The Inertia Holiday Gift Guide 2025: Surf

It’s that time of year again, time to break out the booties. Photo: The Inertia.

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Winter is here, and the surf’s already hitting in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter surfing does mean cold water, but it also means storms out in the ocean, and those storms make waves. Whether you’re chasing North Pacific swells along the west coast or frigid East Coast tubes kicked up by a Nor’easter, you probably already know how important it is to be well-equipped for winter. Or maybe you have no idea what I’m talking about, and simply arrived here in search of a gift for the surfer or waterperson in your life.

In either case, you’ve come to the right place. Here at The Inertia, we spend a lot of time in the water, both testing gear and just getting out and doing what we love. Here, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite pieces of surf gear that’re sure to get any surfer stoked.

Editor’s Note: For more ideas, check out our holiday gift guides for Snow and Outdoors, as well as our extensive collection of Gear Guides and Reviews.

Costa Del Mar Street Heat

Active performance features? Check. Versatile style fit for the streets, trails, ocean, slopes, or wherever else you may roam? Absolutely. Costa’s new Street Heat sunglasses check all of our boxes when we’re looking for a pair of versatile sunglasses that both look good and perform at the highest level.

With inspiration taken from Costa’s popular Grand Catalina frame, albeit in a narrower design, the Street Heat is ready for action. The narrower frames make these a great gift for those who struggle with oversized sunglasses, as well as the groms. Design elements include polarized 580 lenses, micro side shields for extra coverage and protection from the elements, and retainer-ready temple tips, so you can add one of Costa’s sunglass retainers to keep ’em secure on your adventures.

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Dryrobe^® Advance Weatherproof Changing Robe

Don’t let the weather stop you from catching the best wave of your life. The weatherproof Dryrobe^® Advance features a waterproof, windproof exterior that protects you from the coldest conditions. Paired with a warm, fuzzy fleece lining, this robe delivers you protection and comfort after a chilly day out on the water.

Not only does it provide you with lasting warmth, but it is also made from 100% recycled fabrics, helping to protect the environment. The robe is scientifically proven to increase core temperature and aid recovery, so whether it’s the surfer or triathlete in your life, the Dryrobe^® Advance Change Poncho is your best vehicle to enjoy every adventure colder weather has to offer. 

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Patagonia Regulator Wetsuits

Eco-friendly wetsuits have hit their stride in the past couple of years. Natural rubber has finally caught up with neoprene in terms of stretch and flexibility, meaning you can have a wetsuit that’s eco-friendly without compromising performance. And when it comes to ec0-friendliness in wetsuits, you don’t get any better than Patagonia’s Regulator Wetsuits.

Not only has the brand pioneered the use of natural rubber in wetsuit manufacturing, but it also offers one of the best and most comprehensive wetsuit warranty and repair programs on the planet, aimed at keeping your wetsuit in the water for as long as possible, helping both your wallet and the environment. However, a nice repair program doesn’t mean squat if the suits aren’t up to snuff, and thankfully, Patagonia’s wetsuits have proven that they’re on par with the best of the best when it comes to stretch and performance.

See how it stacks up to the competition in our Best Wetsuits and Best Women’s Wetsuits reviews.

Xcel Drylock Split Toe Wetsuit Booties

Cold feet don’t have to be a part of winter surfing. With the right wetsuit booties, you can surf all year round without sacrificing on warmth, grip, or boardfeel. We’ve tested a lot of different wetsuit booties here at The Inertia, and a pair we consistently keep coming back to are the Xcel Drylock Split Toe surf booties. Warm, grippy, and durable, they’ve got just about everything you could ask for in a surf boot and more.

Highlight features include a connected split toe, a gusseted cuff, and an arch strap to keep everything locked in place. If the surfer in your life has been complaining about cold feet as the water temperature drops, or their pair of booties from a couple of seasons ago has started to break down, this could be the gift they didn’t know they needed, but won’t be able to surf without once they’ve tried ’em.

See more options in our Best Wetsuit Booties review.

Caught Inside by Daniel Duane

Does your surfer love Barbarian Days by William Finnegan?  Then they’ll love Caught Inside. Set in Santa Cruz over the course of a year, Daniel Duane surfs with local legends, explores (and surfs) the surrounding coastline, talks about waves in a unique way that we’ve never read before, or since, and gets caught inside a few times.

Oh, and if the surfer in your life has yet to read Barbarian Days, we also highly, highly recommend that one. An instant classic and Pulitzer Prize winner, this is a book about surfing that’s deeply insightful and a joy to read for surfers and landlubbers alike.

For other great suggestions, check out our guide to the Best Surf Books. And for kids’ options, click here.

Florence Marine X Cordura Airtex Boardshorts

Florence Marine X makes some of the best board shorts that we’ve tested to date. High-performing, comfortable, and functional, there’s a style for everyone, from the hardcore surfer who needs a lockdown waistband for heavy waves to the dad hanging on the beach, whose only concern is pockets and how many things he can fit inside of them.

For the surfers among us, we recommend the FMX Cordura Airtex Boardshorts. With stretchy Airtex side-panels and super-durable Cordura material on the front and rear, these boardies nail the perfect ratio between high-performance and long-lasting durability. A side zip pocket is both secure to keep a car key safe while surfing, and big enough to fit a large smartphone. They’re our Best Overall board shorts for a reason.

For more options, including casual styles, check out our guide to The Best Board Shorts.

Boardworks Froth! Foam Surfboard

Foam surfboards have a lot of variation these days. From the classic wavestorm to “soft-top epoxy” boards geared towards performance, there’s more to choose from these days than ever before.

