Surfing Waves

I have a few months free which I want to spend getting better at surfing. On a slow easy point break I can get up and make trimming turns on a longboard but on harder breaks I have trouble standing up.

I am tossing up between a trip up the east coast of Australia road trip were I camp near nice easy breaks or two vs going to Kuta Beach or Siargao Islands for a few months

What do you guys think would be a better way to improve fast at surfing ?

Pros/cons ?

Let's start the conversation around visas, for Australia you have to demonstrate you have enough money to stay and keep yourself. Australia is quite expensive and you have get to beaches where you can camp. Local regulations are fairly strict about where and how you camp
So travel to costs, camp ground costs, city beaches of which there 52 alone in Sydney , you can't camp except for a few designated campgrounds.
Narrabeen and others down south from Sydney.

I do is your best bet 30 day visa or from some countries no visa just 30 days stay allowed, cheaper by far than Australia lots of surf spots accessible some further from the madding crowd. Accommodation ranges from cheap to ridiculous but your choice, indo surf absolutely more consistent than east coast Oz. Just more crowded with people around your level.

Philippines , most surf camps on outer islands but have home stays and resort stays to choose from, camping not recommended.
Home stay can be quite cheap and family will look out for you in many ways.

Where ever you go surfing often is the key to improving! So where would you get the most surf time?
A few more details, where do you surf now? Might help design a trip.
East coast Oz is hugely long, days of driving between Melbourne , Sydney Brisbane up as far as Noosa from The Victorian surf coast.
So a little more info!

I know road trips are fun, but if you really want to focus on surfing I think it might be cheaper to just find a good beach and stay put. Surfing is as much about learning the way a beach works as it is about maneuvering a board around. You can only learn about the tides, swell direction, winds, etc. by getting to know a beach well. Those might seem like trivial aspects to surfing, but they're actually incredibly important and you can't familiarize yourself with them if you're at a new spot every day. It's not too hard to find a beach that's fairly uncrowded during the week, when the rest of the world is working, and just surf it every day. If that beach is fairly close to an interesting city, then you got a nice vacation made for you. If you stay for a longer period, then you might be able to rent something cheaper right on the beach. Personally, I wouldn't pay for a surf camp or anything, I'd just go out and practice every day. As far as finding a spot goes, I'd focus on finding one that is protected from the wind (like a cove) , has a beautiful dawn wave, a great glassed off dusk wave, and is open to all swells.

garthtrickett wrote:..... going to Kuta Beach or Siargao Islands for a few months

What do you guys think would be a better way to improve fast at surfing ?

Have you been to Kuta? Summer on the peaks that are working you will have to fight a crowd and will get dropped in on anyway.....plus more than 100 foamies scattered from McDs to Padma at any given time. If I came to this area as a traveler, from what I've read and heard I'd keep going and not stop until I got to Lombok. Search that on this site; Uncle Jaffa has posted extensively about his experiences.

Let's look at this in terms of being near a city! Sydney , Newcastle and Wollongong are all cities on the NSW coast that have surf beach actually as suburbs of the cities. Most Australians cannot afford to live at Sydney's surf beaches, they are not cheap 4million plus people in Sydney.

The east coast road trip is the same distance as from the Mexican border to Washington State. The northern end of NSW is currently having a boom in shark attacks and lone surfing is definitely more dangerous than it used to be 9the shark area goes from Newcastle to Tweed Heads with Ballina being the real hot spot.

Each and every beach has a hot resident crew of surfers, but the more remote ones less so.
Some are a couple hours drive from the Pacific Highway and a little local knowledge is required to find them.

The east coast is fickle and even with home grown knowledge you can miss for weeks on end, or run smack into a mega cyclone swell, ( rest assured if that is on, so are the highly skilled crowds and the wave risk factor.

Indonesia is remarkably consistent in the swell season, with swell of various degrees coming from storm systems that circle the Antarctic passing below the cape of good hope . Only the size varies.
The entire south facing coast of the major part of Indonesia , Sumatra, Java, Bali Lombok Sumba Sumbawa, Timor all catch degrees of swell.
But as you head anywhere from Bali you are on your own as far as lifeguards and surf survival.
In spite of what Rinky says a camp/ resort is the best way to go as they keep an eye out for you and count who turns up for meals.

