by GrofM

Created on: April 19, 2009

One of the best places to take surfing lessons in San Diego is at La Jolla Shores. There are many small surf-shops within walking distance of the beach that offer lessons. In fact, when I type-in "surfing lessons la jolla shores" into Google's search box, Google reports 147,000 hits. There's a reason for this. The waves at the Shores may not put it among the top 10 surfing spots in Southern California, but they make for a fun and relatively safer learning environment: sandy beach (not rocky), lots of space, calmer waves. And lifeguards. You'll obviously have an instructor with you no matter where you are taking your lessons, but the lifeguard station at La Jolla Shores is better staffed and equipped than most. In addition to being well trained, they've got the goods you want if you are in an accident: motorized rafts, jeeps, back-boards and good communications equipment. Also, if you decide you want to buy some surfing accessories, gear, or just plain food, you are with an easy walk of a gnarly shopping mall - surfer style. Also, unlike a number of beaches in the San Diego metro (and along the coast, for that matter), there is a decidedly less "locals only" atmosphere when surfing at the Shores. If you are taking your lessons in the summertime, you should set aside a good 20 minutes to half hour to get parking. That is a drag. But the chances of getting "torpedoed" by a local surfer who doesn't know you and senses that you're not a surf veteran is also low. At other beaches where locals surf and tend to be territorial, and where there is less space to surf so surfers are more crowded together...watch out.

There are some fun and perhaps unexpected perks to the diversity brought by tourism (and karma?) to La Jolla Shores too. There are surf camps aimed specifically at kids. And alot of surfing lessons aimed specifically at girls and women. With names like Surf Diva, Ocean Girl, and others, there are a number of surf shops around the Shores which cater specifically to turing surfer girls into awesome surfers. Ocean Girl has a book out on their founders and history (if I recall correctly, and without trying to spoil it, its kinda like Hungary meets Hawaii with Adam Smith mixed in - now if that sounds interesting, dig up the book on Amazon). You can check out the shop via video here: http://revver.com/video/755320/ocean-girl-surf-shop- la-jolla-california. They are also associated with the Menehune Surfing Instruction group, started by teachers in the San Diego area

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