Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Making a trip to gulf coast in a couple weeks. I'm bringing my playboat and wondered if anyone had any advice on where to go/not go to play on the waves. Somewhere not too far. Galvelston, Pensacola, etc. I'll be camping so any advice on good beach campsites would appreciated. Thanks!

My only recommendation would be to contact Gulf Coast areas within your driving range "first" to check 'beach conditions' over everything else. Find a forum [surfers, boaters, etc.] online in THAT area. I'm from south of Houston, near Surfside Beach and found out the hard way. Ignored my own beaches and drove to Galveston last summer, thinking those beaches would be nicer. Nope. Galveston is disgusting. Rotting kelp piled 20 feet high against the sea wall. High prices to get on disgusting beaches overrun with kelp and garbage.

My surfer niece told me to bring my boat in winter, when the waves are higher and the kelp is gone. I should have. Let me know how your adventure works out. I might be taking my boat down in a few weeks also. Haven't decided if it's worth tying them on the van for the 10 hour drive yet. Plan to call and check beach conditions with my niece.

Email me at ccoletexas@gmail.com if you want to talk Gulf Coast more. :)

When I was a youngster I worked at the KOA campground that was between Galveston and Surfside. Galveston always seemed pretty nice. The only "trash" I recall was the oil stains on the sand.

I was always told that there was a bad undertow along the surfside area and especially to the north near the pass and bridge. I spent time in the water and did not have any bad experience---not as a boater.

I know what you mean, when I was a youngster it was MUCH less trashy. Galveston has changed since the last bad hurricane somewhat.

Yes, Surfside and 'most' areas along all the Texas coastline have 'undertow'. It gets 'real' bad depending on which sandbar you go out to. Step off the "3rd sandbar" [we called it] and you just are found floating by the oil rigs a few weeks later. There is an area called San Luis Pass closer to Galveston people drowned every year. They say most weren't reported, because they frequently weren't registered citizens. In a 'boat' you avoid the threat of undertow, but your biggest challenge would be riptides. As a boy, I was on a float [pool type] at Surfside and was suddenly moving quickly out & parallel to the beach. I only knew the "out" part. I was saved by a Hobie Cat my dad sent to get me. He never took his eyes off me, just saw me moving out quickly and it wasn't till I got back to the beach and saw our Delta 88 hauling a** down the beach I realized how FAR I'd gone down the coast...about a mile.

The Gulf coast between Texas and LA is a wet fart. I grew up there for 19 years, and probably spent a total of 20 hours on that beach.

...still, I might need to try it in my playboat just once. :)

If there's any chance you can make it to the Atlantic (e.g. North Carolina), go there. Much better surf, normally.

We were just down in Galveston last week and I had a great time in my kayak. Waves were quite large for the days we were there, and there was no kelp to be seen. We were about 1.5 miles from the south/west end of the island. Our condo had beach access, but my understanding is that we were adjacent to a public access that had numerous vehicles driving all the way down to the shore to set up.

Thanks Matt. I'm planning to do a 'kelp check' before I head down in a few weeks. Might be worth taking a few boats.