The Philippines , villages and camps at surf spots are a long way from cities and are on specific islands so road tripping is a little more difficult.
I suggest camps because they take the challenges of canoes ferries and spending days getting to the surf, locked into ignorance of how and where to go.
Other than Australia you need to be competent in first aid and take prevention for tropical diseases like malaria, dengue, typhus typhoid, and septic tropically effected wounds, dysentery .
Travel insurance is a must.
Wherever you are coming from has a lot less to consider than just hanging out at a easy beach!

Thanks everyone for your responses some very good info.

jaffa1949 wrote:Let's start the conversation around visas, for Australia you have to demonstrate you have enough money to stay and keep yourself.

Sorry I should have been clearer i'm from Australia (Canberra).

jaffa1949 wrote:Where ever you go surfing often is the key to improving! So where would you get the most surf time?

Even though i'm from Australia i've only started learning while i've been in South America (Peru and Ecuador)

RinkyDink wrote:I know road trips are fun, but if you really want to focus on surfing I think it might be cheaper to just find a good beach and stay put. Surfing is as much about learning the way a beach works as it is about maneuvering a board around. You can only learn about the tides, swell direction, winds, etc. by getting to know a beach well. Those might seem like trivial aspects to surfing, but they're actually incredibly important and you can't familiarize yourself with them if you're at a new spot every day. It's not too hard to find a beach that's fairly uncrowded during the week, when the rest of the world is working, and just surf it every day. If that beach is fairly close to an interesting city, then you got a nice vacation made for you. If you stay for a longer period, then you might be able to rent something cheaper right on the beach. Personally, I wouldn't pay for a surf camp or anything, I'd just go out and practice every day. As far as finding a spot goes, I'd focus on finding one that is protected from the wind (like a cove) , has a beautiful dawn wave, a great glassed off dusk wave, and is open to all swells.

RinkyDinky ==> some real good info here

With these updated conditions where do you guys think I should go ?
- Happy to stay in same place for a few months and surf same break
- Will be flying from Australia happy to fly to anywhere in South East Asia
- Cheap accommodation and food

In short i'm looking for a place to go for a few months and really work on improving my surfing.

If you are from Canberra, then a trip/stay somewhere between Noosa and the Vic border is a perfectly fine choice. Even the NSW south coast, between (say) Bateman's Bay and Jervis Bay has literally 100s of surf breaks, mostly beach but the odd reef or point break. Many perfectly fine for beginners; there are surf schools and surf coaches if you want to get some teaching. In fact, I think this region (and heading up further north from Newcastle to Noosa) is one of the best places in the world to learn to surf because its not crowded, has a wide variety of breaks, is easy to get to etc.

I've been to a lot of places and dont underestimate just how good the NSW coastline is - its absolutely one of the best coastlines in the world. Kuta, for example, is a very disappointing version of Manly - dont expect anything magical from Kuta (not saying there arent better and particularly more consistent surfing areas in the world, but do not dismiss the east coast just because you are used to it)

Camping is a bit limited but there are caravan parks and the odd national park (not free however). You can always duck back to Canberra to recover! Plenty of backpackers manage to find semi isolated car parks to spend the night in their camper vans

Then again, perhaps just staying in NSW might be a bit boring - great for learning to surf, but outside of that there isnt going to be a huge number of new experiences; whereas Indo will be full of different things. What do you do once your surf is finished or when its totally flat?

Another option is Sri Lanka (definitely a lot of new experiences), but make sure you go in the right season. It can also (reportedly) get a bit crowded

If I were to propose an answer, it would be to spend 3-6 weeks along the NSW south coast and then re-evaluate. A few weeks in Lombok at that time maybe? I know that NSW isnt 'cheap food and accom' but there is no airfare to get there.

RinkyDink wrote: As far as finding a spot goes, I'd focus on finding one that is protected from the wind (like a cove) , has a beautiful dawn wave, a great glassed off dusk wave, and is open to all swells.

ha - 'just find one of these perfect locations'....

Consider the NSW south coast, from Lake Conjola through Batemans Bay Broulee area, go as far south as Merimbula (if you do PM Uncle Jaffa)
The Mimosa Rocks have camping areas small fees, some good break aragunu, Camp at Mstery Bay and explore tracks there.

OR...... head to Kuta Lombok and or Gerupuk camp... 30 days visa free, maybe some home stays or one of the camps...... choice of a number of waves in gerupuk, choose you training ground , cheap and interesting