im from northern california and a job transfer is moving me to florida. gonna miss our big juicy waves but i have the whole state of fl to choose from. any advise? will take size over frequency. i’ll be in fl for a couple of years before returning to ca. i plan to mostly refine my shaping abilities but it sure would be nice to surf an overhead wave now and again. help a brother out!!!
Hi wil,
Here’s some advice from a Californian that spent a whopping 6 months in Florida. Do not move to the Tampa Bay area. I did not see one surfable wave in six months. I did surf the east coast once. Coco Beach was nice. Sebastian Inlet was fun. Kids absolutely rip it up. Florida is a neat place once you get used to the flatness(the land), heat, and mosquitoes. Interesting sea life, lizards, gators, snakes, turtles, birds, and spectacular lighting. Great scuba and skin diving in the Keys. You won’t need your 4/3 with hood and booties. Just sun screen and bug repellent. My impression was coastal Floridans are a sea/boat/fishing culture and love their state. Great sea food and cheap compared to California. The only complainers and whinners I heard were refugees from New York and Chicago. Mike
Saint Augustine is a nice town. The waves never get too big in Florida, but at least you arent going to South Carolina.
East coast and even then you won’t be getting what your leaving. Hurricanes can deliver though. There are plenty waves on the edge of coral shelves down in the keys near Islamorada but a boat or ski really comes in handy. Sebastion inlet has a pretty serious surf crew.
space coast/brevard county. central florida east coast.
surf all year without a wetsuit (if you’re from northern california)
titusville is like living in a town in alabama or georgia with the space center and beach (national seashore in pristine condition) 15 minutes away.
cape canaveral and cocoa beach: every street ends at the ocean with metered parking. buy a 25.00 pass from city of cocoa beach and park anywhere/any meter for a year.
patrick air force base is right on the ocean. plenty of free parking courtesy of uncle sam.
satellite and indialantic and indian harbor: wormstone reefs covered with sand.
melbourne beach to floridana: watch out for the shorebreak.
sebastian inlet park: 1st peak and monster hole.
houses are renting beachside for as low as 850 month. saw a handyman for sale for 135K.
you can surf alone or with 150 of your best friends on any day that breaks. depends on where you go.
two large blank facilities just over the bridge over the indian river. drive 10 minutes and take your pick from over 2000 blanks. fiberglass florida is 10 minutes further north on us1. resin,cloth, all the stuff. FCS distributes from indialantic. epoxy supplies (resin research) in indialantic, rainbow distributes from indialantic. (tomahawk drive is the beachside industrial park). world class glassing available at LP glass or R & D.
plus fishing, sailing, hunting. no mountain climbing tho.
geez. maybe i should be working for the chamber of commerce?
Way to sell it Pete I’m going to put place on the market this afternoon (LOL). Anyway, north Florida is not to bad either, Smyrna, St, Augustine, Vilano, Jax beach, and my home break is the Poles in Hanna Park. The fishing is good up here, you can still wear your wet suit for a few months so it does’nt get dry rot, we have the Jags if you like football, and it is a bit more city like. What kind of work do you do, and are you locked into a specific part of the state?
PeterG pretty much nailed the space coast, I’ll give my Oldest City vote. Check St. Augustine out. We have some of the more consistent surf, not as tide dependent as most other FL beaches. Just far enough from any “big city”, still not too far to drive for a Jaguars game! “the industry” is in Melbourne, but we do o.k. here in St. Aug, and we all get along:) One thing I’ve seen too many times from guys making an unnatural wrong coast move: keep an open mind and try new things to get through the flat spells. I don’t think you guys understand that we literally get 4,5,6 week flat spells and “overhead” is honestly pretty rare. You’re going to learn that there really is a big difference from knee to waist, to waist to stomach, to stomach to chest, to chest high. Man, I hate to even type these things being a Florida boy, but it’s true. If you can’t have fun fishing, or hanging with the family, something like that, you’ll probably not make it… At least you can occupy yourself in the shaping bay. That’s how we do it, why do you think the best shapers come from over here? Hahahahaha…
Will89, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere in Florida other than St. Augustine.
PeterG is right on with his statements about the Space Coast.
But I prefer it up here.
I Think New Smyrna/Ponce Inlet has the most consistent surf. Thats just south of Daytona on a map.
Cocoa has warmer winters.
St Aug is about an hour north of Daytona, an hour south of Jacksonville.
Our beaches up here have a larger swell window but we also get cold water in the winter.
Apologies to everyone who would laugh at that, I know “cold” is a relative term.
If you will be travelling for work, keep in mind FL is a looong state. Miami is about 300 miles from here.
I came here from Ca many years ago after an extended stay in Spain, by way of the Marshall Islands ( I realize that makes no sense). Never left.
brrrrrr. northfla. brrrrr. more like south georgia.
originally from atlantic beach, fla.
whatever you do…not the gulf coast.
good luck.
Vero Beach. Good fishing, Good surfing sometimes. Nice layed back attitude…keep North of Boca. Cold Water in Florida? You guys don’t know what cold is…even in the middle of winter when the air is 20 degrees, the water is still 65.
Not Miami. Too many Cubins in the water.
I almost went to school in St Augustine, really awesome area. Definetly not the west coast. There is always that one day a year it seems where the hobgoods and some other pro’s tow into waves at reef road or some other place around miami. so for size i geuss there but for one day a year, might as well fly home.
I’d pick west palm beach. Close striking distance north or south to alot of waves. Plus blue water most of the year and fairly consistent. Gets big on north swells.
Reef road
If your on it you can be at south beach in 1 1/2 hours for when it does it’s thing 3 times a year lol
help a brother out!!!
Okay…get another job where you can stay put!
Quote:
help a brother out!!!
Okay…get another job where you can stay put!
Hear hear! Can I get a harumph? Lol
Space Coast for sure
Have a place with water on two sides – Atlantic on one and the Intercoastal (sp?) on the other.
If you’re stuck in Fla, you could do a lot worse
If you really want size and don’t care about frequency, West Palm Beach.
melbourne sounds like the place for you.
yeah, Melbourne’s only about an hour from Bells Beach and Winkipop, you could get customs off Wayne Lynch.
Anywhere, as long as I was under 6 feet of dirt.