local site that gets reports in the general NJ/NY areas. I taught a friend how to surf one day and he managed to get up, although he was standing with his feet together and facing forward like he was skiing.. but he still got up! I'm not the best teacher plus it's not looking like i'm getting much of a chance at going to the beach anymore this season due to a lack of a license. next summer though I'll be at the shore like usual.
 
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