Surfer's Guide to Santander, Spain - Without a Car

When I first moved to Santander, Spain, I had trouble finding good information in English about surfing around here. After a few months living here, I have a pretty good fix on which beaches are good under what conditions. In this guide, I focus on the two spots that are easily accessible from the city without having to rely on a car: Playa de Sardinero and Playa de Somo. This guide will be useful for anybody moving here for a short time, such as exchange students, Erasmus students, and short term English teachers.

Playa de Sardinero is located right in the middle of the city and is stunning beach. There is a castle at one end of the beach (Palacio Magdalena) and a golf course along the point on the other side. It's North-east facing, and therefore needs a large swell to wrap around. However many meters any online forecast says, you can divide that number by three to get the approximate size of breaking waves (eg. A 6m swell might produce waves up to 2m, or overhead. A 3m swell might be just barely rideable). Luckily, many of the big swells that cause waves to break along Sardinero also come with howling West winds, which happen to be straight off-shore at Sardinero. On big swells, Sardi gets pretty heavy and closed out at low tides, and it is generally better around high tide.

Playa de Somo is across the bay from Santander, but easily accessible by a 20 minute ferry ride. The ferry leaves from the center of Santander every 30 minutes in summer, and every hour in winter and currently costs 4.10€ round trip. Somo is a completely different beach than Sardinero. Slightly wilder, you still get a view of the palace and of the lighthouse just out to sea. The waves here are a lot softer and crumblier, but Somo draws in a lot more swell. Somo is surfable from a 1.5m swell up to 3m, depending on swell direction. When it gets large, however, be preppared to paddle a lot, as the shallow profile of the ocean floor allows sneaker sets to break 100m past where you are. It is less tide dependant than Sardinero, but seems to be a little better on higher tides. A South wind is straight off-shore.

Finally, the last spot within walking distance of Santander is La Vaca Gigante (The Giant Cow). Since this spot doesn't start breaking until about 5m (3x over head), I haven't surfed it and I probably never will. The long walk (3-4km through pasture land) is definitely worth it just to watch when it's breaking. There is an invitation only big wave contest every Fall.

Basically, as long as the wind is right, Somo is the place to be on most swells between 1.5 and 3 meters. Any swell over 3 meters will probably be a little to big for Somo, and Sardinero will just start to get cracking.