5 Off-The-Grid Surf Escapes To Chase In May

We love May. It's a brilliant month to be a surfer in most parts of the world. In the top half of the globe, swells are still coming in before entering the summer slow down.

In the southern hemisphere, it's the opposite. Storms are starting to spin up, waking up the bottom of the world like J-Bay, Margaret River, the Gold Coast, Tahiti, Fiji, Chile, Indonesia – and even some south swells out of the South Pacific can make their way up to Central America, then beyond to Hawaii, if we're lucky.

And that's all fine – the world-class spots all have their cakes and eat it. But what about the more subtle, under-the-radar spots across the globe? How are they looking during May? Here's a few away from prying eyes that might appeal to the more surf astute.

Denmark: Cold Hawaii

The North Sea is a fickle one. It can be fed by powerful storms that drive over the top of Scotland, feed down the backbone of the UK and fan out. There's also this much rarer occurrence of swells heading up the English Channel and unloading on the likes of Denmark. But, for the most part, it's the localised storms that surfers are looking at during the month of May.

Klitmoller, on the west coast of Denmark has been dubbed as 'Cold Hawaii', not because you'll find any North Shore equivalent waves here, but because it's the hub of surf culture in the country. If you look at the joint on a map, you can see the beach actually faces towards the north, meaning swells can wrap into a somewhat sheltered bay, especially if there's a westerly on the cards.

Although mostly known as a kitesurf spot, Klitmoller can be great, on its day. Like most surf zones fed by the North Sea, you need a lot of patience for the good days. May's right at the end of the swell season, but you can still find waves along the coastline, if the North Sea is up to it.