Even if the forecast calls for no surf, driving to the coast always holds an adventure and there are plenty of experiences to be had, both on the beach and on the way.
To decide between the Port Aransas route or the Corpus Christi route, think about your style preference: If you prefer a straight, interstate drive, easy city access, and more post-surf venue options, go to Corpus. This sample itinerary takes the Corpus route.
Leave Austin early in the morning, arrive at Bob Hall Pier, and surf all afternoon! Get your post-surf carb refuel near the pier at Padre Pizzeria , dine at an excellent seafood and drink pub like Yardarm , or hit one of the many awesome Mexican dives on the way back to Austin.
On your trip, remember that, while surfing in Texas is an incredibly special experience shared by a lucky few, it is still like surfing anywhere else in the world and requires a few mental notes: Surfing anywhere is about experiencing the power of nature and sharing it kindly with others. This means that visitors should respect locals as the ones who know Texas waters best. It also stresses the importance of taking care of our precious resources and fragile ecosystem.
Interactive Corpus Christi surf break location map. View information about nearby surf breaks, their wave consistency and rating compared to other spots in the region. Current swell conditions from local buoys are shown along with live wind speed and direction from nearby weather stations. Click icons on the map for more detail. The water temperature If the sun does come out as forecast, it should feel warm enough to surf in a shorty or a summer wetsuit.
Surf stats for Corpus Christi, see the swell variation by month or season on the history page here. Wind stats for Corpus Christi, see the variation in direction and stength by month or season on the history page here.
Quality on a good day: 3. Photo by: Rob Zabroky. Surfing Corpus Christi: The best conditions reported for surf at Corpus Christi occur when a Southeast swell combines with an offshore wind direction from the West-northwest. What's the best time of year to surf Corpus Christi for consistent clean waves?
Surfable waves that hold up well for longer rides in prevailing cross-offshore, offshore or light wind conditions. Surfable sized waves that are of poorer quality due to prevailing onshore, cross-onshore or windy conditions may be preferable for kitesurfing.
Waves usually considered too small for good surf. Some wave-magnet breaks may still work though if conditions are right on occasion. I love getting barrels south of the border and experiencing waves in a new destination, but nothing beats a great session at home when all the stars actually align. The next morning at daybreak, I awoke to a text from Floyd. Amped on the forecast despite the degree air temperature, Floyd had risen before dawn and was down at Bob Hall Pier, a few miles south of my hotel.
His text was a photo of what looked like a head-high right-hander gamely peeling along a shallow sandbar, fanned by a light offshore breeze. Even better: Nobody was out. As I loaded up the car, I felt a cautious optimism building. By the time I arrived at the pier 10 minutes later, a small crew of the unlikeliest-looking rippers imaginable had assembled. We shook hands and suited up together. Every time I get amped for waves here, but then get let down, I just slump a little bit lower.
Nobody in that parking lot looked anything close to disappointed, though. Plus, in the wake of the low-pressure system, the wind had died to a listless flutter. Not great, but surfable. I paddled out just behind Faulkner, the whole time thinking about what the concierge at the hotel had said when I stopped by the front desk for coffee.
It was a useless question. The currents around North Padre Island have to be struggled against to be believed. To make matters worse, because of the flatness of the beaches in Texas, small waves can often break hundreds of yards out to sea.
Just getting to the main sandbar requires duck-diving the same-size waves over and over and over again, all the way out to the peak. In the cold, it was absolutely maddening. Them Texas boys can paddle. But the grainy photo that Floyd had sent earlier that morning was no fluke. Near the end of the pier, a well-defined sandbar was sculpting a punchy 4-foot A-frame that offered a fast, rampy right and a hollow, pinchy left.
Faulkner and Floyd surf with a refined smoothness that seemed at odds with the messy short-period windswells normally on offer in Texas. Just as I made it to the lineup, I watched Floyd casually stroke into a silver-colored nugget on his forehand and highline it toward the closeout section before launching an impressive alley-oop into the whitewater, his prodigious beard throwing its own celebratory fan of water. Faulkner took off on the first wave of the next set.
He crouched into a ball, disappeared into the maw of a draining little left, and popped out of a clean exit just under the pilings, his fist raised to his chest in silent triumph. Mysteriously, as fun as the surf was, the lineup cleared after an hour. Turns out it was playoff Sunday, and even though we were deep in Houston Texans territory, the Cowboys were about to lock horns with the Packers. As you may have heard, they take their football seriously in Texas.
Our crew, tired of the current anyway and bummed by a slight onshore wind shift, retreated to refuel and to catch some of the game. Back in the s, Frankchop worked as a waiter for the flexible schedule and to finance his frequent surf trips down the coast in Veracruz, Mexico. When an old bait-and-tackle shack in Corpus was put up for sale in , Frankchop jumped at his chance to turn the spot into a surf shop. He was capitalizing on a s surf craze in Texas that had only a few years earlier seen Matt Kechele and Larry Bertlemann blow through town for the Sundek Texas Classic.
In the back of the shop, just above the drains where fishermen once dumped the guts of their daily catch, Frankchop showed me a treasure trove of ancient surfcraft that would make Randy Rarick swoon. Old Hobies and Velzys rub rails with Rusty Preisendorfer guns and strange experimental shapes made by s East Coast board-builders who, judging by color schemes and fin placements, were busily imbibing the mind-expanding joys of counterculture. Wind and Wave routinely sells out surf movie premieres that they hold at a nearby outdoor venue where they unroll a giant screen and project whatever fantasies the likes of Dane Reynolds and Kai Neville are peddling.
Two or three hundred people show up for each show: groms, parents, and grandparents alike. The place was filled with football fans in Cowboys jerseys chugging margaritas and alternately cheering and booing.
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