Vung Tau surf

Riding one of Friday’s smaller waves at Vung Tau. The sets were twice as big - Photo: Michael Smith

The back beach at Vung Tau had excellent glassy surfing conditions on Friday with a two to three foot swell. At high tide in the morning until a storm came in the afternoon, good waves were breaking on sand banks all along the three kilometer stretch of beach, with
almost nobody on them.

In the dozen or so times I have visited Vung Tau in three years it was probably the best conditions I’ve seen there. Surfing in Vietnam is full of stories and tall tales – I’ve heard of two meter swells and even bigger that I would have to see to believe. But this was most the best surf in Vietnam that I have seen so far, with nice peeling hollow sections and decent size sets. This is definitely the season for it with the typhoons hitting the central area sending down decent swells. What a great way to get over the Saigon blues – surfing Vung Tau.

As a former Australian city dweller, I am accustomed to traveling a few hours to have an hour or two surf, so traveling to Vung Tau for a couple of hours of surfing is no problem for me. I take a longboard in its case from my apartment by seven-seater taxi to the hydrofoil service at Bach Dang. Generally I only go for the day but I could stay overnight at one of the affordable beach side hotels. I buy a return ticket to Vung Tau for the 8am service and return on the 2pm service to be back home at 4. If there are waves that give me four hours to surf; and if there’s no waves I have to suffer on a deckchair eating cheap fresh crabs and grilled squid, reading and taking the occasional dip to cool off. It’s hell.

It’s recommended to buy the return Vung Tau hydrofoil ticket in HCMC as the service can get pretty busy and if you rely on buying a return ticket in Vung Tau you could be stuck or stung by ticket touts with double prices – especially on weekends or during events.

The hydrofoil is a pretty cool way to travel for a surf and there’s room to stash a longboard. The guys on the boat don’t generally charge extra for the surf board. It takes an hour and a half, then another short taxi ride once you get off the boat and you’re at the back beach. In total VND 280,000 maximum one way.

If you don’t have a board you can hire one at Vung Tau Beach Club at 8 Thuy Van Street. Amazingly an international website has a weekly forecast of Vung Tau’s surf conditions, if you like to increase your chances of connecting with decent waves. Check out the up to date information at www.globalsurfers.com.

According to Globalsurfers.com, “Although fickle, the surf here can get quite good during the summer monsoon from July through
November, especially when typhoons batter the central coast and send lovely swells down south.

“When the wind is out of the North West and the swell from the south, the breaks can get as big as 6ft and sometimes overhead, but don’t expect that often.”

Some websites say that Vung Tau is the best surfing spot in Vietnam, even better than Danang Beach, primarily
because of easy access to HCMC and surfing equipment.
 

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Vung Tau surf

Riding one of Friday’s smaller waves at Vung Tau. The sets were twice as big - Photo: Michael Smith

The back beach at Vung Tau had excellent glassy surfing conditions on Friday with a two to three foot swell. At high tide in the morning until a storm came in the afternoon, good waves were breaking on sand banks all along the three kilometer stretch of beach, with
almost nobody on them.

In the dozen or so times I have visited Vung Tau in three years it was probably the best conditions I’ve seen there. Surfing in Vietnam is full of stories and tall tales – I’ve heard of two meter swells and even bigger that I would have to see to believe. But this was most the best surf in Vietnam that I have seen so far, with nice peeling hollow sections and decent size sets. This is definitely the season for it with the typhoons hitting the central area sending down decent swells. What a great way to get over the Saigon blues – surfing Vung Tau.

As a former Australian city dweller, I am accustomed to traveling a few hours to have an hour or two surf, so traveling to Vung Tau for a couple of hours of surfing is no problem for me. I take a longboard in its case from my apartment by seven-seater taxi to the hydrofoil service at Bach Dang. Generally I only go for the day but I could stay overnight at one of the affordable beach side hotels. I buy a return ticket to Vung Tau for the 8am service and return on the 2pm service to be back home at 4. If there are waves that give me four hours to surf; and if there’s no waves I have to suffer on a deckchair eating cheap fresh crabs and grilled squid, reading and taking the occasional dip to cool off. It’s hell.

