Barry, for surfing you're probably going to want to head on down
to Santa Cruz. There's also a 'beach boardwalk' there with
associated amusement park. Keep an eye upon your daughter :-)

There are some other places to surf in between, but in Santa
Cruz you'll be able to rent gear, and it's a real 'center'
anyway. In between surfing you can really enjoy the place.
Well worth renting a room and staying the night.

Did I say 'keep an eye upon your daughter?'

If you've some time, and you're going to Santa Cruz,
you'd probably enjoy heading down to Monterey to inspect
the waterfront there, and the aquarium, which is one of the
best in the world. It's located on Cannery Row, made famous
by the Steinbeck novels.

It makes a nice loop, actually. Go across the San Mateo
bridge, then straight over to the coast, down to Santa Cruz.
Stop, surf, eat,stay. Then down the coast to Monterey, to the
aquarium and 17-mile drive, look in on Carmel (tell Eastwood
hello). Then back over to 101 via Watsonville and Salinas
(taking in the northern part of the Salinas valley en route)
up the 101, through San Jose, and back onto 880 up the
East Bay to get you back to Oakland.