I only took up surfing during Uni, when I moved to a share house with some surfers a few minutes walk from a surf beach. I lived more of a life in one summer at Bondi than 20 years in Sydney's basketball-playing gangster-rap-music western suburbs.

When I later moved back home 30km away I felt so depressed driving an hour each way just to get to the water. I truly hated driving to the beach. I kept doing it but just couldn't feel happy; not like the Bondi days when I'd sometimes go surfing twice a day.

I built up a career, travelled, got older, moved to Adelaide, and now again live an hour's drive (>30km) to the nearest surf beach. I'd love to take surfing up again but just feel so stupid having to drive when I've tried the luxury of walking to the beach. I can't move because my kids are in a good school zone and my wife won't accept it.

How do you handle it? Am I just letting a bad attitude get in the way?

All of Perth regularly drive the 3 hours to the Sth west just to get wet.

I think it would be hard to live that far from the water. Me personally im lucky to be close enough to do a have a coffee every morning at the beach and a surf check after work every night.

An hour. Pfffft.
I revisited my old haunts earlier this year. 3 hours there, plus alpha back.
If nothing else, it makes you keen. You'll gladly surf in slop that you wouldn't usually consider.
Your surfing will improve through this alone. If, like most of us here are a surfer, rather than a surfie, an hour to the surf is bugger all sacrifice.
See you out there.

In my day we walked 7km to school and 7km home , I was 10

I would ride my bike with a wax rack 15-20km each way to go for a surf about two days a week. I was 12-14

when I got my first car we would drive anywhere we could afford to put fuel in to get too.

when I was about 25 I flew to indo for a couple of months and didn't poo solid for three weeks, I had little to no money and lived on beng bengs, Nasi goreng, and malaria tablets.

A lot of the above experiences were not all fun

You either want to go surfing or you don't. Don't make excuses.



savage but required.

I want to live at snapper and have a fence around it all to myself right down to Kirra so if I can't have that I'm not driving 30km to the beach.

excuses

look I sympathise with you but I live in Perth, which to be honest is probably last on the list of Australian capital cities with good waves.
i surf 3-5 times a week, the nearest surf beach is 18km from my house and average at the best of times, all surfs out of town consist of a minimum 200km round trip.
its flat here from November until March, flat no swell at all unless you want to tackle the great whites and surf the reefs miles out with mixed results, wave of your life or chased back to the boat.

you have to be hungry for it

"The problem is not the problem the problem is your attitude to the problem" ( captain jack sparrow)

I reckon give up. There's already far too many kooks in the water.

Hey in an ideal world you walk out your front door and ......Da Da!

But its not an ideal world, do what you gotta do to get there.

You never know, life has funny ways of turning around.

It's kinda like going to work, none of us want to do it, but if you wanna surf on the weekends and have a house and stuff....Well you gotta do it.

Just get off your arse and go.

You could try taking the family with you. You might find the family love the beach so much they want to move. At the very least you spend more time with them. The thirty minutes will fly by.