Recently, a foam surfboard that we’ve been loving is the Boardworks Froth! line of boards. They’re fully foam, rather than being a soft top epoxy (a much better choice for complete beginners, see our Buyer’s Guide here to learn about the differences), but have a surprising amount of rigidity and plenty of volume. This is a board that can be enjoyed by surfers of any ability.

Even the most experienced surfer can benefit from having a foamie in their quiver for the small and crumbly days they might otherwise turn their nose up at, and this one will provide just the right balance between ease-of-use and performance to put a smile on their face regardless of the conditions. Best of all? These boards are very well priced, and while they’re in and out of stock on Amazon, they can be found online for about $350.

For more options, check out our guide to The Best Soft Top Surfboards.

Finisterre Barents Sweater

Need to get toasty in a hurry after your winter surf sesh? Warm up with the Finisterre Barents Sweater. This sustainably-made sweater is crafted with cozy wool and recycled polyamide. It’s machine-washable and long-lasting, and we love donning the Barents to scope out the morning swell.

Best of all, Finisterre doesn’t slack on style, and the Barents Sweater looks great wherever you’re rocking it. There’s plenty of colors to choose from, but we’re fans of the classic black and have found it to be as versatile as it is comfortable.

Rip Curl Search GPS 3

The Rip Curl Seach GPS 3 has been a long-awaited release, and when it finally landed this summer, it proved to be a mighty contender in the surf watch space. With a slim, low-profile design, the watch is comfortable for all-day wear, and has a battery that lasts multiple days without recharging.

All the tide tracking information you could want is built into the watch itself, and easy wave-tracking syncs up with Surfline Sessions to log your surfs and pull clips of your waves from local surf cams. And for all of the stats-nerds out there, Surfline recently announced a partnership with Strava that lets you export Sessions data to Strava, and vice-versa. If you’re looking for the ultimate surf-specific activity watch, this one’s a winner.

We’ve also outlined all the top surf watch options on the market in our review of The Best Surf Watches.

Blocksurf Surf Jug

The Inertia’s Managing Gear Editor still remembers the day his mother got him a surf jug for Christmas. What was initially confusion, both on her part and mine (“Idk the guys at the surf shop say everyone loves them, you can return it…”), quickly turned into an addiction to hot water and a strange piece of reverse psychology.

You see, as long as you fill up the jug before you go surfing, you’re almost guaranteed to get in the water because, no matter how bad the waves look, you’ll at least have a jug of hot water to look forward to pouring down your wetsuit afterwards for the blissful experience of full-body warmth. These might be the biggest upgrade your giftee’s surf could get.

For more options to rinse off and warm up after a session, check out our guide to The Best Surf Showers.

Teva ReEmber Camp Slip On

Winter surfing and cold toes go together like duck dives and ice cream headaches. But with some decent insulation waiting for you back on shore, that feeling doesn’t have to last long. This year, we’ve tested a lot of different outdoor slippers to find the best of the best for post-surf warmth, and we keep coming back to the Teva ReEmber collection. With warm, quilted insulation, a rugged design, and best of all, no fuzzy insulation inside to trap sand, these slippers are a surfer’s dream.

New to the collection this fall is the ReEmber Camp Slip On, which takes the already rugged design of the ReEmber Slip On and turns things up a notch. With an outsole that rivals some hiking shoes, an arch strap, and a fold-down heel for convenience, the ReEmber Camp blurs the line between shoe and slipper in a way that we are supremely stoked on, and think you, or the surfer in your life, will be too. One quick caveat – be sure to size up, likely a full size bigger than your normal shoe size.

For more options, check out our guide to The Best Camp Slippers.

Aventon Abound SR

What good are the treats of winter surfing if you can’t get there? As lineups get more crowded, and parking spots near your local surf spot become a red-hot commodity (“hey bro, you leaving anytime soon?”), finding alternate ways to get to the waves becomes mission-critical, unless you want to spend the majority of your “surf session” looking for parking.

That’s where the electric bike comes in. We have found short-tail cargo/utility ebikes to be the best style of ebike for surfers, with plenty of attachment points for a surfboard rack and other essentials, and maybe even room enough for a passenger. And king among those is the Aventon Abound SR. The bike has a massive payload capacity of 440 lbs, and plenty of speed and range to get you where you need to go in the blink of an eye. But where it really punches above its price tag is with the added security features. A 4G connection allows you to track the bike anywhere, and a nifty locking kickstand means that at more “remote” surf breaks like Trestles, you don’t even need to carry a bike lock.

For more options, check out our suite of ebike reviews.

Herschel Supply Co. Surfboard Sleeve

Herschel Supply Co. is a name you’ve probably heard when it comes to bags and backpacks, being known for its simple, functional retro style and quality design. There’s always been some surf-style influence, but just this year, the brand released its first line of surfboard bags, and they’re the real deal.

Plenty of padding, grab handles galore, and a clean, durable design just begin to describe how awesome these surfboard bags are. If the surfer in your life owns a midlength, twin fin, log, or is otherwise a part of the “retro revolution” in surfing, their prized surfboard has just been begging to be stored in one of these bags.

Check out our full review of The Best Surfboard Bags, and stay tuned for an update there soon to see how the Herschel surf sleeve stacks up to the competition.

Editor’s Note: Thanks for reading! For more great gift ideas, check out our Holiday Gift Guide: Outdoors and our Holiday Gift Guide: Snow. For more gear reviews and features on The Inertia, click here.