Surfing Drone Videos

Pro surfers Cam Richards, Curren Caples, Betet Merta, and Noah Schweiser take on some epic waves on one of the top surfing beaches in Bali, Indonesia in this awesome aerial footage!  High above the deep blue barrels, top contributor and pilot Jasonkmcklean chased the surfers with his drone as they rode rolling currents.  No doubt, these guys have some surf skills that show they are one with the waves. See for yourself in this amazing piece, which was chosen as a Drone Video of the Week nominee from November 2018.

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.   

The Maldives, a group of islands spread out over the Indian Ocean, are known as a top tropical beach destination.  What is perhaps less known is that a number of the outer islands 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 incorporating drone footage from exotic locations 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 and pilot Tahiti Fly Shoot was there to capture the action via drone, creating this epic video of the session.   Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, a French Overseas Collectivity.

Award winning contributor and drone pilot 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 the city of the Gold Coast in eastern 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 and pilot 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 Manhattan Beach Beach to Malibu.  Contributor Sky.shots brings us this drone video of surfing in this legendary area, now commonly referred to as Silicon Beach. 

Cloudbreak is a left-breaking reef pass off the shores of Namotu, one of the islands of Fiji in the South Pacific.  It is regularly ranked amongst the 10-12 best surfing spots in the world, and has hosted many competitions where the best surfers on earth show up to take it on.   In this  drone video by contributor and drone pilot Jasonmclean, you'll get a bird's eye view of some very skilled surfers hitting the waves here.   It's a reminder of how much drones have revolutionized how we see action sports like surfing.

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

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 Paulo, 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.

Contributor Francisco Rodriguez created this amazing drone video of the surfing scene at Praia Grande Beach, one of Portugal's most famous beaches.  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 other famed beaches such as Cabo de Roca and Cascais, which are more popular with swimmers (as opposed to surfers) and lie to its south.  

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.

While the island of Barbados is considered a Caribbean island, it's technically not in the Caribbean Sea.  Rather, it sits due east of St. Vincent, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.  With much stronger waves, Barbados offers the best surfing in the region.  In this video by Niall Thomas, you'll get a bird's eye view of the Barbados surfing scene in the Soup Bowl area on its northern shore.  It's part of an area called Bathsheba Beach, which was recently named one of the world's top 25 beaches by CN Traveler.

Contributor Lego created this beautiful drone video of one of the world's most iconic surfing spots.  It's called Uluwatu, and it's located at the very southwestern tip of the island of Bali in southern Indonesia.  The site was used as the filming location for a movie called Morning of the Earth, a 1971 low budget Australian film which has since gone on to become a classic in the surfing movie genre.  With its five separate breaks, Uluwatu is now considered one of the world's top surfing beaches.  

Unlike its neighbors in Central America, El Salvador only has one coastline, on the Pacific Ocean.  That's the right side though for surfing, and like so many other countries with a Pacific coast, El Salvador is developing its own surf culture.  One of the top spots is Punta Roca, which lies towards the northern end of the country's coastline.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of this fast-developing surfing destination, courtesy of contributor and drone pilot Fotovideorestudiosv.

In this drone video, Fitlam Studios shows us that surfing isn't limited to places like Hawaii and Bali.  He filmed this in a spot which isn't even on an ocean: Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior.  And in the dead of winter!  One of the coldest cities in the USA, Duluth is also known for the length to which its residents will go to prove that the long bitterly cold winters can't keep them inside.  But surfing???  Wet suit or no, that is some mighty cold water you see here.  

Among the many attractions of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius is its surfing scene.  The archipelago, which lies east of the much larger island of Madagascar, consists of four main islands.  While surfing is generally thought of as an Atlantic or Pacific Ocean activity, the Indian Ocean offers some amazing surfing conditions as well, and Mauritius has some of the best.  Witness this amazing drone video by contributor Skeye Mauritius, who was able to film some surfers at a "secret" spot.

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 contributor Indo Eye, who was able to film these unusually favorable surfing conditions from a bird's eye view.  Needless to say, this is not for the beginner surfers out there; these are extremely dangerous waves.

Among the many charms of Cape Town, South Africa are its surfing beaches.  This city near the southern tip of Africa is very near the spot where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans come together.  This, plus some of the unique geology of the region, makes for some of the world's best surfing spots.  One of these is Big Bay, which sits near the town of Bloubergstrand, a short drive north of central Cape Town.  In this drone video by Exclusive Aerials, you'll get a bird's eye view of this epic surfing scene.  

Two-time DVA winner Timelab.pro created this magnificent drone video (itself nominated for Drone Video of the Week) from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East.  The video includes footage of the Winter Surf Challenge - yes, surfing in Siberia!  It also includes footage of some of the area's spectacular natural scenery, including the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano, the Parantuka river, and the Vilyuchinsky Pass.  The video was shot using a Zenmuse X7 camera mounted to a DJI Inspire 2 drone.

The USA state of New Jersey has a long Atlantic Ocean coastline, which stretches from just south of New York Harbor to Delaware Bay, the estuary of the Delaware River.  Known colloquially as the Jersey Shore, this is a legendary getaway spot for denizens of New York and Philadelphia, the two giant cities which sit to its north and south, respectively.  Among the other attractions of the Jersey Shore is its very active surfing scene; get a glimpse of it from above in this drone video by zekedrone.   

If you want to see how drones have revolutionized our ability to see surfing up close, check out this video by myflyingeyes.  It was filmed on the beaches of Ventura, a beach community in Southern California.  Lying about midway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, it's considered one of the prime surfing spots on the USA's West Coast.  The video uses some very skillful slow motion editing and provides a window onto this lifestyle sport which is so closely identified with the California lifestyle.   

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. 

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.