Sport & Fitness

Short haul
In the Canary Islands you are pretty much guaranteed surf all year round. When the swell drops off along mainland Europe’s Atlantic coasts during the summer and water temperatures plummet in winter, these waves off north Africa remain relatively unaffected. What’s more, from the beginner-friendly beach breaks of Playa de Famara to the fearsome reef at Ghost Town – within a 20-minute drive of each other on Lanzarote – there’s something for every level. Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are the classic Canary surf destinations, but Gran Canaria has also recently been made more accessible thanks to Zoco Boardriding Adventures. It holds resort-based surf camps for newbies, intermediate surf clinics and surfari tours of local breaks for the more advanced, as well as custom-made trips for those who want to mix and match.
Zoco Boardriding Adventures (01204 659 394/www.zocotravel.com) packages start from £295 per week, including tuition or surfari and self-catering accommodation. Flights not included. Fly with BA (www.ba.com) or Xcel Airways (www.xcel.com). Feature continues

Long haul
Yes, you could live the dream and go for the clichés of surf travel – California, Hawaii, Australia, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka – and you wouldn’t be disappointed. But the ultimate in ‘exotic and far flung’ must surely be to charter a surf boat in the Maldives. Can it get much better than this? Proving itself the doyen of surf travel, Pure Vacations is pioneering a niche in paradise. The high season in the Maldives, a flotilla of idyllic islands strung out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, runs from November to March. However, the low season, which coincides with the south-west monsoon, falls during our summer. From April through October an hour or so of rain (well, you’re going to get wet anyway) is a small price to pay for the best waves of the year.

Pure Vacations (01227 264 264/ www.purevacations.com) package ranges from £1,295 to £1,495 per person for a seven-night surf charter, including meals, a local surf guide, return flights from London to Male, and airport transfers.

Find Out More

Surf travel requires meticulous pre-trip research – waves are predictably unpredictable. Use the following checklist to ensure you get the most out of your tripWill the surf be appropriate for your level? (Beginners will want two- to four-foot waves, the more advanced four-foot-plus.)

Will the surf be relatively consistent for the time of year that you want to travel?

Will the local surf breaks give you a sufficient variety of waves to surf as the wind and swell conditions change during your holiday?

What will the water temperature be? What kind of swimming costume/ wetsuit should you take?

Visit www.wannasurf.com for a wealth of online information about surf spots across the globe.

Further reading: The ‘Stormrider Guide’ series published by Low Pressure (www.lowpressure.co.uk) are surfing bibles. ‘Surfing Europe’ (£24.99, Footprint) by Chris Nelson and Demi Taylor is also a steering read.