Since 2006 we have provide family surfing holiday for parents of young children to teenagers in locations around the world.

Based on the feedback from 2010 and 2011 these are our top five family surfing holidays in 2012.

1 ) Surf House Latas – Loredo – Spain

Nearest airport: Santander (Ryan Air from London or Ferry from Portsmouth/Plymouth)

Distance to beach: 400m

Accommodation: Guesthouse, bar, lounge area, large gardens, surf school, BBQ area and chill area.

Location: Think rolling countryside, backed by the snow capped “Pico’s de Europa” mountain range and Santander city only 15 minutes away.

2 ) Famara Apartments – Lanzarote – Spain

Nearest airport: Lanzarote (Thomson Fly and Ryan Air)

Distance to beach: 300m

Accommodation: Private apartment in the village.

Location: Sweeping long bay of Famara, local bars serving Tapas and a real Canarian experience away from the busy resorts.

3 ) Océliances Bungalows – Hossegor – France

Nearest airport: Biarritz (Flybe and Easy Jet)

Distance to beach: 600m

Accommodation: Private self-catering mobile homes. Well looked after and typically 4 – 6 people in each. Plenty of space with a decked area for eating outside. Great swimming pool, bar and resturant onsite.

Location: Pine forests, sandy beaches that go on forever and french cafes.

4) Surfers Point – Barbados

Nearest airport: Grantley Adams International (Virgin and BA)

Distance to beach: 10m

Accommodation: 7 apartments all with their own different layout only 12 steps to the bath-like warm ocean.  Very safe, laid back place with café on site.

Location: White sandy bay, palm tree’s and secluded garden for residences of Surfers Point.

5) Cap Ferret Surf Lodge – Bordeaux – France

Nearest airport: Bordeaux (Easy Jet, Flybe and BA)

Distance to beach: 5km

Accommodation: The surf camp is based in a tranquil wooden house that sleeps 6 in 3 double rooms (twin or double beds available) in Andernos les Bains. The house has a spacious open plan dining room/lounge, new kitchen, and large Italian bathroom (including bath and wet room shower), toilet and utility room. The outside terrace has a lounge and dining area including BBQ.

Location:  Long beaches, rivermouths, marina and forests.

Elusive have kindly donated one of their Mission Zip Up Hoodies to the person who becomes the 750^th person to like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Errant.Surf.Holidays So share, like and most of all be happy and surf all day. The winner will be notified via e-mail and Facebook so stay lucky.

Check out Elusive Surf Clothing.

Break away from the books and come surfing with Errant in 2012.

We have refined our most popular university group surfing holiday and lowered the price for even better value!

For £199 per person your group can come and stay, surf and party at the Surf House Latas in Spain.

This price includes:

7 nights’ accommodation in shared room
Breakfast every day
All surfing equipment
Free use of WIFI
Free use of mountain bikes and SUP boards
Welcome BBQ party
Leaving BBQ party

And add £50 if you would like a five day surf course!

This offer is valid to European based schools and universities with groups of over 10 people.

Latas Surf House is only 20 minutes away from Santander University City. You can fly here from London (Ryan Air) or arrive by ferry from Plymouth or Portsmouth.

Other Locations for University Surf Trips

Other popular surfing locations in 2011 and perfect for 2012 are Lagos and Peniche in Portugal. Not forgetting Morocco!

Live music at the surf house in Latas, Spain

]]> http://blog.errantsurf.com/2011/12/26/the-best-university-surfing-break-2012/feed/ 1 http://blog.errantsurf.com/2011/12/26/new-years-surfing-resolution/ http://blog.errantsurf.com/2011/12/26/new-years-surfing-resolution/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:37:36 +0000 christhomson http://blog.errantsurf.com/?p=1549 The key to fulfilling any New Year’s resolution is to plan ahead, make sure that it’s aligned with your personal goals, and not to just list it all down, on a whim, on New Year’s Eve.

A study spearheaded by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the U.K.-based University of Hertfordshire, revealed that most of the 700 people they interviewed failed to stick to their New Year’s resolutions.

Interestingly, while the study showed that the lack of willpower is one of the main reasons why people fail to keep up with their resolutions, those who managed to stick to them don’t necessarily have a stronger willpower.

According to Wiseman’s interview with the Guardian, “many of the most successful techniques involve making a plan and helping yourself stick to it.”

People who kept their resolutions broke their goal into smaller steps, rewarded themselves when they achieved one of these, and told their friends about their goals. They also focused on the benefits of success and recorded their progress.

If you always wanted to travel on your own, but have been hesitating to do so for the last few years, then TODAY may be the time to do that.

