Five Of The World’s Best Wave Gardens for Regular Surfers

For most of us, the first thing on the list is somewhere you can catch a large amount of waves in a short amount of time. Preferably in warm water and waves of a higher quality than you generally surf wherever you call home. Minimal crowds (if that exists in 2022), maximum swell/wind options; basically what you’re after is a wave garden. A little slice of coast with enough bays, nooks and crannies to keep anyone who puts foot to fibreglass content. 

So along those lines, we’ve compiled a list of the best wave gardens for a short or long trip if you’re an intermediate surfer and not Nick ‘Big Wave Dave’ Von Rupp. In other words, pretty much all of us.

 

Top Five Wave Gardens for Regular Surfers

1. Indo, (but not the Ments!)

Do not, repeat, do not, go on a boat trip to the Mentawais. The Ments are a place for experienced surfers to push their ability and score the barrels of their lives. Seriously, if you’re not comfortable taking off on a top-to-bottom wave, straight into the tube, getting barrelled for 5-10 seconds before getting blown out into the channel, don’t bother. Plenty of good (even professional) surfers have rocked up to the Ments for a swell, broken all their boards and injured themselves on the first day of a boat trip and spent the remainder of the week drinking Bintang and limeing their wounds.

So if you’re dead set on Indo, there are far better options for the Average Joe. A quick Bali hit’s a good start, straight to the west coast. Balian’s fun, consistent as sin and is often better in the wet season, while Medewi is a long, left dream for the intermediate looking to have a blast and link a few turns. And then if you’re looking to surf some less-than-death-defying reefs further afield, Rote is a dream. With options galore - from user-friendly tubes to long, point-style waves and everything in between.

2. Central America (but not Mexico!)

Central America is one giant wave garden, and the consistency at the optimal time of year (March-December, but realistically, most of the year) is, quite frankly, remarkable. There’s every sort of wave imaginable from the American border to the tip of Colombia, but generally, Mexico’s not for the faint of heart; don’t be fooled by the fact the majority of waves break over sand, Puerto Escondido and its ilk are as heavy as waves get. 

The pick of the continent in terms of surf gardens is Nicaragua, and if you can’t find fun waves here, you’re not looking hard enough. Nicaragua has 330 days of offshore winds a year thanks to a huge lake in the middle of the country called Managua (ask your weird mate who studied geography). Try Playa Hermosa if you’re looking to push yourself in some punchy beachbreak tubes, or the Playgrounds area for a variety of points, river mouths and beach breaks.

3. Peru

If you’re goofy or you like surfing with your back to the wall, then Peru is the place to improve and enjoy your surfing. During the surf season - December to mid-April - the long winding west coast is a marvel, the swells coming exclusively from the south-west, and fluctuating in height and wave period, but not direction. This means that sand at some point washes into every bay and outcrops the length of the coast, especially in the north. 

Swells last for weeks not days, and the waves are loooong. Like, really long. There’s plenty of locals who surf, but the standard isn’t what it is on, say, the east coast of Australia, so if you’re relatively competent, you’re going to catch a lot of waves, and the longer they are, the more time you spend on your feet, meaning maximum stoke and maximum progression. If you’ve got a nose for adventure then the coast is 3000 kms long and it all cops swell, but if you’re limited on time then you’re looking at Lobitos, Pacasmayo and Chicama. All sand bottom lefts (plus assorted other left point options), all long as hell, and all capable of delivering the trip of a lifetime in their own right.

4. The East Coast of Australia

The staycation is much underrated, and the east coast of Australia is a veritable paradise in winter. The chances of groundswells are high, the winds predominantly offshore and the weather is crisp, clear and often perfect. It’s a big stretch of coast and everyone’s got their own little haven, but if you’re a newbie looking for the quintessential east coast experience then Crescent Head ticks all the boxes. 

There’s a consistent point - long, fun and less high-performance than the points further north, making your chance of snagging a fun, relatively uncrowded session more likely - and there’s enough other options in the area for the savvy hunter to cater to anyone’s surfing needs. The fact that it’s stunningly beautiful and remains remarkably unspoilt is the cherry atop the pie.

5. The Maldives (boat trip!)

The boat trip is a surfing right of passage, and if you’re an intermediate-experienced surfer and want the full experience - world-class reef passes, deep sea fishing and beer drinking alike - without the full body lacerations, then the Maldives is the one. Boat trips never come cheap, but if you do your research and get a band together then it’s not so bad. 

The peak season is April-June, and, as if that transparent sea with a turquoise tint isn’t enough to get you blowing the dust off the credit card, your chances of scoring perfect 3-4 foot perfect reef pass surf with minimal humans around is relatively high. Which in 2023, is an impossibility in the Mentawais.

So how do you plan a surf trip?

Not to get too meta, but the best first step of booking a surf trip is taking a moment to evaluate why and how you surf. In short, if you don’t get stand up tubes at home, it’s unlikely you’re going to get stand-up tubes abroad. In general, OS isn’t the best place for the intermediate surfer to push themselves in the limited amount of time available to most on a holiday (if you’re taking a year off just to surf, then feel free to disregard this sentiment entirely and strap up). If you’re a regular surfer who’s hungry to get on a plane and surf your brains out in the next year or so, then the list above has a high chance of gifting you the surf trip of a lifetime. 

Heading to one of the wave gardens above? Kit out with the selection of men’s and women’s wetsuits, clothing and accessories online from Hurley to take you for your first OS surf and beyond.