Surf Florida - Quick Facts
LOCATION: North America, South East corner.
POPULATION: 19200000
NATIONALITY: Americanese
LANGUAGE: English
CURRENCY: US Dollar

Florida is a popular tourist destination, receiving millions of visitors to the state each year. It's climate is very agreeable, with an average temperature in Southern Florida of 28.2C / 82.7F during summer and 20.3C / 68.5F during winter.
This makes it a great destination for surfers. It has over 1250 golf courses, 370000 hotel rooms and over 700 campgrounds.

The capital is Tallahassee and it's most populated city is Jacksonville.

Florida Surf Spot Map

Crocket and Tubbs once said that the surf in Florida is the best in the world (they didn't really, we just made this up).

Florida's Atlantic coastline is home to some quality surf spots but unfortunately the swells it gets are pretty inconsistent. It is a great place to have a go at surfing as the whole are is geared up to tourism, the beaches are great, there are plenty of nice easy beachbreaks for learning to surf, and the water's crystal clear.

The main swell season in winter from November to March gets the swells from North Atlantic low pressures, generating surf from anywhere between 1-10ft. Summer can have long spells of flat surf broken up by small windswell days. That said the best waves that Florida gets are during the summer cyclone season of August to October. Cyclones tracking from Africa to the Caribbean produce quality offshore surf up to 10ft and perfect. Time it right and you could have days of surfing classic waves - time it wrong and you might be heading to Disneyland. Still, the water is warm, the beaches sandy and the sun shines - they don't call it the Sunshine State for nothing!

Probably the most famous (and busy) surfing spots in Florida are Cocoa Beach and Sebastian Inlet.

Cocoa Beach was the home of the most successful professional surfer of all time, one Robert Kelly Slater. Slater grew up surfing the Floridian beach break, so the waves can't be that bad! Slater rides Channel Islands surfboards and has his own FCS fin range.

Surfing Florida - The Good
Great for Learners
Good Hurricane Season (if there is such a thing)

Surf Florida - The Bad and the Ugly
Inconsistent Swells
Shark Bite Capital of the World (true fact)

Florida Surfing Conditions

Tell us about your experiences of surfing either the Atlantic of Gulf Coast of Florida. We'd love to hear all about it.

Click the link for some background (non surfing related) information on Florida.

Mostly small wave shortboards, funboards or longboards, although kayaks aren't considered "surfing" equipment, many Floridians enjoy using kayaks to break the waves.

It's ideal for beginners, so check our guide to beginners surfboards.

Ladies, don't forget your board shorts!