Surfing Waves

Planning a trip to san diego for the summer, just in the process of gettin my visa sorted, hopefully going to spend about 5 months there starting in early june.

Been there once before for a few days and surfed at ocean beach just by the pier but besides that not too farmiliar with the area.

Does anyone have any info on:

the best spots to surf at
best deals on boards (prob second hand), thinkin about a 6'2"fish shape
quality of swell at that time of year
best place to live for access to surf, obviously financial restrictions will be the main determining factor, but a good compromise
Also lookin to work for four months, as per visa restrictions, so if theres anybody lookin for a hard workin irish guy whos not affraid get his hands dirty im your man. I will also have just completed a BSc. in Industrial Design but im not too optomistic about a related job. just lookin for enough money to live off and enough time to surf every evening

Any advise/help would be much appreciated

San diego's summer has lots n lots of sunshine but like ost parts of the world the surf can sometimes lack. But as you are staying for 5 months chances are you will get some kind of a swell at some point. If you have a means of transport just about any break in san diego is but 30 odd minutes away or thereabouts. Places of interest to visit n surf would be. Swami's, Blacks, Sunsett cliffs, San O, Windnsea, Cardiff, to name just a few

As for boards use craigs list theres always some deals to be had for second hand boards.

For places to live i can only quote on my area which is ocean beach. I pay around $900 for a studio that over looks the pier the further you move away from the beach the lower the prices drop. - However accomodation is gonna be trickey as you will only be staying 5 months being a foreigner wont make things easier. So your best bet might be to try and find a shared place to stay.

If you got a work visa then it wont be too hard to find some kind of cash in hand job - dont stake your trip on it though.

If you luck out on the accomodation you should be pretty set

Hope that helps

gaelic,
isalute provided the best option for used boards (wet suits, too). Go here:
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ and type, "surfboard," into the search. You'll always find plenty to choose from. You can also use Craigslist to learn about and find housing and jobs. Look for the actual clicky things near top center of the address page.

You can also find used boards at many of the surf shops and, certainly at the surf schools. There are lots of these kinds of businesses in San Diego. You can learn more about the surfing beaches in San Diego and pick up info about surf shop locations from these links:
http://www.surfline.com/reports/report.cfm?id=4245
http://www.surfingsandiego.com/forum/default.asp
http://www.sandiegosurfers.com/
http://www.surfsd.com

Sometimes design work is easy to find and other times it is not. Most often you can find short term contract design work with design companies. My friend in northern California that had a small design business used to hire students to complete specific parts of design jobs. It was good for him because he got reasonable talent for a good price and the young people got some opportunity to work for pay. I'd obtain the Yellow Pages telephone directory as soon as I arrived in San Diego to begin searching this out.

The public transporation system in the city of San Diego is pretty good. I helped a friend from India settle in there with his wife in December 2005. We were pleasantly surprised at how good the bus system is. I don't remember what it is called, but someone on this board should be able to say. Then you can get on-line and find out more about that.

If it were me, I'd try to get as close to the beach as possible. One area that has lots of students and young people (hence, shared rents and all that goes with young lifestyles) is Pacific Beach. People there refer to it as PB. Here is a handy link to a map showing San Diego's areas and relative rents: http://offcampushousing.ucsd.edu/OCH_BubbleMap.pdf

You are going to have a ton of fun and I envy you.
Billie

Don't know anything about a "Pebble Beach", but I do know Pacific Beach that is known as PB. I would recomend looking for places to stay in Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach. Should be easy to get a job in a local bar. Here in Mission Beach there are about 3 surf shops within walking distance of my place that you can get cheap used boards. Also, within this area there are a lot of vacation rental places or places you can do a month to month deal so you don't have to sign a lease. Isaluteyou lives in Ocean Beach and I live in Mission Beach. Drop a line before you come out.
Not to put words in isaluteyou's mouth that is.

Yep deffo drop us a line when you make it out

hey guys, thanks alot for the help,
you have really given me alot to go on, its much appreciated.
iv heard great things about the city and i cannot wait to get out there, just got to wrap up this college work and im free . I will defo give ye guys a shout, we can paddle out, ye can show me the ropes
for all yer help the drinks are on me

hey man, i had friends doing a j1 out in san diego too, so i went out for a week to get some waves, surfed mission beach, nice place, now i dont need a lot, but there was no day when i couldnt surf, was lovely and warm too, you'll love it, you wont be driving out there though will u?

hey aaron, no we wont be getting a car, planning on doing things on quite a tight budget. going to try and rely on public transport, when i was there last i got a bus from the center of the city to the beach with my board and it was no hasstle. so hopefully the buses serve most of the surf spots.

did your friends have any problems getting jobs or accomodation? did they get a place close to the beach?

yeah thats what i did, i was living downtown so i got a tram to the oldtown and then a bus out to mission beach, was renting a board so it worked out grand.
because your arriving in early june, if you want work u shud b able to get it, the group i was with didnt all work, but the ones who didnt didnt seem to try that hard, we had 9 ppl livin in a 2 bed apartment so rent wasnt that much, think a place isnt that hard to find, never heard of anybody being homeless or anything, just make sure youve got a hostel arranged for your first few nites, like i said, I lived downtown, and yeah you can get a bus to most beaches as far as i remember. The surf shop i rented from had a guy from cork working there actually, used to hang out round there a bit, anyway he was livin in a top class apartment right on mission beach, used to skateboard to work,
are going with a group or?

oh, and as for the boards, yeah craigslist, you can get some wicked cheap deals compared to over here, the swell seems pretty consistantly small, it was always between 2-5ft for my week there, oh and you have to surf mornings or evenings to avoid the onshores