You don’t need to wait for New Year’s Eve to write your travel resolutions. And believe me, it’s so easy. Here are the five baby steps that you can take towards reaching goal:

1. Be specific with your location.

Be very specific–a surf resort, not a country. Ask yourself where you always wanted to go but never had the time, money, or courage to go on your own. Go to a quiet corner where you won’t be disturbed and write down the name of the surf spot you have always dreamt of surfing.

 2. Commit to a time.

When do you want to go? During the summer holiday? On your birthday? Next Christmas? The only time you’re allowed to take vacation at work? Whenever it is, choose a specific date and make sure your office is on board with the plan. Once you have the time off, it will be a lot easier to push yourself through the planning.

3. Discover your own agenda.

What do you want to do in that place? Visit the art galleries? Try Yoga or just get better at surfing? Eat you way to some of the finest restaurants? Surf the longest wave of your life? Your itinerary must only include activities that matter to you and not what the guidebook or that know-it-all colleague told you to do.

4. Research.

After you figured out what, where, when and why you’re going to this surf destination, it’s time to do the “how.” The main questions that you need to answer are: How much would it cost? What are the items you have to bring to be comfortable while traveling? What is the attitude of locals to tourists (especially women tourists) who are on their own?

In this age of (over) information, it’s so easy to find answers to your questions. You can buy the guidebook, surf the net, post your questions in online forums, and even ask your friends and family for recommendations.

5. Build your travel fund.

Once you have a fair idea about the prices of the plane tickets, accommodations, and food, you can then start building a travel fund. You can open a savings account or buy a piggy bank (Chris Guillebeau said that you only need to save $2 a day to travel to any place that you want to go).

You can start living frugally–say goodbye to night outs and expensive nail salons–or find a way to earn an extra income.

The biggest obstacles to having an adventure are likely your own thoughts. As with all resolutions, where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Where would you like to surf this year?

It only seems like yesterday we were launching our dates for the 2011 Longboard Coaching Weekend, Improver Weekend and our NARS Beach Lifeguard Courses in Newquay, Cornwall. Time flies when you are having fun, by we have certainly been having plenty of fun!

So we put pen to paper, juggled a few bank holidays, weddings and birthdays to bring you our 2012 dates for the above courses.

Improver Weekend

This is a perfect course for you if you can stand up and are wondering what next….We take you through improving that “pop up”, generating speed, getting out and turning.

• 24th – 25th March 2012
• 5th – 6th May 2012
• 14th – 15th June 2012
• 4th – 5th August 2012

For more information click here

Longboard Coaching Weekend

Mix quality surf coaching with unbeatable location and facilities and you could be hanging five ready for the summer!

• 26th – 31st March 2012
• 28th – 29th April 2012
• 16th – 17th June 2012
• 13th – 14th October 2012

For more information on our longboard coaching click here.

NARS Lifeguard Course

Errant is now the only provider of the NARS Beach Lifeguard Course in Newquay. Our courses are run in a safe, educational and fun environment at our UK training centre. We beat other UK providers on price, service and location, guaranteed!

Dates for NARS Beach Lifeguard Course

• 17th October – 22nd October 2011 – Full
• 14th November – 19th November 2011 – 5 Spaces left
• 13th February – 18th February 2011 – 8 Spaces left
• 26th March – 31st March 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 16th April – 21st April 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 14th May – 19th May 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 18th June – 23rd June 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 16th July – 21st July 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 6th August – 11th August 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 17th September – 22nd September 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 15th October – 20th October 2012 – 10 spaces left
• 12th November – 17th November 2012 – 10 spaces left

If you have a small group of five or more people it is possible to put on courses for your group at anytime of the year.

Call 01637 851 403 to book or click here.

I have decided to condense and regurgitate this info to all of you likeminded souls that will hopefully encourage you to go out there and live your dreams.

So, the first decision you need to make is where you’re going to go. This is where working for a surf travel company comes in pretty handy…

France, Spain, Portugal.  That should pretty much fill a void for any surf starved city dweller. However, every surf trip needs a cool place cool and elaborate your day’s waves over a nice cold beer, so the following list and my personal itinery has been created with this crucial element in mind (alongside wave quality/ consistency etc):

1^st stop: France. The Quiksilver Pro is held in France every year, not because of the hoards of beautiful French women that grace the beaches with their presence, or the mental vibe at Dick’s Sand Bar, but because the deep Bay of Biscay funnels those Autumnal North Atlantic swells straight onto the perfect sand banks of Hossegor, Biarritz and Anglet, creating some of the world’s best barrels.

As long as you’re sensible France a relatively cheap place to stay,  that is of course as long as you’re ok on a wine, cheese and bread diet (something I’m fine with) and although I’m van-tripping, there are some crazy accommodation deals out there.

