Winter Trip Ideas?

North Shore of Hawaii gets some swell and should be empty that time of year... There's a secret spot called Pipeline (don't tell anyone) that gets pretty hollow and you could score it by yourself!

Seriously, I love Barbados. There will be some crowds, but nothing compared to PR. And you can always find an empty wave somewhere

 

forget the warm water destinations, and go coldwater, much better like Peru or Nova Scotia or Vancouver

 

PR is super sick if the stars line up and its not really crowded except rincon and san juan plenty of semi secret gems over there and when its bombing 2/3rds of the people in the line up are just spectating anyway

 

I had been doing yearly winter trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, etc., avoiding Puerto Rico because I had heard so much about crowds there. Then, I finally went one year about 7 years ago and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought. So I went the next 3 winters in a row. Can't beat the short flight. Although if I had my pick of a spot to hit in January at this point it would be Ireland.

 

YEAH !!!! Finally !!! Someone who isn't a warm-weathered surfing sheep. Oh, have I ever mentioned Iceland. Hey Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, where's my money you promised to hype Iceland?

 

+1, I think everybody says how crowded it is to keep people from going. I've found PR to be relatively uncrowded compared to a lot of spots back home. Maybe I just got lucky (twice)

 

It's like anywhere else really. There's a few spot that get crazy packed when there's swell, especially during holiday weeks.
But there's plenty of spots that are not crowded that are way better than your home break. If you have a car, you can score waves every day without a crowd.

But I still like Barbados better.

 

Enjoying warm weather is not sheep mentality. I don't mind surfing cold waves, but if I had a choice I'd go tropical every day... I can surf cold waves at home. I can't surf in crystal clear 85 degree water at home.

 

How about June trips when the swell blows in the Northeast? I'm in Miami for a few days in a week and a half and have some open time where I could go from there to somewhere in the Caribbean for 48-72 hours. Any ideas of a quick and easy trip? Miami and Ft. Lauderdale both have tons of direct flights to all places south. I'm Jonesing for some stoke after the spring we had and then now nothing.

 

agreed sir

 

Caribbean will probably be flat too that time, unless there's some tropical action. Wait and book last minute to increase your odds.

 

Dude, first of all, lately every third day somebody axs where they should go on a trip. Then people jump to respond because Swellinfo community participation threads are a big hit, and..........and it's the same couple of places that get suggested. Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Everytime.

I disagree. It is kind of sheepish when someone axs aboot a trip and the same two or three locations are given. Puerto Rico........Costa Rica.....Barbados..........and maybe a Nicaragua thrown in for good measure.

If there's going to be a new "Where should I go" thread every other day, lets have y'all get creative with the locations.

And why is all aboot weather? It should be aboot waves. You can surf in 76 degree water in Jersey....sometimes. Sometimes you can even see a few feet under the water's surface. Hey, what's wrong with green/brown camoflauge water color? Actually, I saw a "Stronger Than the Storm" commercial and, WOW, you should have see how blue New Jersey's water was. Amazing.

And it's not always ice cold in Nueve Yersey. You feel better after a cold water session. That's a scientific fact.

 

Thanks. All spots down south (islands) are flat like up here in the summer? I thought I saw somewhere that Costa and others still had some action, and that Peru is all year long.

 

Go to the SPACIFIC side of Costa. So actually you should go to Central America. You friggin gringo. You know south of that equator it's almost winter and the real oceans got it going on. Seas are gay(as in happy), oceans are mean and that's where the cool kids go.

 

True that, I haven't been to Barbados yet, but it's on the list, gotta convince the wife it'll be fun... You're right though, if you know the spots you can find an uncrowded break that's firing. Even Maria's has days where it's not too bad but you gotta get there early. I scored Maria's DP by myself on my Birthday, best present ever, but I also had to share it with about 100 people the day before, just depends...