Surfing

Catch swells at Leonida's handful of decent surf breaks — modest on most days, legendary during hurricane swells, always a good excuse to skip work.

Surfing in Leonida is an exercise in managing expectations — most days, the waves are two-foot closeouts that locals ride anyway because the alternative is going to work. But hurricane season is another conversation entirely: when the big swells roll in from a storm a hundred miles offshore, the Vice Beach north jetty and the Mariana barrier island breaks produce waves that people travel for. The surf mechanics cover paddling, take-off, bottom turn, and trick execution, with scoring based on wave size, ride length, and maneuver completion. Local surf shops will sponsor you after enough contest wins, and the hurricane-session community is its own tight-knit tribe of weather-obsessed weirdos who measure the year by swell charts.