It’s recommended to buy the return Vung Tau hydrofoil ticket in HCMC as the service can get pretty busy and if you rely on buying a return ticket in Vung Tau you could be stuck or stung by ticket touts with double prices – especially on weekends or during events.

The hydrofoil is a pretty cool way to travel for a surf and there’s room to stash a longboard. The guys on the boat don’t generally charge extra for the surf board. It takes an hour and a half, then another short taxi ride once you get off the boat and you’re at the back beach. In total VND 280,000 maximum one way.

If you don’t have a board you can hire one at Vung Tau Beach Club at 8 Thuy Van Street. Amazingly an international website has a weekly forecast of Vung Tau’s surf conditions, if you like to increase your chances of connecting with decent waves. Check out the up to date information at www.globalsurfers.com.

According to Globalsurfers.com, “Although fickle, the surf here can get quite good during the summer monsoon from July through
November, especially when typhoons batter the central coast and send lovely swells down south.

“When the wind is out of the North West and the swell from the south, the breaks can get as big as 6ft and sometimes overhead, but don’t expect that often.”

Some websites say that Vung Tau is the best surfing spot in Vietnam, even better than Danang Beach, primarily
because of easy access to HCMC and surfing equipment.
 

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Vung Tau surf

Riding one of Friday’s smaller waves at Vung Tau. The sets were twice as big - Photo: Michael Smith

The back beach at Vung Tau had excellent glassy surfing conditions on Friday with a two to three foot swell. At high tide in the morning until a storm came in the afternoon, good waves were breaking on sand banks all along the three kilometer stretch of beach, with
almost nobody on them.

In the dozen or so times I have visited Vung Tau in three years it was probably the best conditions I’ve seen there. Surfing in Vietnam is full of stories and tall tales – I’ve heard of two meter swells and even bigger that I would have to see to believe. But this was most the best surf in Vietnam that I have seen so far, with nice peeling hollow sections and decent size sets. This is definitely the season for it with the typhoons hitting the central area sending down decent swells. What a great way to get over the Saigon blues – surfing Vung Tau.

As a former Australian city dweller, I am accustomed to traveling a few hours to have an hour or two surf, so traveling to Vung Tau for a couple of hours of surfing is no problem for me. I take a longboard in its case from my apartment by seven-seater taxi to the hydrofoil service at Bach Dang. Generally I only go for the day but I could stay overnight at one of the affordable beach side hotels. I buy a return ticket to Vung Tau for the 8am service and return on the 2pm service to be back home at 4. If there are waves that give me four hours to surf; and if there’s no waves I have to suffer on a deckchair eating cheap fresh crabs and grilled squid, reading and taking the occasional dip to cool off. It’s hell.

It’s recommended to buy the return Vung Tau hydrofoil ticket in HCMC as the service can get pretty busy and if you rely on buying a return ticket in Vung Tau you could be stuck or stung by ticket touts with double prices – especially on weekends or during events.

The hydrofoil is a pretty cool way to travel for a surf and there’s room to stash a longboard. The guys on the boat don’t generally charge extra for the surf board. It takes an hour and a half, then another short taxi ride once you get off the boat and you’re at the back beach. In total VND 280,000 maximum one way.

If you don’t have a board you can hire one at Vung Tau Beach Club at 8 Thuy Van Street. Amazingly an international website has a weekly forecast of Vung Tau’s surf conditions, if you like to increase your chances of connecting with decent waves. Check out the up to date information at www.globalsurfers.com.

According to Globalsurfers.com, “Although fickle, the surf here can get quite good during the summer monsoon from July through
November, especially when typhoons batter the central coast and send lovely swells down south.

“When the wind is out of the North West and the swell from the south, the breaks can get as big as 6ft and sometimes overhead, but don’t expect that often.”

Some websites say that Vung Tau is the best surfing spot in Vietnam, even better than Danang Beach, primarily
because of easy access to HCMC and surfing equipment.
 

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Vung Tau surf

Riding one of Friday’s smaller waves at Vung Tau. The sets were twice as big - Photo: Michael Smith

The back beach at Vung Tau had excellent glassy surfing conditions on Friday with a two to three foot swell. At high tide in the morning until a storm came in the afternoon, good waves were breaking on sand banks all along the three kilometer stretch of beach, with
almost nobody on them.

In the dozen or so times I have visited Vung Tau in three years it was probably the best conditions I’ve seen there. Surfing in Vietnam is full of stories and tall tales – I’ve heard of two meter swells and even bigger that I would have to see to believe. But this was most the best surf in Vietnam that I have seen so far, with nice peeling hollow sections and decent size sets. This is definitely the season for it with the typhoons hitting the central area sending down decent swells. What a great way to get over the Saigon blues – surfing Vung Tau.

As a former Australian city dweller, I am accustomed to traveling a few hours to have an hour or two surf, so traveling to Vung Tau for a couple of hours of surfing is no problem for me. I take a longboard in its case from my apartment by seven-seater taxi to the hydrofoil service at Bach Dang. Generally I only go for the day but I could stay overnight at one of the affordable beach side hotels. I buy a return ticket to Vung Tau for the 8am service and return on the 2pm service to be back home at 4. If there are waves that give me four hours to surf; and if there’s no waves I have to suffer on a deckchair eating cheap fresh crabs and grilled squid, reading and taking the occasional dip to cool off. It’s hell.

It’s recommended to buy the return Vung Tau hydrofoil ticket in HCMC as the service can get pretty busy and if you rely on buying a return ticket in Vung Tau you could be stuck or stung by ticket touts with double prices – especially on weekends or during events.

The hydrofoil is a pretty cool way to travel for a surf and there’s room to stash a longboard. The guys on the boat don’t generally charge extra for the surf board. It takes an hour and a half, then another short taxi ride once you get off the boat and you’re at the back beach. In total VND 280,000 maximum one way.

If you don’t have a board you can hire one at Vung Tau Beach Club at 8 Thuy Van Street. Amazingly an international website has a weekly forecast of Vung Tau’s surf conditions, if you like to increase your chances of connecting with decent waves. Check out the up to date information at www.globalsurfers.com.

According to Globalsurfers.com, “Although fickle, the surf here can get quite good during the summer monsoon from July through
November, especially when typhoons batter the central coast and send lovely swells down south.

“When the wind is out of the North West and the swell from the south, the breaks can get as big as 6ft and sometimes overhead, but don’t expect that often.”

Some websites say that Vung Tau is the best surfing spot in Vietnam, even better than Danang Beach, primarily
because of easy access to HCMC and surfing equipment.
 

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Mui Ne waves: Enough to satisfy the surfer inside

Mui Ne is on the map as an Asian kite surfing mecca, but there’s a few waves left over for longboarders - Photo: Kinh Luan

Happy to say, I had a good surf recently in Mui Ne. This time of year there’s no rideable waves on the back beach there but I was told there’s some small swells on the front beach.

These swells last until October when the wind changes and favors early morning waves on the back beach.

I actually rode a monstrous sail board – well over ten foot long, almost too wide too paddle – and hard to turn. But what it lacked in maneuverability it made up in sheer speed and ease to get on the wave. As a result I hardly missed a single one that I went for and caught dozens of little two foot waves right to the beach.

Despite the sad amount of plastic bags in the water it was great to get wet and have a play on the board. I found these waves on a strip of beach near the terraces where the all the fishing boats dock at the northern end of the tourist strip. There is a decent beach there and I was able to get some quite long rides and even show a few Vietnamese teenagers how to do it – standing up on a surfboard the size of an oil tanker is not hard - even for beginners. They loved it.

I surfed early in the morning thinking that the waves would get blown out, so I better get in early. But it didn’t happen; I had a surf in the morning, and again in the afternoon, both high tide and low tide were ok.

As a keen longboarder from the Gold Coast in Australia, when I came to Vietnam I had no information about whether or not there was surf here so I left my eight footer in  a mate’s shed.

A few months after I arrived in 2007, I body-surfed some two foot waves on a sandbank in Vung Tau and judged it to be quite acceptable for a longboard. Unfortunately the closest thing to a malibu for hire on the beach was a tire tube or a cocktail, so the idea was shelved for a while until I scored a board off a mate of mine, who told me he’d had a few waves at Long Hai.

As it turns out there’s quite a history of surfing in Vung Tau, going back about 40 years and there’s even a surf shack up there and an online surf report called Vung Tau Beach Club on the Globalsurfers website. What’s great about Vung Tau is it is easy to get to on the hydrofoil with the surfboard. From Saigon I can go there for a morning surf and be back in the afternoon. A few crabs, a few waves and I’m a happy chappy.

Mui Ne is not so easy to get to. It’s only 200km but it’s not Australia so there’s no way you can do it in two hours. The quickest I could manage was four and a half hours on the motorbike. There are a few decent long boards for rent at Jibes restaurant but I didn’t see any motorbikes for rent with board racks like you can get in Bali, so it’s got to be taxis or brave the wind on the back of a xe om with a nine footer poking out front and back.

Another way to get there that I was recommended by someone – head to Mien Dong bus station in Binh Thanh district at about 3 a.m. (you can chuck the board in the luggage compartment underneath). Catch a bus and wake up in Mui Ne. It’s probably a bit safer than fanging a 100cc step-through motorbike along Hanoi Highway and has the added advantage of being able to take your own board.

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Mui Ne waves: Enough to satisfy the surfer inside

Mui Ne is on the map as an Asian kite surfing mecca, but there’s a few waves left over for longboarders - Photo: Kinh Luan

Happy to say, I had a good surf recently in Mui Ne. This time of year there’s no rideable waves on the back beach there but I was told there’s some small swells on the front beach.

These swells last until October when the wind changes and favors early morning waves on the back beach.

I actually rode a monstrous sail board – well over ten foot long, almost too wide too paddle – and hard to turn. But what it lacked in maneuverability it made up in sheer speed and ease to get on the wave. As a result I hardly missed a single one that I went for and caught dozens of little two foot waves right to the beach.

Despite the sad amount of plastic bags in the water it was great to get wet and have a play on the board. I found these waves on a strip of beach near the terraces where the all the fishing boats dock at the northern end of the tourist strip. There is a decent beach there and I was able to get some quite long rides and even show a few Vietnamese teenagers how to do it – standing up on a surfboard the size of an oil tanker is not hard - even for beginners. They loved it.

I surfed early in the morning thinking that the waves would get blown out, so I better get in early. But it didn’t happen; I had a surf in the morning, and again in the afternoon, both high tide and low tide were ok.

As a keen longboarder from the Gold Coast in Australia, when I came to Vietnam I had no information about whether or not there was surf here so I left my eight footer in  a mate’s shed.

A few months after I arrived in 2007, I body-surfed some two foot waves on a sandbank in Vung Tau and judged it to be quite acceptable for a longboard. Unfortunately the closest thing to a malibu for hire on the beach was a tire tube or a cocktail, so the idea was shelved for a while until I scored a board off a mate of mine, who told me he’d had a few waves at Long Hai.

As it turns out there’s quite a history of surfing in Vung Tau, going back about 40 years and there’s even a surf shack up there and an online surf report called Vung Tau Beach Club on the Globalsurfers website. What’s great about Vung Tau is it is easy to get to on the hydrofoil with the surfboard. From Saigon I can go there for a morning surf and be back in the afternoon. A few crabs, a few waves and I’m a happy chappy.

Mui Ne is not so easy to get to. It’s only 200km but it’s not Australia so there’s no way you can do it in two hours. The quickest I could manage was four and a half hours on the motorbike. There are a few decent long boards for rent at Jibes restaurant but I didn’t see any motorbikes for rent with board racks like you can get in Bali, so it’s got to be taxis or brave the wind on the back of a xe om with a nine footer poking out front and back.

Another way to get there that I was recommended by someone – head to Mien Dong bus station in Binh Thanh district at about 3 a.m. (you can chuck the board in the luggage compartment underneath). Catch a bus and wake up in Mui Ne. It’s probably a bit safer than fanging a 100cc step-through motorbike along Hanoi Highway and has the added advantage of being able to take your own board.

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