January Surf Trip
We did a few weeks in NZ a couple of years back in March. Hired a Britz campervan and cruised around the North Island. Scored great, uncrowded waves virtually anywhere we went. No worries with localism, everyone was cool. Had a few locals cue us into some some secret spots. Even the name breaks were no hassles as long as you said g'day and eased into it. Great food, cheap beer and not too hard on the wallet in general. Great place for a surf trip.
Never did find my Maori princess though, but we didn't get to KFC that often anyway.
Or you can come here to northern Japan in January, pumping North swells, snow on the beach, smokin' hot women and you can snowboard magnificent mountains too for about a third of the price of Australia.
have you thought about the phillipines? generally a pretty cheap place to visit, not far from australia and according to my 30 second google search the swell is generally big that time of year, winds may be dicey though. Do a search for cloud nine if you're interested.
Chile? Pretty damn expensive flights for students. What is it, $2000 return? More...? That's a fair whack out of any travel budget. Also, you're going there when the swell is at it's least consistent.
If you want consistency you're gonna have to look to the northern hemi and places that are open to the north (Hawaii, Kirimati, Madeira, Morocco, Azores) or to the Philippines. January is toward the end of the Philippine typhoon season but there'll still be the odd tropical low in their swell window.
Or you could stay more local. I've had very good returns on January trips somewhere in the Australian desert.
yeah i know its out of season for chile, but from what ive heard, theres swell there pretty much year round (if you dispute this, im interested to know). and yeah, airfares to chile are the reason why im exploring other options. I floated the idea of mexico (baja) but my mates reckon its pretty dangerous, I thought it was reasonably safe these days.
I hadn't considered the phillipines, but Ill look into it.
PNG is good in January although not sure if it will suit your budget. If you organise the flights yourselves you can get to Kavieng and back for about a grand. Once there you could go to Nusa Island retreat or jump on one of the two boats that operate (Tiki Tu and PNG Explorer). If you want to do it super cheap once in Kavieng you could stay at Piccinniny Pt and surf that and Nusa lefts. All the other breaks require boat transport. You need to book into the surf management plan wherever you go.
Roti is also pretty good in January.
Gee Stu ........
London calling ayyyy . Flights ( which i believe are near non existant , and if so Meag Bucks to get a Surfboard out that way ) .
Christmas rush and all ......
Cooks are Cheap , Samoa , and the List goes On ...... plenty of Options really .
Have had my eye out for somewhere that Moonie and Marti may have recently started tapping ..... but within these walls NOT ......
Plenty of uncrowded options in Indo at that time of year if you know where to look, especially if you are don't decide final destination until you reach indo.
You say you are students, looking at January 2013 and considering Chile.
Perhaps you might like to look at the destinations Student Volunteers Organisation can go to.
I heard of a guy that got to Costa Rica to work with rare sea turtles pretty cheap under this program. Hosted with local families and he ended up having a fantastic time and making some great friends. You could bang on an extra few weeks at the start or back of the volunteer program for the surf trip but you also get plenty of free time during the program as well.
Hello everyone,
Im going on a month long surf trip in January 2013 with a couple of friends, however, we have not been able to agree on a destination. We are looking for somewhere that is likely to score waves (obviously!), will have reasonably pleasant weather and is not too expensive as we are all students. Does anyone know of anywhere that will fit the bill? At the moment, Chile seems to be the favourite.
Cheers