Surf Camp Showers: What to Expect and What to Bring

Expect a shared bathroom, water that is cold or solar heated, a shower that is often outdoors, almost never a shelf to put anything on, and a queue about ten minutes after the afternoon session ends. That is the honest version. It is not bad, it is just not a hotel, and once you know what you are walking into it stops being annoying.

Nobody writes about this honestly, so everybody turns up guessing. Here is what surf camp bathrooms are really like, how to time your shower so you get warm water, and the short list worth packing.

• 1. What the showers are actually like
• 2. Will there be hot water?
• 3. What should I bring?
• 4. How do I handle a shared bathroom?
• 5. How do I deal with the sand?
• 6. What if the water is on a timer or runs out?
• 7. Summary
• 8. Frequently asked questions

What the showers are actually like

Most surf camps are converted houses, villas or small guesthouses, not purpose built hotels. The bathrooms were designed for a family and now serve twelve people who all get out of the water at the same time. Everything else follows from that. What comes up again and again, almost anywhere:

• It is shared. Usually between two and eight people, sometimes the whole floor.
• It is often outdoors. A rinse area near the board racks, open to the sky, tiled or concrete.
• There is no shelf. Or there is one narrow ledge already holding six other people's bottles.
• The floor is permanently wet. And usually gritty.
• There is a queue. Right after the afternoon session, predictably.

Camps differ a lot, and the type you book changes what you pack.

Camp type	Typical shower setup	What to pack for it
Budget hostel style	Shared block, cold or lukewarm, curtain not a door, no shelf, busy at peak	Flip flops, a bar rather than bottles, a small hanging pouch, quick dry towel
Mid-range surf camp	Two or three bathrooms for the house, solar heated tank, outdoor rinse area	Same, plus a hook or carabiner to hang your wash kit
Villa or resort	Ensuite or close to it, gas heated, indoor, usually a shelf	Less to think about, but a bar still beats bottles in a wet bag
Remote or off-grid	Bucket, gravity tank or rationed water, often outdoors with a soakaway	Head torch, a bar, and lathering only where the water drains

The most useful thing to know is which of those four you booked. The listing rarely says, so ask the camp. They will tell you.

Will there be hot water?

Sometimes, and timing matters more than plumbing. Most camps outside the cheapest end heat water somehow. The question is whether any is left when you get to it. Three setups are common, and they behave differently.

Solar heated tanks. Very common in Morocco, Portugal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. A roof tank warms through the day and holds a fixed amount. It is lovely at four in the afternoon and empty by half past five once six people have been through, then needs hours of sun to recover, so early mornings are often cold too. The rule: go early in the queue or late in the evening, but do not be fifth in line after the afternoon session.

Gas heaters. An on-demand unit that heats water as it flows. Usually reliable, but fussy about flow rate, so if it runs cold try turning the tap down rather than up. Plenty of people have shivered under a shower that would have been hot at half the flow.

Electric instant heaters. The small wall unit above the shower head, common in Southeast Asia and Central America. Warm rather than hot, and it needs switching on a minute before you get in.

Plenty of warm places simply have one temperature, whatever the tank is. In summer that is fine. If you are peeling off a 4/3 in February, ask before you book.

What should I bring?

Short list, because you are carrying it down a corridor in a towel.

Item	Why it earns its place
Solid 3-in-1 bar	Hair, body and face in one, nothing to leak in a bag of wet kit
Flip flops	Shared wet floors, every time, no exceptions
Microfibre towel	Dries fast in humid air, packs to nothing
Small hanging wash bag	Solves the no-shelf problem better than anything else
Wide tooth comb	Salty wet hair tangles and a brush breaks it
Head torch	Only for off-grid camps, essential there

The shelf problem is the one people underestimate. With no shelf, a bottle sits on a wet sandy floor, gets knocked over, and is half full of grit by day three. A bar lives in a small tin or draining pouch on the door hook and leaves with you. One item instead of three, and nothing counting against the liquid limit at the airport.

Most people get somewhere between 30 and 60 washes, depending on use and storage. Leaving a bar in a puddle is what kills it, so keep it somewhere it drains and dries. More in how to store a soap bar, and the full kit list is in the surf trip packing list.

How do I handle a shared bathroom?

Be quick at peak, slow when it is empty, and rinse your feet before you go in. That is most of the etiquette. A few more things that make you easy to share with:

• Rinse your feet at the outside tap first. Sand walked in stays there all week.
• Keep it short when there is a queue. Five minutes at half past five, as long as you like at nine.
• Take your stuff out with you. The ledge is not storage, and it ends up in the puddle anyway.
• Hang your wetsuit on the line. Not in the shower.
• Do not shave over the drain. Hair plus sand blocks it, and then nobody showers.

How do I deal with the sand?

You do not beat the sand, you just keep moving it one direction: away from the bathroom. It gets into wetsuit zips, hair, board bag seams and your soap if you put it down. The habits that help:

• Rinse at the outdoor tap first. Feet, legs, board shorts, wetsuit.
• Rinse your hair with fresh water right there. Getting salt off promptly does most of the work anyway, as covered in saltwater, chlorine and sun.
• Shake the towel outside. Not over the bed.
• Never put a bar down on sand. It picks up grit and turns into a scouring pad. In a tin or pouch it stays clean.

One thing to separate out: rinsing salt and sand off with fresh water at an outdoor tap is fine. Lathering up there is not, unless it drains into the camp's system.

What if the water is on a timer or runs out?

Wet down, turn the water off, lather, turn it back on, rinse. Two short bursts instead of one long stream. It is the standard approach on boats and at remote camps, and it works whether the limit is a timer, a gravity tank or water delivered by truck.

A bar suits this better than bottles: you lather once in your hands and do hair, body and face in a single pass instead of reaching for three things with the water running.

At remote or off-grid camps, be deliberate about where the soapy water ends up. Lather belongs in a shower or sink that drains into the camp's greywater system or soakaway. Do not lather in the sea, a river or a lake, or on sand or open ground, and not at a beach tap or beach shower that simply runs onto the ground. Rinsing salt off with fresh water at those is fine. The soap waits for a proper drain. With no drain at all, the pouring method in how to wash your hair without a shower does it over a basin instead.

Plenty of places in Morocco and Indonesia are genuinely tight on water in the dry season, and a camp will tell you if you ask. Spots like Taghazout and Canggu have camps at every point on the scale.

Summary

Surf camp showers are shared, often outdoors, frequently cold or solar heated, and busiest right after the afternoon session. None of that is a problem once you plan for it. Ask the camp which setup they have. Shower early or late if the water is solar heated. Rinse your feet at the outside tap. Bring flip flops, a quick dry towel and something to hang your kit on, because there will not be a shelf. Carry one solid bar instead of three bottles. And wherever you are, save the lather for somewhere that drains.

Still putting the trip together? The surf trip packing list covers the rest, and the best surf destinations in the world is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions