Surfing Drone Videos

If worldwide surfing community has a single center of gravity, it is probably Ehukai Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii.  Here is the famous Banzai Pipeline, a reef break which sends waves, surfboards and surfers one direction (the Pipeline) or the other (the Backdoor).  It's a thrilling yet extremely dangerous spot, and it's captured beautifully by drone in this epic drone video by top contributor and Hawaiian native Ryzone.   

Christian Tinman, who hails from South Africa, has developed a reputation for being amongst the top aerial videographers of surfing around the world.  He has traveled to many of the world's top surfing beaches, using a drone to create bird's eye views of some of the best surfers on earth.  In this video, he captures the winter surfing scene on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  Home of the famous back door and pipeline reef breaks, this is widely considered to be the world's top surfing location.  

Indonesia's Bali island is known for having some of the world's most epic surfing beaches.  When a super swell hit the Padang Padang Beach (on the southern part of the island) in June of 2017, "epic" went to, well whatever comes after "epic".  As you will see in this incredible drone video by Indo Eye, who was able to film these unusually favorably surfing conditions from a bird's eye view.  

The Maldives, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, are known as a top tropical beach destination.  What is perhaps less known is that they also offer some world class surfing, on a par with Australia, Bali, or South Africa.  Top contributor Drone Heroes, who has a large Instagram following and makes travel videos around the world, used a drone to capture the epic Maldives surfing scene from an aerial perspective. 

The South Pacific island of Tahiti is consistently ranked among the world's top surfing spots.  And 11-time World Surfing League champion Kelly Slater is very definitly ranked amongst the very best surfers of all time.  When this legendary surfer headed for Tahiti for the WSL's Billabong Pro Tahiti event in 2016, contributor Tahiti Fly Shoot was there to capture the action via drone, creating this epic video of the session.   

While the Australian surfing scene is most associated with the eastern beaches around Sydney in New South Wales and the Gold Coast in Queensland, Western Australia also has some of the best surfing beaches in the world.  The vast coastline and a much lower population density of WA make for some incredible spots to ride the waves.  In this video, contributor Sky Perth uses a drone to give us a bird's eye look at one of these spots, in WA's Margaret River region.

Award winning contributor Postandfly gives us this beautiful aerial video of a beach spot in his native state of Oaxaca on Mexico's Pacific coastline.  Zicatela Beach is considered one of the best surfing beaches in the Western Hemisphere.  It's just a short distance from Puerto Escondido, a beach town which is widely considered to be more authentically Oaxacan than Huatuco, the state's other big beach spot which was developed on a large scale basis in a manner similar to Cancun.

The area around Gold Coast, Australia is known for being amongst the world's top surfing spots as well as a great place for whale watching.  Tweed Head is a small beach town in New South Wales, just south of Gold Coast (which is part of the Queensland state).  In this video, contributor Corellovel managed to capture the surfing scene at Tweeds Head with some epic shots of some humpback whales.  You'll see the surfers and the sea mammals sharing the stunning torquoise waters.

Although surfing didn't originate in California, it was in the Golden State where an obscure activity which originated in the South Pacific migrated (by way of Hawaii) and became transformed into a mainstream activity seen throughout the world.  The cauldron where this occurred was in the string of beach communities west of Los Angeles from Huntington Beach to Malibu.  Contributor Sky.shots brings us this drone video of surfing in this legendary area, now referred to as Silicon Beach. 

The second season of Drone Trippin takes place in Oahu, the site of the Drone Worlds held there in October, 2016.   In this episode, Colby Curtola, aka SFPV, is able to sneak away to Oahu’s North Shore after finishing his racing events for the day. At the beach, he runs into pro surfers Eli Olson and Kailani Jabour, and they decide to try teaming up and mixing their skills to get some killer shots via an FPV quad in one of the world's top surfing locations.

Brazil's long coastline features some of the best surfing beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, comparable to the best beaches of Portugal but warmer.  Brazil's top surfing spots  can be found throughout the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, as well as further north in Bahia and the other states of Northeastern Brazil.  In this video, Gustavoaguiar filmed a couple of surfer girls on one of the beaches near the city of Rio, around the time that the city was hosting the Olympic Summer Games in 2016.

Europe's best surfing is found in areas of the Portuguese and French coasts facing the Atlantic Ocean.  While a wetsuit is generally required, the surfing action is top-notch.  Contributor Atlantic Drones traveled to Hossegor in southwestern France and Nazare on the Portuguese coast to film some of these surfing spots.  Using a combination of gimbal stabilized camera drones and FPV drones he created this epic video showing the best of the European surfing scene. 

Francisco Rodriguez created this amazing drone video of the surfing scene at Praia Grande Beach.  It's located in the Sintra province of the Greater Lisbon region, just a bit west-northwest of the capital city.  It's part of the area sometimes known as the Portuguese Riviera, a stretch of Atlantic coastline that includes famed beaches such as Cabo de Roca and Cascais, which are more popular with swimmers (as opposed to surfers) and lie to its south.  

If you think riding a surfboard is too tough (and/or too dangerous), you probably aren't a good candidate for a foilboard, which involves attaching a hydrofoil to the bottom of a board.  Foilboarders are basically surfing in 3D, as they can vary the amount by which they ride up above the surf.  It's difficult, dangerous, and incredibly rewarding for those who can master it.  Christian Tinman shot this epic aerial video in Maui, where three champion surfers ride above the wicked Pacific surf.  

Surfing has definitely traveled far from its roots in the South Pacific, all the way to the Arctic.  Yes, surfing in the Arctic - you read that correctly.  In this video, contributor collaborated with the Gore Tex Experience Tour 2016 "Ride and Surf Lofoten" in Norway's Lofoten Islands, which lie towards the northern end of its Atlantic coast.  Using a DJI Phantom 4 drone, he provides us with an aerial view of this most improbable event, surely a rare instance of surfing at a latitude north of the Arctic Circle.