Apr 19: Surfin' USA

Yep, surf's up, dude. Grab your board and paddle on out. If you haven't spent much time around Greater Fort Lauderdale's blue wave beaches, this may surprise you. I've lived in this area for many years and it still surprises me in some weird way. Surfers? Really? Yeah, really. There are a lot of surfers in South Florida. And they catch plenty of waves over the course of 12 months. Mind you, I'm not suggesting we're exactly Oahu's North Shore. It's a good thing too. Have you ever been there? I have. As far as I could tell, there's not much around the North Shore except, well, nice surfing. Here in South Florida we've got lux hotels and top restaurants, great night clubs and casinos and attractions. And some surfable waves.

You can even rent a surfboard in Fort Lauderdale and give it a try. I guess that tells you something right there, huh? We wouldn't have surfboard rentals at all if there wasn't some fun surfing off our beaches. One place to rent a board is BC Surf and Sport on Federal Highway, among other options. A Google search will turn up addresses and phone numbers for you.

Florida's eastern coastline can be a very pleasant place to ride some surf one way or another. The first time I tried body surfing, back when I was in high school, I plunged into the waves in Florida. That's a very easy form of surfing, of course, basically turning your whole body into a board. Even fairly modest waves can work for a little bodysurfing fun. For true surfing, though, you need something more than fairly modest waves. And that's not an everyday thing in South Florida for sure. Our ocean tends toward gentle, rolling breakers - until we get a good offshore breeze going for a while. That's when the surfers start texting each other. And waxing up their boards. You'll see them on windier days all up and down our beaches, any place where they can catch a decent wave without too many swimmers to get in the way. I enjoy watching them rolling along in front of the foam for as far as they can stretch it. Some of these folks are pretty good, very experienced surfers to judge from their technique. Like I said, you might be surprised. Our highly swimmable seashore is a great place for beach balls and Frisbees and inflatable rafts, absolutely. But sometimes a surfboard makes for a nice day at the beach around here too.