Surfing in Poland - A Complete Surf-Travel Guide

Hidden out behind the Jutland Peninsula in the heart of the Baltic Sea, Poland’s run of about 260 miles of coast certainly isn’t the best in Europe for surfing. But don’t discount it entirely. Many do. Then you pick up that January copy of Carve Mag and see some tea-colored tubular A-frame lipping into the dunes only to find the small print reads “Hel Peninsula, Poland”.

Mhmm…there are waves to be had here, along with a nascent crew of pretty dedicated wave chasers who’ve come more and more to the fore in recent years thanks to the awesome work of photographer Krzysztof Jędrzejak (AKA Baltic_Surf_Scapes).

Anyway, major stomping grounds are the long, thin Hel Peninsula and the beaches that run below the dunes of the Słowiński National Park. The whole lot relies entirely on windswell. The Baltic gets zero action off of the North Sea or the Atlantic because Denmark’s plonked right in the way.

That means short-period mush is the mainstay, punctuated by three or four sessions when the stars align and cleaner groundswells move south from the Gulf of Bothnia bringing the peeling lines that the locals sit tight for.

Strike missions here are for people who want to try somethign really new and do not mind risking scoring NOTHING for weeks on end. That, or for people who come to Poland for the big-name cities of Krakow and Gdansk and go for a surf becuase some swell happens to arrive while they’re around.

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This is just one part of a full guide to surfing in Europe

Surfing in Poland at a glance

The good:

Rare epic days
Empty waves
Soul-affirming cold-water surfing

The bad:

Very fickle
Very cold
Hardly any surf infrastructure (rentals, schools etc)

Where is Poland?

Seriously? Come on.

Poland is one of the largest countries in Central Europe. It borders Germany to the west, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine to the east, and Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south.

All of the surfing – and we really do mean ALL of the surfing – is done along the north coast, which is Poland’s only coast. It’s a stretch of roughly 250 miles made up of long sand spits and forest-backed beaches.

The better surf spots tend to be further east, simply because they get more exposure to the bigger parts of the Baltic but there are options the whole way along.

Where to surf in Poland?

Poland is still being mapped out by surfers and most of the key spots remain either secret or unproven, largely because they mostly rely on shifting sandbanks that can change season to season. Here, we’ll focus in on just a few spots that have emerged as the main centers for surfing in Poland and see why…

Kolobrzeg

There’s a fairly regular spot between the pier and the harbor in Kolobrzeg that churns out sloppy rights on N windswells. The reason we like this one is the relative accessibility of it all compared to the places further east and down the Hel Peninsula – you can literally drive right up to the beach to check the surf on the main E28 highway.

Łeba

The little coast town of Łeba is fronted by a beach that’s broken in two by a long concrete breakwater. That can offer some wedgy waves on blustery windswells but they are rarely clean. Track west a little and you’ll enter the incredible Słowiński National Park. It’s a place where the sandbanks get super shallow so most swell is usually totally killed by the shape of the shoreline. The occasional break in that can let stuff through and if you catch it you’ll be 100% alone there. And if you’re not we’ll eat our hat.

Władysławowo

On huge storm days in the Baltic Sea, the harbor at Władysławowo can offer up some of the longest left walls of anywhere in the country. It can be a chore to get to. You need to hop across the quays and jump right into moving water from the edge of the jetty. The takeoff is usually just underneath the green harbor marker (which looks more like a lighthouse). Direct N swells on those key winter days can wrap around and form pretty neat shoulders with hollowish potential. When it works here, there’s usually a local crew out but we daresay they’d be more amazed than annoyed to have company!

Hel Peninsula

The Hel Peninsula is probably the epicenter of surfing in Poland. Don’t let the name fool ya. It’s actually downright gorgeous, running for just shy of 22 miles from the port town of Władysławowo into the eastern Baltic Sea. The whole thing is one long bend of sandbanks backed by dunes and the occasional charming fishing town. By summer, it’s rammed with sun-baked bodies – Hel is the foremost holiday spot for domestic travelers.

No matter, winter is pretty much the only time you can hunt for waves here. And it will be a hunt because it’s mush and more mush, typically interspersed with around 10-20 days of longer-period windswell from the far north that translates into cleaner lines and nice A-frames. The main hubs are the town of Jastarnia (which is home to one of Poland’s two surf camps) and the historic village of Chałupy.

There’s no way of knowing where the best of the best bars are making the best waves, unless you know Hel like the back of your hand. A car hire or a bike rental (weather permitting) will let you scour the whole peninsula more efficiently.

When to surf in Poland?

The winter is the time to surf in Poland. The Baltic is a small sea with very little tidal difference, which means you really need storms and low-pressure systems to bring wind to make the waves.

That usually starts around November time, but can be as early as October. The season will wind up again around March. The very best days will be ones with direct N swells; the ones that can originate way up between Finland and Sweden and crank the period up from a short four seconds to something more like six or seven.

Don’t even bother coming with the board in the summer – there is no surf here between June and August and the beaches get PACKED!

The water temperature in Poland

Surfing in Poland is a tough business. The Baltic has become something of a byword for Arctic conditions, and it doesn’t disappoint. Expect sea temps around the 1 C (34 F) in the middle of the winter and windchills that can make it feel a whole load colder than that.

We remember the first time we headed Poland’s way – the air temp was a cool -25 C. Suffice to say we didn’t wear our Vans Authentics for very long. Same in the H2O, where you’ll need 5-mil+ of rubber and all the boots and hoods and gloves you’ve got.