Berria Surfcamp has been running since 1998 and has always focused on minors. The staff know that parents are sending kids on their own, so the setup is built around supervision: monitors sleep in the same building as the campers, there is a set of house rules every camper has to follow, and kids are with an instructor or monitor at every point of the day, from the surf lessons to the free-time activities.

A typical day starts with breakfast in the dining hall, then the first two-hour surf session on Berria beach. Groups are split by age and level, so a nervous 11-year-old beginner isn't paddling out next to a 17-year-old who already rides green waves. Beginners learn safety, surf etiquette and how to stand up and read the whitewater; improvers and advanced surfers work on turns and manoeuvres, with instructors commenting on each wave and correcting technique. Lunch is back at the camp, followed by the afternoon activities and a second two-hour surf session.

Outside the water there's plenty going on. Campers watch video analysis of their morning surf, attend a meteorology workshop on how waves, currents, swell and wind work, and do stretching, yoga, Pilates-ball and Indoboard balance exercises aimed specifically at surfing. There's a skate circuit close to the beach and longboard skateboards for free use, plus SUP, tandem surfing, beach volleyball tournaments, beach soccer, a bowls championship and ping-pong rivalries between students and monitors. Capoeira also comes up in the activity mix.

The gear is a real advantage. The school has more than 150 surfboards in every size, including epoxy boards, softboards, bodyboards and SUP boards, plus O'Neill wetsuits for summer, spring and winter conditions. Campers can switch between boards during the week, which means by the end they have a pretty good idea of what board they'd want to buy.

Each camp includes a talk from a visiting pro surfer. Rob Machado, Kepa Acero and Manu Portet have all come through in past years. There's also a visit to the Full & Cas surfboard factory, where shaper Hugo Lopez shows how a board is shaped by hand. Optional extras include ziplining at the forest park near Santander (10 EUR) and paid Spanish or English language courses, taught by a certified teacher who works year-round at a private school in London.

Berria itself is a long, open beach with more than 2km of sand, set inside a nature reserve. Because it faces open sea, it picks up swell when most of the Spanish north coast is flat, which is why it hosts a lot of surf competitions. The waves are long and fairly forgiving, so there's room to practise on every wave. The fishing town of Santoña is a short walk away, and Santander is 53km down the coast.

What's included

- 5 or 7 nights' accommodation in triple or quadruple rooms, split by gender and age - Full board: breakfast, lunch and dinner - Daily surf course: 2 sessions of 2 hours per day - Wetsuit and surfboard during lessons - Max 6 students per instructor - Video analysis of surf sessions - Meteorology workshop - Stretching and warm-up sessions - Yoga, Pilates-ball and balance-board sessions - Skate and longboard skate sessions - Beach volleyball, beach soccer, bowls and ping-pong - Environmental walks in the Santoña nature reserve - English classes as part of the activity programme - Talk from a visiting pro surfer - Surf video screenings - Progression plan and custom training - 24-hour supervision by monitors - TV and Wi-Fi - Insurance

What's not included

- Flights or travel to Spain - Airport transfers (30 EUR each way from Bilbao, 25 EUR each way from Santander) - Structured Spanish or English language course (100–140 EUR) - Zipline at the forest park near Santander (10 EUR) - Extra nights (90 EUR per night) - Pocket money for snacks and drinks