Best Colleges for Surfing

From South to North, California schools within driving distance to a decent break. Forgive me if I forgot a few.

Cal State University San Diego
UCSD
USD
UC Irvine
Pepperdine
CSU Long Beach
(Other LA/OC Schools)
Cal Tech (though nerds don't surf)
UCLA
USC
CSU LA (shudder)
UCSB
Cal Poly SLO
CSU Monterey Bay
UCSC
CSU San Jose
Stanford
UC Berkeley
CSU Humboldt

California owns the school/surf. The northern CA schools also offer up a couple hour drive to Tahoe.

Long Beach State in NC

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Originally Posted by Pura Vida

Yep. As a grad of UCSB I'd have to say my time there really did not suck. The campus is literally spitting distance from the water and Mammoth is really not too bad of a trek. Beautiful girls, raging parties, and a good education. The surf around here I would call "fun" for the most part, as in the sessions with pucker factor usually come only a few times a winter, but lots of fun waves around and the vibe is mellow overall. When things come together right The Santa Barbara area can really fire, you can have some really amazing days

You can still manage to ski quite a bit for living on the beach with hot scantily clad college girls. I was part of the "ski team" while I was there. It's a club sport, no try outs, formal practice or anything. It's more just a way for like minded people to get on the snow for cheaper. There's usually quite a few solid skiers and also just some along for the party. You race GS, SL, and Skiercross, but it's pretty informal. The best part is condos paid for just about ever other weekend by the team, pooled gas money, and discount tix if you don't have a pass and the clubs sports fee was very reasonable for what you get.
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Ditto everything you said. I was there in the late 90's and the ski team bit was awesome. I went up pretty much every other weekend for 3 days. One of the great things about SB was that question every week: Do I go up to the house at Mammoth and ski, or stay in IV and party with tons of hot girls and surf in a place where I can bike to class, bike to surf, and bike to parties. It was a no lose question if there ever was one. Santa Barbara also had a statistics major, which was great. I didn't party with those people, but it was a good major to be involved in. Undergrad at UCSB was more fun than Grad at UCI, that's for sure. I love living in Newport, lots of us from SB ended up down here, but Santa Barbara was as great a place to go to school as I could have ever hoped for.

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Originally Posted by tex1230

No votes for Pepperdine?

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Pepperdine is right in Malibu, and has the same type of Mammoth access if you are willing to drive that UCSB does. Like Santa Barbara it also has insanely hot girls.

I don't know this for sure, but I have heard the campus has a "three feet on the floor" rule in the dorms, which is a far cry from UCSB.

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Originally Posted by DJSapp

From South to North, California schools within driving distance to a decent break. Forgive me if I forgot a few.

Cal State University San Diego
UCSD
USD
UC Irvine
Pepperdine
CSU Long Beach
(Other LA/OC Schools)
Cal Tech (though nerds don't surf)
UCLA
USC
CSU LA (shudder)
UCSB
Cal Poly SLO
CSU Monterey Bay
UCSC
CSU San Jose
Stanford
UC Berkeley
CSU Humboldt

California owns the school/surf. The northern CA schools also offer up a couple hour drive to Tahoe.

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I went to school in San Diego (SDSU)

For Surfing it's really hard to beat it.
With SDSU, USD, UCSD, and Point Loma (AKA - Surf Camp) all with in 15 miles of eachother and all within 10 miles of the beach.
SD has alot of good waves in the winter. In the summer you have very good proximity to Northern Baja and Northern SD county
The drive to Mammoth is about 7 hours and Big Bear is 2 1/2 - 3 hours

A close second would be UCSB..... You would just have to get past the cold ass water and the crappy summer waves

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Originally Posted by Boarding Medic

I went to school in San Diego (SDSU)

For Surfing it's really hard to beat it.
With SDSU, USD, UCSD, and Point Loma (AKA - Surf Camp) all with in 15 miles of eachother and all within 10 miles of the beach.
SD has alot of good waves in the winter. In the summer you have very good proximity to Northern Baja and Northern SD county
The drive to Mammoth is about 7 hours and Big Bear is 2 1/2 - 3 hours

A close second would be UCSB..... You would just have to get past the cold ass water and the crappy summer waves

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San Diego residents are the Kobe beef of humanity.

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Originally Posted by nutcase

NOt bad at all for surfing - but you will find much better surf as UCSD or UCSC. Difference being you can easily ride your bike to some cool breaks right before and after class at santa Barbara

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Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

It's pretty damn easy to ride your bike to surf after class at UCSC.....

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ya really don't need a bike or a car to get to black's beach. learn to live on little sleep, pick the right dorm location followed by a good spot for a rental home/apartment, and don't let your classes start until late morning, at the earliest. though sunsets are fun from the water, morning sessions are a great way to start the day. plus there are warm showers accessible on campus.

not sure if it's an issue, but out of state tuition at the UC's used to be $$$

Cal Poly SLO - colder water, large swell window. Pain-in-the-ass to get to skiing. The school is in a sleepy part of the coast.

