PA Surfer's Guide to Travel

By Wesley Terry

6/29/07

Traveling is nothing new to surfers from PA. We have to travel every time we want to get a session in (unless you are on an extended vacation). But traveling to another country or coast can be a kind of strange experience. Personally I have traveled to 3 islands of Hawaii, California, and Baja Mexico for surfing. Through trial and error I have found what works and what does not work.

First thing is if you are planning on bringing surfboards with you it is really important to find out everything you can about each airlines surfboard policy before booking your flights. Some of these airlines will really try and hit you over the head with crazy fees each board or bag depending on the airline. Make sure they are not charging you for individual boards because this is actually a possibility.

When traveling with boards I have found that the Santa Monica Surfcase works the best for me. I grabbed a funboard case for the extra length and girth. My case fits a 7' bonzer gun, 6'6" single fin, a 7' egg, and I am sure many other combinations (great idea for two or three people to use one case and split the costs on a trip). I made myself a fin protector out of an old body board to protect my glassed on bonzer fins. You want to make sure to really protect your boards if you are going through the Philly airport because I have seen them almost fully tossing my board bag on the the plane conveyers. I would suggest a couple layers of bubble wrap in you don't use a hard case.

Another key thing to have is an FCS soft rack in your luggage. Every time I show up in these places I put the smallest rental cars to trial, but I always make sure that my boards are secured to the roof. In Mexico I had something that was smaller than a GEO Metro with a board case strapped to the roof that was longer than the car. With a smaller car you save money on your rental and the light cars actually do well on beaches and roads with huge ruts.

Everything else as far as gear goes does not really matter if you are going some place warm. You can always grab some wax, trunks, leash, or suntan lotion at a local shop. A good rack and board bag is what will make or break your trip.

When I travel to even the most consistent places I like to have a fish or an egg with me just incase the waves are not what they should be. It is also nice to see how well these boards work in perfect waves.

It is true that locals can drop in on you and give you a hard time at many surf destinations, but if you ask a bunch of questions and act real friendly it puts them in a friendly mentor position that they will generally want to keep going. I usually ask questions like "is that inside sections really tricky?" or "do you think this is the best tide for this spot?". These kind of questions show that you are recognizing them as locals and that you respect their opinion.

Surfing a new spot can also mess with your nerves. If you realize that it is way to big for you to get used to a spot forget about any hero scenarios that involve you going out and showing the world what you can do. You really want to take it easy in places with reef and rock bottoms. Drop in on the shoulder for a while until you get used the way the wave breaks and slowly work your way closer to the peak. I have seen huge reef heads become exposed on low tide on the inside section of waves. You will also want to look out for boils in the water as the wave breaks. These boils mean that the water is super shallow and you want to punch through back of the wave, kick out, get ready for a barrel, or get ready to be drilled. As a general rule of thumb: if the locals are slowly leaving there might be a reason.

Another thing to look out for is getting stuck out at a great spot. You will notice that some places that are super huge also have a paddling channel around the side of the reef. This is great because you can paddle out on a double overhead day without getting your hair wet. The problem is that if the swell starts to increase these channels can close up (besides the fact that they are sucking water out and not in). I always make sure to paddle in before I am too worn out. It is really easy to want to stay out forever if the waves are going off and everyone is leaving you to have the lineup to yourself. Just remember to save the energy to catch a wave in.

In general traveling to a surf destination is really fun and never seems to last as long as you might want. I hope I didn't scare anyone into not taking a risk, but these are all mistakes I have made myself or seen happen to others. Good luck in all of your travels.