Every time I hear people talk about how they didn’t like Jamaica because it’s too touristy, or that they were bored on their holiday, it blows my mind. I personally couldn’t imagine going to one of the prettiest places on earth to just sit in an all inclusive resort all day and not see what the island has to offer. This vacation was probably our favorite ever. We didn’t pick up the guide book. We didn’t call the tour company. We asked locals where to go and what to do. We did it cheaply and we were all by ourselves for most of the trip. We scored incredible waves all alone and we met some really cool locals.
To prepare for our trip, we watched the first James Bond film, Dr. No and looked up surfboard rentals in Bull Bay where the best waves are, near Kingston. It was a long drive from Runaway Bay, but there is so much awesomeness in Ocho Rios, that it was worth the drive. The board rentals at Jamnesia were only about $20/day and they had good boards. A few miles away, there is a really good break in the middle of an isolated strand of beach. I don’t know how this break is normally, but it was unreal when we were there and we heard it’s never crowded. The first day, I surfed there all by myself. There were no people in sight. The wave was right were James Bond logged his first kill when the fake chaueffer picked him up from the airport. That made the break even cooler to me, as a Bond fan! It was 6-8 foot a-frames breaking on a reef. The right was punchy and the left was long and rippable. I caught about 35 waves and Chelsea got to hang out on a beautiful beach all by herself. The only problem was the entry/exit. There are urchins everywhere and I hit them coming in. After I surfed all morning, Chelsea surfed at Bob Marley Beach. When we parked, a couple of local Jamaicans took their beat up boards and stripped down to their underwear and joined her in the water. These kids had no board shorts and their boards were missing the noses and some of the fins. They had the biggest smiles and told Chelsea were to paddle out and where the reef got sharp and which parts to avoid. It was a cool experience surfing and sharing the stoke with local kids. After the session, we went to an isolated waterfall, Cane River Falls that is a local hangout where Bob Marley used to wash his dreadlocks. No tourists in sight, just Jamaicans. We had the boards longer than we were supposed to, but the owners had been smoking weed for a few hours and were too blazed to even care. We came down later that week and surfed again all by ourselves. It was just as good. 5-6 and offshore all day. These may have been the most memorable surf sessions in my life. I surfed a quality point break all by myself with a backdrop of an isolated beach and the open Caribbean Sea. We didn’t see anyone walking on the beach, swimming in the water, or even driving on the Palisadoes.
We then hiked into Laughing Waters, which is a beach owned by the government. It is an isolated beach on the North Shore and it is where the classic scene was filmed where Ursula Andress emerges from the water in Dr. No. There are two pristine waterfalls gushing from the forest into the ocean. Once again, no people, just nature. We stayed there for an hour or two and then went back to hang out with the kids.
Jamaica is a tourist mecca. Negril, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay are full of all inclusive resorts, full of tourists that seemingly rarely leave the resort. We went to Jamaica very briefly in July 2015 because tickets were insanely cheap. We did the tourist attractions, because the tourist attractions in Ocho Rios are really, really awesome! We went back with a newborn and a toddler and we set out to go for a more of an off the beaten path, local style Jamaica. We stayed in the same place, Runaway Bay’s Franklyn D. Resort. They gave us a huge returning customer discount and they have a great location and nanny service. Wether you’re going to Jamaica to surf or just enjoy the beaches, make sure you step away from the resorts for a bit and enjoy the real Jamaica!
