Ask 1stFlorida
The surf is on the Atlantic side. The Gulf is flat most of the year and only breaks in a storm.
Sebastian Inlet, on the line between Brevard and Indian River counties, is the one with the reputation - the north jetty holds a wave that has run contests for decades. Cocoa Beach is the other Brevard name, with a gentler beach break that is where most Florida surfers learn. Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County break consistently. Further north, Jacksonville Beach and St Augustine Beach both work. In the south, Deerfield Beach in Broward County. Florida surf is waist to head high on a good day, and the season runs through hurricane swells from August to November.
Brevard County. $8 per vehicle, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at the southern end of the county. Two jetties reach into the Atlantic and the breaks off them - First Peak and Monster Hole - bring surfers from outside Florida.
Open the guide →Brevard County. The best-known stretch of sand in the county and the one most visitors mean when they say they are going to the beach. Hotels, shops and restaurants face the ocean, and the pier sits at the east end of State Road 520.
Open the guide →Volusia County. The south end of the peninsula, where the beach runs down to Ponce de Leon Inlet. Winterhaven Park, 3.5 miles south of Dunlawton Boulevard, is a non-driving area with restrooms, showers, bike racks and picnic pavilions taken first come, first served.
Open the guide →Volusia County. Vehicles are allowed on the sand at marked ramps. A day of beach driving is $30 and an annual visitor pass is $150, and Volusia County residents pay nothing once they register a vehicle.
Open the guide →Duval County. Ocean Rescue covers more than 4.1 miles of coastline here, year round - the towers are staffed depending on the weather and trucks patrol whatever the conditions. Dogs are not allowed on the sand between 9:00am and 5:00pm, any day of the year.
Open the guide →St. Johns County. The pier park is the heart of it: 211 parking spaces with 13 accessible, accessible restrooms and showers, a fishing pier, a splash park, an 84 by 84 foot pavilion and six sand volleyball courts.
Open the guide →Broward County. A mile of guarded sand with nine lifeguard towers, worked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the year by a crew certified by the United States Lifesaving Association.
Open the guide →You want steady side-on wind and shallow, flat water, which means the sound and bay sides rather than the open ocean.
Flat water and something to look at. The springs and spring runs are the clearest paddling in the state - Weeki Wachee in Hernando County, Rainbow Springs in Marion, and the Wekiva at Wekiva Island in Seminole County.
Three kinds of kayaking, and Florida has all three. Mangrove backwater: Ten Thousand Islands and the Gulf Coast side of Everglades National Park in Collier County, Lovers Key in Lee, Weedon Island Preserve in Pinellas, Robinson Preserve in Manatee County.
Have a different question? Ask 1stFlorida →