Surfing

:See World Wide Web for "surfing" the web; see also Windsurfing

Popular surfing areas

Surfing is a global sport; one can find a surfer in almost every coastal nation in the world.

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• France, particularly the Atlantic coast south of the Gironde
• Australia
• Newcastle, where Surfest is held annually.
• Gold Coast, Snapper Rocks and Burleigh Heads where many surf comps are held anually
• Ocean beaches of Sydney, in particular Bondi Beach
• Victorian beaches Jan Juc and Bells Beach where the annual Rip Curl Pro is held every year.
• Western Australia beaches Margaret River
• The Atlantic coast of France (eg. Biarritz)
• Brazil
• Peru
• Cabo Blanco
• Pico Alto (home to the Mavericks of South America)
• Cerro Azul
• San Gallan
• Chicama (home of the longest left in the world)
• Mexico
• Baja States of Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur; Several great breaks, the island of Todos Santos being the most famous.
• Mainland – States of Sinaloa, Jalisco, Colima (home to Boca de Pascuales and its massive beachbreak), Michoacán (where rural surf towns abound), Guerrero, Oaxaca (where Puerto Escondido, the "Mexican Pipeline", is located), and Chiapas.
• Gulf Coast
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• The Maharees - South West Ireland County Kerry
• Easkey North West coast near Sligo
• New Zealand
• Manu Bay and Whale Bay, Raglan
• Bay of Plenty and East Coast, Mount Maunganui
• Much of South Africa's coastline (just a few listed)
• Amanzimtoti
• Cape St. Francis (Seal Point)
• Durban
• Elandsbay
• Jeffreys Bay
• Mossel Bay
• Scottburgh
• Port Alfred
• Port Elizabeth
• United Kingdom
• Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall
• Croyde Bay in North Devon
• The Mumbles near Swansea, Wales
• United States
• Northern California, while it has its moments at times, is a far less consistent place to surf than Southern California, with consistently poorer wind and wave conditions. The main problem is that most spots are too exposed to wind and swell, often resulting in "stormy" surf. Nor Cal is home to one of the most revered and dangerous spots in the world, Mavericks, for which there is no comparison in So Cal.
• Southern California, from San Diego to above Santa Barbara, features outstanding beaches such as Windansea, Tourmaline Park, Ponto, Lunada Bay, Huntington Beach, San Onofre, and Rincon, and is where American surfing music and culture began to evolve. This stretch of coastline is remarkable for the sheer number of consistently pleasant and surfable breaks.
• Most of Hawaii, especially the North Shore of Oahu. The North Shore is home to perhaps the best stretch of surfing waves in the world, including Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay, and the world's most renowned and revered wave, "Pipeline" (or "Banzai Pipeline"), so named for the yawning chasms it regularly hurls over the heads of awe-struck surfers. The North Shore is the epicenter of commercial surfing each fall as it hosts a series of contests that end the professional season at Pipeline.
• The eastern central coast of Florida, particularly Brevard County, is renowned as the "small wave surfing capital of the world," and is home to such surfing luminaries as Kelly Slater, Todd Holland, and Matt Kechele.
• The Mid-Atlantic region includes popular spots such as North Carolina's Outer Banks, Long Island, Virginia Beach, Ocean City (Md.), and the Jersey Shore.
• There are decent breaks all up the east coast, notably on Cape Cod
• Even areas along the Great Lakes get local windswells with fresh-water barrels.

The west coast of the Americas tends to have better surfing areas than the east coast. While the continental shelf of the west coast drops off quickly, on the east it extends a great distance, creating drag and making smaller and less powerful waves.

Related Topics:
Americas - Continental shelf

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Anywhere else waves hit the shore. Many surfers are seen as territorial, hence the expression "locals only"; or as the rock group The Surf Punks put it, "my beach, my wave, my girl, so f--- you!".

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Other surfers, however, known as "soul surfers", hold less aggressive views towards others. These surfers see surfing as more than a sport; it is an opportunity to harness the waves in and to relax and forget about their daily routines. This type of surfing has seen a rise in popularity recently.

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