Hawaii

Why Hawaii

The North Shore gets the headlines, but that is a winter story and not a beginner's one. The South Shore is the summer coast, and it is a completely different proposition.

South swells wrap up from the southern hemisphere between roughly April and September and produce long, slow, rolling waves at Queens and Canoes off Waikiki. These are the waves surfing was born on, and they remain about as forgiving as a wave can be — which is why the Waikiki beachboy surf school is still a thriving trade a century later.

Further along, Ala Moana Bowls is a sharp, hollow left reef and a serious wave. The gap between it and Canoes is enormous, and it is a fifteen-minute paddle.

When to go

• **Apr–Sep:** the south-swell season, and the whole point of this coast.Apr–Sep: the south-swell season, and the whole point of this coast.
• **Oct–Mar:** the South Shore goes quiet — this is when the North Shore is enormous and strictly for experts.Oct–Mar: the South Shore goes quiet — this is when the North Shore is enormous and strictly for experts.

Getting around

Fly into Honolulu (HNL). Waikiki is a twenty-minute drive, and everything on the South Shore is walkable or a short bus ride. There are no surf camps with lodging here — you book a hotel and a surf school separately, which is simply how it works.