About Surf Camp

A Day at the Beach

Campers arrive at Scarborough Beach State Park at 9AM. After getting a wetsuit and surfboard from our gear trailer, we head down to our camp at the beach. This camp is where we will spend the rest of the day. Our tents provide shelter from the weather and give the campers a place to hang out when they aren’t in the water. We also have snacks, water coolers, and gear boxes at our beach camp.

When we first arrive at camp, one of our instructors leads everyone through the morning meeting, which varies each day and includes surf etiquette and technique, daily overviews, and short lessons about ocean conservation and our local beach environment.

Wave of the day on a perfect Scarborough Beach morning!

How better to spend the summer than in our beautiful Maine ocean waters

We normally suit up (put our wetsuits on) at around 9:30, and from there, hit the water! For the next two hours camp is broken into groups of three to four where each camper gets significant one-on-one instruction. The ‘morning session’ can be one of the most beautiful times at the beach, with clear water, light winds, and glassy waves.

Surf campers make the trek back up the beach for lunch.

At 11:30 we are all hungry for lunch: it’s time to head back to camp to eat and trade stories from the morning! After lunch, we normally make time to play a beach game: capture the flag and volleyball are popular, but there’s also lots of time to swim, boogie board, explore the beach, or just hang out and read a book.

Our beach camp is a perfect place to relax when we're not in the water.
Here, the whole group gathers for the 'morning meeting.'

Refreshed from lunch, we head back out for one more afternoon surf session, usually about an hour to an hour and a half. By this time in the day, the tides have changed from what they were in the morning session and it’s like surfing an entirely different beach: a great opportunity to continue developing our water skills!

By the time 3PM roles around, it’s safe to say we are all exhausted, but in the best possible way: we are ‘surf tired!’ Which is to say we can’t wait to get back in the water the next day!

Other Activities

Surfing is a dynamic activity that changes quickly and often. Tides, wind, currents and other factors all determine how the surf will be, so our surf sessions follow accordingly. Some days we surf a little less and spend extra time on other beach activities, and some days -- when the waves are “on” -- we might spend nearly the whole day on our surfboards. Our number one goal is to ensure everyone is safe and having a great time -- there’s no such thing as being ‘bored’ at Surf Camp.

We have an amazing stretch of sand to explore on Scarborough Beach.

We try to find some time during the week to engage in other non-surfing activities. Walking both North and South on Scarborough Beach offer fun and different adventures and opportunities to explore.

A little surf down-time gives us a chance to swim and relax at this perfect lagoon.

In one direction, we access “the lagoon” where campers can swim and snorkel on clear days. In the other direction, the “Cliff Walk” takes us around the point of Prouts Neck, allowing time for a swim at a pristine beach halfway through the walk.

Rain and Bad Weather

Please review our Covid-19 policy for 2021, which may impact our 'rainy day' activities. So long as the Covid-19 pandemic continues and indoor gatherings remain high-risk, we will remain on the beach even in rainy weather and may require parents to pick their children up early in the event of thunderstorms.

We can't help it, but sometimes we have bad weather and can't stay at the beach. We only leave the beach if the weather is unsafe: for example, if there are thunderstorms, extreme winds, or unseasonably low temperatures.

In reallly bad weather we retreat to Sprague Hall for a movie and often take a field trip to the surf shop.
Here, local shaper Andy McDermott shows us how a surfboard is made at Blackpoint Surf Shop.

On those rare occasions, we will retreat to our "rain day location" at Sprague Hall, about 5 miles up the road from the beach. It's a good time to relax and take a break, watch a surf movie on our 100" projector screen, play board games, or challenge someone to a ping-pong match. If we're stuck inside all day, we'll often take a field trip to the local surf shop.

Our Environmental Ethic

Surf Camp prides itself on being a ‘human powered’ organization in the truest sense. Many of our employees carpool or ride bikes to work, and while we are at the beach, we are totally ‘off grid.’ We always strive to leave the beach cleaner than we left it.

Even though our environmental impact has been minimal since Surf Camp started, in recent years we’ve taken a more proactive role in giving back to the beach and ocean environment that provides so much to us.

We like to leave the beach cleaner than we found it.
All of this garbage -- mostly non-biodegradable plastic -- was picked up in just one morning!

Once a week, we give a short talk to our campers about the ocean environment and environmental responsibility, and follow with a major beach cleanup. Two groups head in opposite directions and compete to get the most trash picked up and into garbage bags. Back at camp when we put all the bags together, it is always amazing how much we’ve managed to pick up, and how much cleaner the beach is for it. Last year, we removed several hundred pounds of garbage from the beach. At Surf Camp, campers will learn the necessary environmental ethic that surfing requires while helping to keep the Maine coast beautiful. We also encourage good health by providing nutritious snacks and fresh fruit everyday during lunch.

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