Surfing Waves

Hey everybody, I’m a sophomore in college and I'm a huge surfer and love pretty much any kind of outdoors type activities and i'm trying to decide weather to spend three months studying abroad in Byron Bay Australia or Bali Indo from January-May. Was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on where the better surf would be this time of year? Thanks!

OwenMarks888 wrote:Byron Bay Australia ... from January-May.

Where have you found to study in Byron Bay? It's hardly what you'd call an education hub...

Surf in Byron in January to May... pretty good generally, occasional cyclone swells, warm water... AND INSANE CROWDS. During Jan - Feb, it's just too crowded, and even as we go into autumn its still very very crowded. Byron's great, I love Byron, brilliant place to spend a weekend... wouldn't spend 3 months there.

OwenMarks888 wrote:Bali Indo from January-May.

You get a long period of heavy rain, mainly jan/feb but can last until may, the coastline waters are *very* polluted then because all the dirt from the rivers. The waves are generally small and the westerly winds are up early, leaving the west coast spots relatively empty.

Crowds are less on the island but concentrate on the east coast that's protected from the early westerly winds until about 09:00am when it picks up, turns sw and blows out most spots..

Good weather to fully concentrate on ur study though

Christmas to the end of January is school holidays and main holiday break for Australians. Everywhere along the coast is busy (particularly Christmas to mid Jan) but places like Byron Bay are ridiculous, as DBB says. And very expensive as a result. If you wanted to go here, then definitely aim for March - May rather than Jan or Feb (although around Easter is, again, a peak holiday time).

I'm assuming you aren't actually 'studying' in the sense of attending a real life educational institution but perhaps doing it online or a thesis or something. In that case, if you can go anywhere and want to try Australia, I would suggest perhaps Jan and Feb further south (south coast NSW) and then maybe heading further north (toward Byron Bay) if you want to go there . While further south is still crowded its not as bad (even over Christmas you are talking 15-20 in the water, at Byron you might be talking 50+) and while there aren't the legendary point breaks there are plenty of beach breaks.

March to May is arguably a better time to come anyway - air temps are still pretty warm, the water is at its warmest and the onshore winds you get at peak summer from 10 or 11 tend to arrive later or sometimes not at all.

I dont know what you would study here......not much when the surf is up is my guess.

Sophmore year is when you decide in areas of focus and concentrations for tour final two years, presumably to build your career and life on.....my advice is to either take some time away from school and surf or commit 100% to your studies so that you can be in control of your future.

I think it's a good decision..enjoy