Friday, February 02, 2007
Surfing in the British Virgin Islands
Surfing in the British Virgin Islands
The winter is upon us in the BVI, and the waves are starting to roll in. Sunday, January 28th was an excellent day for surf at many of the regular spots. Apple Bay, at the Bomba Shack had excellent waves, three to eight foot with a fairly strong breeze blowing straight offshore, making for great conditions all day long. The point at Cane Garden Bay was also working well with just a moderate crowd. Brewers Bay was even going off with barrels coming off the reef just off the beach. Some of the other spots towards the east end of Tortola were also breaking nicely. Last week some people were seen surfing the break just outside the yacht harbour in Virgin Gorda. Size was about three to four feet with very shallow water.
Surfing at Apple Bay Tortola, BVI
Surfing at Apple Bay
Tortola, BVI

Monday the 29th was also a great day at the "Shack", with the swell dropping to about three to six feet, but still having perfect conditions. The crowds were at a minimum which was nice, so there were plenty of waves to go around. A couple of guys had just returned to the Shack after a three-hour session at Lava Flows. They said it was the best they've surfed in years, and it was just the two of them!
A great day of Surfing at the Bomba Shack
A great day of Surfing at the Bomba Shack


If you're sitting in the cold weather back home with no surf, have a look at our site to learn more about the surf in the BVI and start making your plans to come on down. The weather is fabulous and the water is unbelievable.

Just another one of "Natures little secrets" here in the BVI! For a quick glimpse of what to expect in surf spots in the BVI, go to: http://www.escape-bvi.com/Surfing.aspx.
posted on Friday, February 02, 2007 5:40:18 AM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [1] Trackback
 Saturday, January 14, 2006
Surfing Apple Bay
Surfing Apple Bay

I've been surfing Tortola and the outer islands for past 15 years. So many really good days, intermingled with great swells, but with North winds which blows out most spots except Cane Garden Bay, which if you haven't been here before is a point / wrap around break, with generally an easy paddle out. Getting caught in the impact zone is less than fun though. From the inner harbour there is a low pier to jump from, then out to the line up. Depending on the swell direction, usually North, but if there's some West to it, it will section out, and pretty much split the point into 3-4 line up areas.

I've surfed the "bay" 8 to 10 feet sometimes barreling, for hundreds of yards. The inside can be radical at times, with the water sucking out from the line reefs close to the rock beach. I've seen guys eat it on the inside, not bailing out soon enough or just going for it, coming out of the water looking like minced meat.

The bay needs a good solid swell for it to go off, and the crowds, even these days are tollerable when it's happening.

I think it was '95 or '96 when we were hit by Hurricane's Luis and Mayilynn, with a week between them. I called a buddy of mine who was living in the hills of Cane Garden to see how he was hanging. The eye of the storm was just passing. He was on his cordless phone outside, screaming when he answered, I thought his roof might of blown off or something  really bad had happened. He could barely talk. He finally sputtered out the point! It was a perfect 20' plus, no one out of course, and he was all ready to load his sticks and go for it, until I reminded him that the party wasn't over yet as we still had the backside of the storm to deal with. He was pissed, but there's times when nature wins. He sat out side for a half hour calling out every set till It was time to hunker down for part 2 of the hurricane.

The problem with the storms that pass close to us, is that they don't generate swells for very long time, but we'll take what we can get.Most of the clean swells come off the U.S. during the winter when there's a nasty cold front coming off the east coast. During the summer if there is a Hurricane or large tropical depression, 2 to three hundreds of miles to the North of us we'll usually get a nice 3-6 foot swell out of them.

 I have another friend of mine , a transplant from California, that lived here for more than 23 years and has surfed the bay as big as 15' with 5 guys out, that swell lasted about 5 days. Anybody have photos of the bay going off? Stick em here, or stories about sessions anywhere else in the BVI's? How about Anegada, or the Sand Spit off Jost?

posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 7:08:22 PM (Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback