Surfers want to spend big chunks of their day in the water. Surfers with kids understand the reality of trying to balance family and personal time. To help manage that balance, a lot of us teach our kids to surf too. Truthfully, in my house, it wasn’t a tough sell. My kids were begging for their own sticks by the time they were about six or so.
Vacationing with kids makes balancing time for surfing even more challenging. I want to surf after my morning coffee and at least one more time in the late afternoon before dinner every day. My kids want to surf a handful of times over a weeklong trip. So, we have to find a compromise. I have to look for ways to keep them engaged and enjoying the vacation. Vacation house and condo owners are generally good at leaving resource lists for their renters. The owners are experts on the local area (after all, they own a home there), and they can tell you all the good places to eat, visit, and play. Beach property owners understand the value of traveling light for vacationers, and many homes are already equipped with chairs, sand toys, fishing gear, and other fun stuff.
There are plenty of good non-surfing things to do with kids in beach destinations that are sure to earn you some uninterrupted surfing time.
1. Look for a pier to fish from. Most piers have a small fishing fee that scores you a license for the day or the week and a small bucket of bait. You might get lucky and haul in something picture-worthy to put on the wall of the tackle shop. No matter what, your kids will probably love dangling a line off the pier and trying to outdo each other.
2. Summer and fall are carnival season. Some towns have amusements year-round, but some have carnivals and street fairs that come and stay for the season. These are a great way to have a little fun and soak up some local flair, and the people watching is both strange and excellent.
3. Build a sandcastle. You’re at the beach. You have shovels and buckets. Build a castle, smash it down, and start again. Something about filling buckets with sand and digging out moats keeps kids entertained for hours.
4. Ride something other than waves. Even the smallest of beach towns has something to offer. Go karts, horseback riding, kayaking, glass-bottom boat rides the list goes on and on. You’ll get big smiles and plenty of appreciation out of your kids.
When you’re done indulging, you can safely say “we are going surfing, and they w’ll be all to happy to follow you into the waves.