A backpack and a surfboard. The essentials for surf travel in Central and South America. If you want to travel light and experience more of what these regions have to offer aside from surfing ditch the board and streamline your pack. It might sound a bit counter productive to set out on a surf trip and leave your favorite stick behind but thats part of the beauty of surfing throughout Central and South America. Drop into a hostel or local hangout in one of the miriad surfing regions in the area and you're bound to bump into other travel-concious surfers looking to lighten their load before they take off to check out the mountains or jungles or just tramp it to the next surf destination. Make friends with some of these travelers and your bound to pick up a decent shred-sled for a fraction of what the airlines charge to get yours their. Just don't expect that brand new Al Merrick.

If the vagabond hostel experience isn't your scene but you're still leary about dropping the coin and leaving your favorite board in the ding-happy hands of airline baggage handlers, don't fret, you've got options. With the rising cost of airline excess baggage fees a lot of surf destinations are rising to the occasion and Central and South America are no exception. Board shops and shapers in the some of the larger surf destinations like Costa Rica can rent you good equipment and if you're picky about what you ride you can even have them shape you a custom board and have it waiting for you when you get there. If that's the route you're going to take check out our surf spot descriptions to get an idea of the kind of board you'll need for the local waves in the area you're going to be in.The waves throughout Central and South America very greatly. Long sand bottom point breaks can found in a lot of areas up and down the Pacific coast. Head to the Caribbean side of Central America and you'll find reef breaks and island archipelagos just begging to be explored.

Costa Rica Surf Tips

Bocas del Toro Surf Spots