Next Up: Spain. There’s over 4,000km of coastline in Spain and the ASP hold another stop of the dream tour here at Mundaka. Due to its vastness, planning is crucial but with the best waves being on the North Atlantic coast, it limits things a bit. I’ve decided to head to the Santander area, one because Loredo has a sick surf house 200m from a funky looking beach-break called Somo, but also because the funky looking beach break called Somo has an insane right hand reef on the Northern side of the 6mile long beach.

Finale: Portugal. This is going to be around November time when the rest of Europe is getting slightly chilly, so we’re heading south to Lagos. The idea is that we get the wintery swells, but also the warm weather as we’re going to be about as close to Africa as you can get.

The beaches around Lagos are some of the most beautiful in the Algarve region and the area is full of history and tourism, which suits the culture vulture and social monster inside me fine. However, a trip to Portugal wouldn’t be complete without a stint in Peniche. I don’t need to say much to be fair, just let this picture do the talking.

Thanks to http://www.balealsurfcamp.com for the image.

That’s the planning done. Next up, accommodation and wheels…

Max

The UK’s number one professional surfer has teamed up with Europe’s leading surf travel company Errant Surf to provide the ultimate surf tour this winter in Barbados.

The Barbados surf tours are running early next year and are a great opportunity for any level of surfer to tap into Russell’s sixteen years’ experience on the World Pro Tour. Russ is also former European Champion and the first European ever to make the World Championship Tour.

Barbados to home to plenty of world class waves from Soup Bowls to Dupies. With the air temperature is the constant 33c region and the water not far behind this is the ultimate surfing holiday in Barbados.

Russell offer’s surf coaching for levels but it is his intermediate and advanced level coaching that surfers can really benefit from. Whether you’re a young competitor, top level surfer or just looking to make a few adjustments to improve your surfing technique, Russ can tailor a programme to suit you while in Barbados.

Managing Direct for Errant Surf, Chris Thomson comments “This is a great trip for any budding surfers who want the best coaching from one of the best surfers Europe has seen in one the most idyllic surfing destinations on planet Earth”

“The ideal thing about Barbados is the shear amount of waves to be had on any given day. It’s possible to surf on all coastlines. If there is good surf to be had, we will have it!” adds Russell Winter.

The surf tours are run on specific dates in 2012. These are 5th – 15th January 2012 and 1st – 10th February 2012 for the ten night surf tour and 5th – 12th January 2012 and 1st – 8th February 2012 for the 7 night surf tour.

For more details go to http://www.errantsurf.com/stay/Barbados%20-%20Russell%20Winter%20-%20Pro%20Surf%20Tours or call 01637 851 403.

Chris Thomson who is one of the UK’s top surf coaches will be running the two-day course at the Errant Surf Training Centre in Newquay, which has recently been kitted out with top of the range video coaching equipment and is offering this unique opportunity to longboarders’ on a first come, first serve basis.

Chris has taught specialist coaching workshops around the world for over ten years. He is the owner and Director of Errant Surf Holidays and is the Director of the Ground Swell CIC Foundation, which provides career opportunities for aspiring young surfers.

With an obvious passion for helping bring out the untapped potential of surfers of all abilities, Chris aims to take longboarders’ on the course to the next level. There is also the option of accommodation that will be exclusive for the course attendee’s, thus encouraging peer-to-peer engagement, as well as an obvious opportunity of an exhilarating break away from the stresses and strains of modern life!

Chris says: “The course in September has been inspired by a number of Moroccan longboard coaching weeks that I have run and with the growing number of novice longboarders in the lineup these days, it just makes sense to offer the training right here in the surfing capital of the UK. The course is laid back but very informative and we aim to provide a solid coaching plan for surfers on the course for the coming six to eight months.”

The course will start at 10am on Saturday 17th September at Errant Surf School, Newquay and will finish at 4pm Sunday 18th. The price is £149 per person with accommodation or £99 without accommodation. Please email chris@errantsurf.com or call 01637 851403 for more information.

You’ll be hanging five (like Chris below) in no time…

September is a golden month in surfing for many locations around the world. The Atlantic tends to be at its warmest and the Atlantic storms (and Hurricanes) start to produce long range swells as far away as the Eastern seaboard of the USA. These swells travel the width of the Atlantic arriving on the shores of Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom, The Canary Islands and Morocco.

The further the swell travels the more organised and “lined-up” the waves will be, perfect for surfing.

Not long till September and storms are starting to develop in the Atlantic Ocean.

September is perfect for surfing in Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom and The Canary Islands. The autumn swells kick in while the summer crowds return back to school.

In Morocco September is the start of the surf season which will last till May the following year.

Here are our Top Five Surf Locations in September:

1. Loredo, Spain
2. South Portugal
3. Morocco
4. The Canary Islands
5. South West France