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Being an Australian and travelling a lot, people are always asking me if I can surf - apparently that's a stereotype of us.

So right now I'm on the other side of the world in Tbilisi, Georgia and some locals are telling me it's their dream to learn to surf. But where on Earth would be the closest surf spot to here?

There's no surf on the Black Sea or the Mediterranean. There is some very good but very cold surf in Ireland and Scotland. I think there is some surf off France. But what about in the Middle East or India? I know you can surf in The Philippines but is that any closer to Tbilisi than California or Hawaii?

If you wanted to go on a crazy adventure with a surfboard and a van or hitchhiking out of Tbilisi Georgia, would it be possible to get somewhere where you can surf?

(Flying answers are probably not in the spirit of the question if they involve flying half way around the world.)

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  • we kitesurf on tbilisi lake see a video here
    – user7417
    Jul 7, 2013 at 6:34
  • There is surf in both the black sea and the Caspian sea: redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Video/…
    – user7585
    Jul 19, 2013 at 8:25
  • surfing-waves.com/atlas/europe/france/landes.html
    – Fattie
    Sep 1, 2014 at 17:34
  • It looks like the Arabian Sea is the nearest place to find half-way decent waves. Here is a video. But good luck trying to hitch-hike to Oman!
    – TonyK
    Jul 5, 2016 at 20:18
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    @TonyK. The only difficult bit hitching that route looks to be Saudi Arabia, which is said not to issue tourist visas. Georgians, Azeris, and Iranians love to pick up hitchhikers and there's a ferry from Iran to Kuwait. Visas for Azerbaijan and Iran are a bit of a pain but quite doable... Well well well - I just found news that Saudi is about to start tourist visas again in 2016!
    – hippietrail
    Jul 6, 2016 at 1:31

4 Answers 4

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There's no surf on the Black Sea or the Mediterranean

Are you sure?

There are some nice spots in Turkey. The most famous ones are located on the Aegean Sea. I would be more than surprised if there was no surfing spot in or around Kilyos, a suburb of Istanbul located on the shores of the Black Sea.

I do not want to lure the readers away, but I would ask the question on the Turkey Travel Planner Forum, which is an excellent resource on Turkey ...

On the Russian side, I would have a look at Sotchi. But I do not know if it is easy to get there overland from Georgia.

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  • I'm pretty sure that surfing requires waves resulting from tides. I hear surfers talk about waves resulting from wind derisively. But I'm not a surfer so maybe those kinds of waves are good for learners.
    – hippietrail
    Nov 14, 2011 at 20:10
  • Doing some Google Image searching I can only find photos of sailboarding on the Aegean at by Sochi, but it does indeed look like there is surf in Kilyos!
    – hippietrail
    Nov 14, 2011 at 20:14
  • Are you confusing surfing with windsurfing? I was just in Turkey and went windsurfing in Alacati. I asked a Turkish friend about surfing, and his response was "Hmm...I saw a wave in Turkey once. I think..." :)
    – Jer
    Dec 4, 2011 at 19:06
  • Well ... Yes. If you believe that he answer is wide off the mark, I will delete it.
    – user766
    Dec 4, 2011 at 19:17
  • I once read an article in the magazine 'the surfer's path' about surfing off the black sea coastline, but I think it was in the winter.
    – Andrew Welch
    Apr 19, 2014 at 17:01
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Caspian Sea is quite good for surfing. My hometown even holds competitions on kite-surfing. The best time for this is in August and September. Later is bit dodgy as waves are really high and water is cold. So I would advice to go to Makhachkala.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcvgxA6y7UA

N.B. Be careful nowadays it’s not the safest place in the world :(

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    Kite-surfing is not surfing! There is no surfing in that video link. This is surfing.
    – TonyK
    Jul 5, 2016 at 20:09
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I once read an article in a surf magazine, maybe Surfer's Path about surfing the Black sea coast line around Sinop.

I've been to Black Sea coastline in the winter. There were nice waves.

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How about Tel Aviv? I've seen plenty of both surfers and windsurfers there during my stays. Some magazines even place it as one of the top cities for surfing.

Getting there over land is nigh impossible, but you might have some luck getting a ferry from Turkey to Cyprus and from Cyprus to Israel.

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