If you’re looking to travel and surf then this might be the post for you. In our stable of travelling experiences we have a few guys who’ve slung on some doggers, prayed to Kahuna and surfed until the sun tells them it’s time to go home.

AJ (@spintheglobe) is a serious surfer; he’s often regaled me with stories of south coast excursions in the middle of winter to catch some waves regardless of freezing temperatures. That is seriously dedicated. He’s a well travelled guy and has recently applied for STA Travel’s World Traveller Internship. Recently he surfed his way down the East coast of America…

Another hero on our Explorer surf team is Chris (@curiouscheese); he’s currently carving his way through Australia. It didn’t all go according to plan though as his timing in terms of finding the surf seemed a little off. You can read about this in his article on the Drift Europe website,

“Sure, western Oz has some of the most insane line-ups you could ever get your stick wet in, and the mutant slabs of Margaret River offer suicidal-looking, dredging barrels on the right swell. But there wasn’t any. It looked promising for one brief day, but there was no way I was going to tackle 6-foot shore dumps in just inches of water – I left that to the local spongers.”

Finally we have George (@Gvee). He’s new to the art. In fact it was only last week he caught his first wave and referred to his surf experience as his new favourite thing,

“Words cannot express how happy surfing has made me feel, so I am not going to try. Instead I will leave you with this: do it. Just do it.

George out.”

Are you looking to travel and surf, or have you already been on a surfari? Tell us about it.

The post below is written by Robert Strauss, friend of STA Travelbuzz and former Lonely Planet author. He came along to our most recent meet-up where Camilla cajoled him with charm into giving us a few words on his experiences of changes in the world of travel over the past 30 years. As an extremely busy fellow we greatly appreciate his thoughts on the most cost effective of all transport – hitch-hiking…

In 1970, at the age of 18, I made £600 by selling shares in British Car Auctions and spent it all in 18 months on the road hitching across Europe and Asia…

Salzburg to Athens with an atomic scientist in a mini.

Kabul to Delhi in a VW combi.

From Khorramshar, Iran to Basra, Iraq in air-cooled luxury with a Kuwaiti businessman.

The length of Syria in trucks to the Turkish border.

On phosphate trucks from Amman, Jordan to Aqaba.

Throughout Israel, from Kiryat Shemona to Eilat.

In 1986, I travelled on trucks with traders from Sichuan, China over 5,000m passes to Tibet and out again to Qinghai.

Hitching was also a key way to get around New Caledonia in 1989. In 1992, I hitched as part of my research around northern Japan and Hokkaido.

In brief hitch-hiking has a much lower profile in the travel world now. We as a society have become far more wary with drivers and hitchers weighing the risks more often and opting for convenience and security.

What can I say - Salzburg to Athens with an atomic scientist in a mini. I hope this journey will eventually become fictionalised in movie format. I imagine you could learn a lot about life while sharing the interior space of a mini with an atomic scientist. However, I digress…

Hitch-hiking is not something I’ve ever tried, though I did discuss it with our STA Explorer AJ, who was planning to use it as a primary method of getting around on his next trip to the States. We think it might be illegal there though…

Thanks Robert for the words and hopefully we’ll see you at the next meet-up.

AJ is STA Explorer Surfin’ USA and goes by the Twitter name of @spintheglobe. His latest post is huge, delivering the skinny on a summer packed with travel and music.

It’s been a while since he returned from his east coast surf trip, but he has only just got around to properly unpacking, something that unearthed a pile of mementos from the coastal jaunt. The memories prompted him to document the outline for his next trip to the states,

“Next summer my friend Stu and I have a brief plan: this is largely subject to change.. We’re thinking hitchhiking (still need to double check the laws on this) Cape Cod to Boston to Connecticut to New York to Washington DC to Virginia to North Carolina/ South Carolina to Georgia to Florida… We will then fly to San Francisco, to the Burning Man Festival to…”

Sounds epic and that isn’t all of it either!?

The post continues with mention of working at the Reading festival before getting into his second trip of the year… As I’m sure you’ve been reading, AJ was present for our celebrations of STA Travel’s 30^th birthday. His perspective of the night is included in the post as well (I told you it was big),

“It was a very surreal and unique experience and I can’t thank STA Travelbuzz: Camilla, Sam and Michelle enough for organising it all. Bring on the next event!!”

To read more of the details about what Surfin’ USA has been doing and to share a travel tale or two click through.

Continuing from yesterday morning’s photo call with the iconic ways of getting from A-to-B (and a little further) outside London’s Museum of Transport, STA Travelbuzz took four of our Explorers on a bit of trip. The tour for STA Travel’s 30^th birthday took in the countries of India, England, America and Ireland all in one evening without ever leaving London. Our transport? A Routemaster bus of course! What more iconic method of getting about is there?

We began in India (a restaurant on Brick Lane) where we were joined by two of our 2009 £10 Pom’s Marianne (@MIA914 / Escaping the Grind) and Alice (@Alice_Walkabout / Alice in down-underland) along with surfers Chris (@curiouscheese / Hang 10 and Party) and AJ (@spintheglobe / Surfin’ USA).

Alice has updated her blog already with her take on the evening and I think it’s fair to suggest she loved the trip,

“And the transport for the evening… a Routemaster bus!! Proper old school! It was even kitted out in birthday signs and balloons. So out comes the champers and here come the toasts, ‘Happy Birthday STA!’[…] What a night! Epic!”

After India and a jaunt across London on the bus we were stateside with Allstar Lanes. 10 frames and a cocktail later the boys had demonstrated an (almost) natural gift for the classic American past time of 10 pin bowling. The girls, not deflated by the defeat, decided to excel at ‘strike’-ing a pose.

We swiftly stopped at England with the national dish of fish and chips en route to Ireland. Our final destination of the Emerald Isle found us not drinking Guinness in a pub (well not straight away) as presumed by all in attendance, but arriving at the The London Irish Centre and meeting Aidan – an expert in the art of Irish dancing.

Now, there are video’s currently unedited on the STA Travelbuzz YouTube channel and very amusing they are too as I’m sure you can imagine. However, post production is happening frantically to condense and streamline the action, so come back early next week when River Dance is brought centre stage once again, this time by STA Travelbuzz!

All the photographs of the STA Travelbuzz celebration of STA Travel’s 30^th birthday can be seen on our Flickr account and, if this isn’t enough, Chris just happens to be a photographer extraordinaire! During all the action of the evening he was also snapping away and you can see the superb results here.

We’d like to say thank you to everyone involved – Mick the bus driver who put up with our antics, the brilliant Aidan of The Aidan O’Neill School of Irish Dancing, Mr. Hussain owner the Prithi Restaurant and finally the Explorers Marianne, Chris, Alice and AJ. Thank you!

If you’d like to become an STA Explorer or just want to come along to one of the STA Travelbuzz meet-ups and chat to us about what we do for STA Travel and/or travel in general, just get in touch by either dropping Camilla an email or @ing us on Twitter.

With the rain lashing down persistantly in England, and the outbreak of a shower never too far away, one can be forgiven for casting an envious eye over towards to Alex’s USA ’09 East Coast blog and, to coin a phrase, ‘wishing one was there’!

“One of the days we spent in Wilmington we visited Wrightsville Beach, here there were very clean waves around 2ft tall which was great fun. I was probably in for around 5 hours, I loved it. I have never surfed in a place where the water was soo clear! A beautiful day!”

And it’s not just surfing that is of interest to sports fans in Wilmington, with big dunking household basketball names a main attraction too.

“Our last day in Wilmington we visited the Cape Fear museum which outlined the History of the area, I found this very interesting. Michael Jordan (World Famous Basketball Player) in fact has his very own section in the museum as he had grown up in the area.”

Go and read the full post over here.

If everybody had an ocean, across the USA – then everyone would be following new STA explorer Alexander’s lead and surfin’ USA. The rugby playing, committee member of Leicester Surf Club has taken the shores of America and plans to travel to Chicago, Washington DC, the Outer-banks, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida – all with his surfboard in hand and dreams of waves galore.

…The red flags were up at Croatan beach too…

“Croatan beach is a great place to surf although it is very unpredictable, at some points the surf is completely flat although at other times there is a set of 3 waves ranging at about 2-3ft which are perfectly surf-able, however you really do have to figure out where they are going to break.”

Keep an eye on Alexander’s blog, and notably his selection of photos too – take a look at this one of some fairly epic surf.

A new STA Travelbuzz Explorer has toppled over the horizon and landed in our travelling lap! AJ is a 20-year-old geography student committed to surfing and will be cruising around the USA with his board strapped to the roof.

“I plan to travel to Chicago, Washington DC, the Outer-banks, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. I plan to buy myself a surfboard and take that with me on my road trip as I can surf the whole way down the coast.”

As a keen photographer we can expect glorious images, hopefully of AJ hanging ten and road trippin’ like an American dream. You can see his portfolio here and I think you’ll agree that we can expect the majestic. As for text updates, his previous travel blog Gap Year ’08 will be reborn and filled with new adventure.

AJ, we christen you STA Explorer Surfin’ USA - welcome aboard the STA Travelbuzz covered wagon!