San Diego - Good swell window. Blacks, La Jolla reefs. Quick beach breaks within walking distance of where you'll live.

Santa Barbara - Narrow swell window. Sure, it gets good. Mainly winter surf unless you drive out to Jalama or Ventura (not short, quick drives)

Malibu - Give me SLO, SD, or SB any day.

Orange Country - overrated, crowded. Give me SLO, SD, or SB.

GREAT surf and an even better education. Good luck getting in. FYI, anything north of Point Conception (SB) will be considerably colder. Don't forget the all-black wetsuit, booties and un-stickered board.

IMHO, UCSC probably has the most consistent surf but the education there sucks ass.

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Originally Posted by Long duc dong

Pepperdine is right in Malibu, and has the same type of Mammoth access if you are willing to drive that UCSB does. Like Santa Barbara it also has insanely hot girls.

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Just here to make sure Pepperdine got mentioned...my alma mater. Spent countless days up at County Line, instead of in class. Which is probably why it took me 5 (expensive) years to graduate.

As for the hot girls, yah. My buddies and I used to drool all over the super hotties. Then sophomore year or so, we realized we were ignoring all the 'B-grade' girls, who we then realized were smoking hot everywhere else in the world except for campus where the supermodel girls overshadowed them. So then I loved just looking/hanging out with the 'average hotties' even more :D Plus it's a kickass school. Church of Christ affiliated though, so definitely less party school than say a UC school. But it was about 50/50 Christian/non-religious student body when I was there, so most people were happy there.

I am a freshman at Pepperdine now. Its a good school if you want to surf all the time I guess and the girls are hot but they are strict as hell about everything and there is never anything to do on campus, even on the weekends. If you dont mind driving through the canyon or to another college like USC or UCLA every weekend in order to have a night life then I would suggest it. Great academics too.

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Originally Posted by Mhorton14

I am a freshman at Pepperdine now. Its a good school if you want to surf all the time I guess and the girls are hot but they are strict as hell about everything and there is never anything to do on campus, even on the weekends. If you dont mind driving through the canyon or to another college like USC or UCLA every weekend in order to have a night life then I would suggest it. Great academics too.

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You clearly have not discovered dorm wars, pong, lawn ice-block sledding, the many many many beach house parties, or the malibu inn yet :) But there is truth...most malibu residents do not like having an in-town university and it is not a kollidge town.

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Originally Posted by Particle

You clearly have not discovered dorm wars, pong, lawn ice-block sledding, the many many many beach house parties, or the malibu inn yet :) But there is truth...most malibu residents do not like having an in-town university and it is not a kollidge town.

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They got mad at us the last time we went ice-block sledding. It was not cool

I'm here to chime in for the Pep too (my alma mater too...class of 98). I have to agree with everything Particle has stated. Insanely hot girls, fun school, and the church of christ affiliation is definitely tolerable if that isn't your bag. It was not my scene, and never seemed bothersome in the least.

Great education + great surfing (despite the crowds) + hot ladies + a campus with a view hard to beat (even UCSB) = super 4.5 years

Mhorton - Have fun. That place is amazing. And soak it up while you can...

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Originally Posted by igBand

I'm here to chime in for the Pep too (my alma mater too...class of 98). I have to agree with everything Particle has stated. Insanely hot girls, fun school, and the church of christ affiliation is definitely tolerable if that isn't your bag. It was not my scene, and never seemed bothersome in the least.

Great education + great surfing (despite the crowds) + hot ladies + a campus with a view hard to beat (even UCSB) = super 4.5 years

Mhorton - Have fun. That place is amazing. And soak it up while you can...

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98! Same here.

Enjoy Mhorton...

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Originally Posted by boarddad

GREAT surf and an even better education. Good luck getting in. FYI, anything north of Point Conception (SB) will be considerably colder. Don't forget the all-black wetsuit, booties and un-stickered board.

IMHO, UCSC probably has the most consistent surf but the education there sucks ass.

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I knew people on the east coast who chose UCSC over schools in the ivy league. I've never heard of someone not from California(or from it) who did the same for Cal Poly. When I was applying to schools UCSC was considered much more difficult to get into from out of state.

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Originally Posted by commonlaw

Ding. Also you could be a banana slug. Or hit my old stomping grounds at Santa Clara. 20 minutes from Santa Cruz and 3.5 hours from Tahoe.

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I second the vote for Santa Clara University. Awesome location, easy access to Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. Tahoe isn't too bad a trip, SCU leases a place in South Lake for skiing and ride shares are always easy to come by. Plus, if you get into MTB, Demo forest and Skeggs Point are both close by. Awesome road cycling, too. On top of that, top tier education and the girls laying out in spring time will cause a massive coronary.

