Top 5 destination beaches

G-town surf this weekend was a bust! Friday waves flattened after the passing of a cold front late Thursday/ early Friday. I probably could have gone SUPing (Stand-Up Paddleboarding) with Brian, but it was partly cloudy and chilly, meaning that it wasn't worth it to me. (3/2 wetsuits will probably be needed until next spring.) I was hoping that the Swell Info forecasts were correct and that choppy, small waves would be possible today(Sunday). However, they were wrong. The north winds, which shifted to the east late Saturday, flattened my hopes. In my Sunday morning update from Surfer Dude Brian, I discovered that he found some small, manageable waves to surf late Saturday afternoon. However, I must admit that the wavecam did not do them justice, because when I went to the page in the afternoon, the waves looked unsurfable.  So, sadly, I didn't get to surf this weekend, which is really too bad since the weather was gorgeous. Chilly definitely; but still gorgeous. And, because it was so beautiful, I ran and biked. I was about to say that I ran and biked instead of surfing, but I can't really say that since running and cycling are equally part of my regular weekend routine. I'm also bummed a little that I didn't get to surf because very soon I will be traveling to Central America for Witch's Rock Surf Camp. I'm very excited since I will be in Tamarindo, which is one of the top 10 surfing destinations on many of surfing lists, and definitely on mine since I took up surfing 3 1/2 years ago. Thinking about my upcoming trip, I decided to list five places I wouldn't mind surfing some day.


1.) Tamarindo, Costa Rico -- I decided to list this first since, although I will be there soon, I still haven't officially surfed there, which means it should stay on my list. Tamarindo, Costa Rica definitely makes the top 10 lists for many surfers and has shown up as #5 and #6 on two lists I just googled. I'm really looking forward to this trip, and I hope to improve my surfing while I'm there. However, I'm not sure location is my real problem just yet. I need a lot of work on form.

2.) Canary Islands/Madeira Island -- These two locations just sound like fun. The Canary Islands made both of the top 10 lists I just googled, but Madeira Island did not. I realize the Canary Islands are part of Spain, while Madeira Island is Portuguese, but they are very close to one another geographically. Reports about Madeira Island say it is a very difficult location to surf, which means I would probably only ever watch the surfers. But, my oh my, what fun!!!

3.) Gold Coast, Australia -- I have had a couple of friends travel to Australia and New Zealand lately and post wonderful surf reports and photos. Australia has always been a placed I wanted to go. To get to surf there would be incredible too.

4.) Huntington Beach, California -- I've been to California a couple of times, but have never surfed there. It made some of the lists I looked at as one of the top 10 surfing destinations. I may get the opportunity to surf there in February if I participate in the Surf City Marathon/Half-Marathon. I haven't registered yet, but I'm seriously considering it. The medal for participating is a surfboard. I already have one friend who has registered for it, and I think I might have been the driving force for him to register. So, I'm feeling a little obligated to run it.

5.) Jeffrey Bays, South Africa -- I had a hard time deciding between this beach and any of the beaches in Hawaii. After all, who wouldn't want to travel to Hawaii. However, South Africa has been on my mind lately since I read a book about waves and surfing earlier this year. Recently, I saw a person's photos of the place, and the waves looked nice; however, the photos I saw were thumbnail size, so I had to do some more investigation for larger photos. In the photos I found on the Internet, South Africa looks rustic, but beautiful.

Other notable beaches include Panama (yet another friend just returned from there with some beautiful photos) and Hawaii, of course (a good friend surfed there and gave it rave reviews). In Texas, I still need to make it to Surfside, Corpus Christi and South Padre. Wow! Will I ever fit them all in? Probably not. But, I can dream!

**photo is from a trip I took to Barbados this year. (Barbados would have made my list if I hadn't already traveled there.)