Surfing Lessons Near Bangkok

October 23, 2016 10:40 AM

I just had my first surfing lesson and it was a lot of fun. I'll be in Bangkok and Pattaya later this week, but somehow I can't find any surf schools. Can the hive recommend and schools or teachers in that area?
posted by jander03 to Travel & Transportation around Thailand (2 answers total)

Bangkok itself doesn't have any beaches with surfable, er, surf - it's at the mouth of a river.

The closest surf school I can find to Pattaya is in Rayong, a few dozen kilometres down the road. Give them a call to see if they're open (given the recent death of Thailand's king, many things are operating with weird hours) and what conditions are like before you go as it's a bit of a haul from BKK and because the Gulf of Thailand has, in general, very little surf to speak of - perhaps OK for a learner, though?

I will say, though, that Thailand as a whole doesn't have the reputation of Bali or Sri Lanka or the Philippines or other Asian surf destinations, and it's actually pretty rare to see surfers at all outside of storms and the rainy season on the Andaman Sea-side of the country. Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 11:43 AM on October 23, 2016

Yeah, the Gulf of Thailand doesn't have enough fetch or exposure to the open ocean to get any kind of reasonable swell. If you want to surf you should head to the destinations mentioned by mdonley.
posted by doctord at 2:19 PM on October 23, 2016