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Originally Posted by Long duc dong

I knew people on the east coast who chose UCSC over schools in the ivy league. I've never heard of someone not from California(or from it) who did the same for Cal Poly. When I was applying to schools UCSC was considered much more difficult to get into from out of state.

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"The education @ UCSC sucks ass" is pretty much a direct quote from my brother-in-law...who graduated from there. My father-in-law echoes that 100%. My in-laws just happen to be from Boston FWIW. I can't speak for the humanities, but in every engineering office I've worked in we've had 20-30% CPSLO grads and would have more if we could get them. If UCSC even has an engineering program I've yet to work with a grad from there. CPSLO rejects more people than the total enrollment every year. UCSC takes all comers.

All that said...
The surf is great on the Central Coast but you have to work for it. Fickle is the rule, not the exception. The surf up in Santa Cruz is amazing on a regular basis.

Occidental College.

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Originally Posted by boarddad

"The education @ UCSC sucks ass" is pretty much a direct quote from my brother-in-law...who graduated from there. My father-in-law echoes that 100%. My in-laws just happen to be from Boston FWIW. I can't speak for the humanities, but in every engineering office I've worked in we've had 20-30% CPSLO grads and would have more if we could get them. If UCSC even has an engineering program I've yet to work with a grad from there. CPSLO rejects more people than the total enrollment every year. UCSC takes all comers.

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1) UCSC does not take all comers
2) CPSLO sucks ass with the exception of a few programs
3) central coast surf does not suck
4) santa cruz surf is kook central

Pepperdine crew, you guys know Rex and his shaping expertise? JSzumaski and crew? Early and mid 90's. Got in and outta there in first week. Still mandatory mass there? Yup Topanga beav.

But what willy said first. If your gonna do it, do it right...hawaii, bs your way as having genuine interest in marine biology and do Loa.

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Originally Posted by slave2gravity

I second the vote for Santa Clara University. Awesome location, easy access to Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. Tahoe isn't too bad a trip, SCU leases a place in South Lake for skiing and ride shares are always easy to come by. Plus, if you get into MTB, Demo forest and Skeggs Point are both close by. Awesome road cycling, too. On top of that, top tier education and the girls laying out in spring time will cause a massive coronary.

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The education there is second to none.

Santa Cruz is more like a 45 minute drive away. Sure you could do 20, if you don't count the 20 minutes it takes that cop to give you a ticket. CHP is ALL OVER Hwy 17 in the mountains. Speeding there is not wise.

There's good biking around there too, and Tahoe is around 3 1/2 to 4 hours away.

But, the social life on campus is nothing to write home about and the girls laying out in the grass in the spring aren't much to talk about either. I saw more hot girls in one night at UCSB than I did in five years at Santa Clara. San Jose is boring as hell; SF is super fun...but a bit of a drive away.

It's a great school and I highly recommend it, but it's a waste to go unless you're looking primarily for a great education.

My votes would be USCD, USCB, UCLA, and SLO. UCLA will arguably give you the best education of that bunch. I'm leaving out Santa Cruz because I'm a sissy and the water there is cold as fuck year round. ;)

One other thing, I was looking into moving to Santa Barbara for a new job last year and I found out there is some epic mountain biking around there. I'm tempted to take a trip down there just to go riding.

Wait, Santa Clara education second to none? Let's not go overboard. They definitely maximize their resources, but very difficult to compete with big money schools that receive big money grants that lure big money professors to sign up in. F'n money, sad but true.

Speaking about going overboard, Santa Barb that great? One Halloween a year is plenty. Never argue with the talent, but there's plenty of pussy up and down the coast.



I

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Originally Posted by cito

Pepperdine crew, you guys know Rex and his shaping expertise? JSzumaski and crew? Early and mid 90's. Got in and outta there in first week. Still mandatory mass there? Yup Topanga beav.

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You spent a week at Pdine? having trouble following your post. What are you saying about Topanga? :confused:

Convocation (not mass, it ain't catholic) was mandatory when I graduated, imagine it still is. I had to 'make up' about 15 of them my last semester so I could graduate :)

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Originally Posted by Particle

You spent a week at Pdine? having trouble following your post. What are you saying about Topanga? :confused:

Convocation (not mass, it ain't catholic) was mandatory when I graduated, imagine it still is. I had to 'make up' about 15 of them my last semester so I could graduate :)

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And from what I can gather, Pepperdine now offers all sorts of alternatives to the mandatory Monday-morning session. And for the most part, the programs were pretty good. Despite it being a required morning activity, they always seemed to do a good job finding someone interesting to come in for the presentation.

I, too, spent some serious time up in the library "making up" a dozen or so of them. What a sweet way to spend some of your remaining days in college.