monday.surf

Breaking OSTEEN, Fla. · Florida surf spots · 65 spots · 17 counties

Florida Man skips work, finds 65 places to surf

We grew up in Osteen, y'all. Cow pastures, pickup trucks, a gator in every retention pond and not one single wave. We surf anyway. So here's every public Florida surf spot we could find a real source for, Jacksonville to Miami and the Gulf to Pensacola, with the parking, the swell and wind that suit it, and the buoy to check before you text the boss that you're "not feeling great."

The waves are real. The cough is optional.

Florida Man
  • Florida Man calls in "sick," catches eleven waves, reports feeling much better
  • Florida Woman out-surfs entire lineup, still makes it to Publix before the sub line
  • Boss texts "feeling better?" Florida Man replies from the lineup: "getting there"
  • Afternoon thunderstorm shows up at 3 p.m. sharp, surprises absolutely no one
  • Florida Man checks the buoy before his email, priorities fully intact
  • Pickup truck spotted with surfboard in the bed, no straps, pure faith
  • Local gator in retention pond reportedly unimpressed by your shortboard
  • Florida Man reapplies sunscreen for first time in recorded history
  • Osteen native drives to the coast for knee-high waves, calls them "firing"

Pick a spot, any spot

65 spots

Swell and wind matching is worked out from which way each beach faces, nothing more: square-on swell within 35°, angled within 80°; offshore wind within 45° of straight off the land. Read the buoy for the real numbers.

The usual suspects

How to check conditions before you call in

  1. Read the buoy. Every spot page links the nearest NOAA buoy that reports waves. Look at wave height, the dominant period and the direction the waves come from. The two-minute guide.
  2. Check the National Weather Service surf zone forecast for that stretch of coast: rip current risk, surf height and the timing of any change. Each spot page links its office.
  3. Look at the tide. Several of the sources quoted here say a spot works best on a particular tide. The NOAA tide predictions link is on every page.
  4. Match it to the spot. Use the compass on the spot page: is the swell coming from inside the blue wedge, and is the wind blowing off the land?
  5. Then decide how sick you are. We can't help with that part. Florida Man recommends "a little under the weather."

By county (hey there, Volusia)

Atlantic, north to south

Gulf

What's sourced and what's worked out

Names, access, parking, facilities, hazards, crowds and best tides are quoted from public pages (state and county parks, cities, tourism offices, Wikipedia, Surfrider, local press), each with its link and the date it was read. Which way a beach faces, and the swell and wind that follow from that, are calculated from OpenStreetMap's coastline. The full method.