I have a friend that plays as Vega and I can't beat him at all. Every time I beat him one round he automatically finds a way to counter what ever I was doing. The closest I've gotten to beating him is charging, but that never works. So, does any one have any tips on how to beat Vega. My best characters are E. Honda and Gouken.  

If you use Gouken you shouldn't have any issues beating Vega at all. Mix up fireballs and jump back a lot. If Vega does that cartwheel thing, dash forward and palm strike or throw. Any time Vega does one of the wall leap attacks, high counter it.

And when you knock him down, do not let up! Vega does not have a good wake up game at all.

Repeated jump ins and lvl2 focus on knockdown.

" And when you knock him down, do not let up! Vega does not have a good wake up game at all. "

Bait backflips on wakeup and punish them hard every time. With Honda, take away his wall dives with neutral jump fierce, which will stuff it every time and hurts like a motherfucker. Don't be afraid to do nothing but block for a long time while you wait for him to do something you know for sure you can hit; frustrate him into jumping in, wall diving, or something else unsafe, and then nail him. When he's right next to you poking you with those long-range crouching normals, try EX headbutt to hit them; Vega's crouch jabs are 1-frame links, and his crouch strong can only combo into specials, not more pokes. EX headbutt will smack him if his links aren't perfect or if he gets greedy. Once you get a knockdown, Vega's reversal options both with and without meter are pretty awful, so pour it on with stuff like jump fierce, low forward xx fierce headbutt, or cross him up with forward into low forward xx EX buttslam. If he blocks your jump-in, threaten with low jab ticked into oicho throw. Once he's afraid on wakeup, he'll start backflipping... and if he does the wrong one when you're expecting it, you can mess him up pretty badly with headbutts and even ultra.

Punch him in the face, face punching works with almost everything in life and video games.

Pick a normal shoto, use down-fierce to antiair walldives, and cross him up all day in a corner. Simple.

I suck at it, but my strategy has been to use a shoto character. Try to maintain space with projectiles, and catch Vega with a shoryuken if he jumps in. 
 
It works for the most part, I just suck at pulling off moves consistently.

I fought this insane Vega a couple hours ago. He was like "ima jump off this wall and hit you bitch" and Ken Masters was like "fuck that you long hair douche, I got fire comin out of my fists!" And then he was like pew pew backflip and I was like SHORYUKEN!!!!! and then I won. True story.

" I suck at it, but my strategy has been to use a shoto character. Try to maintain space with projectiles, and catch Vega with a shoryuken if he jumps in.  It works for the most part, I just suck at pulling off moves consistently. "

Vega is really nerfed in street fighter 4 . Isn't he really low tier also ? I remember him being one of the best characters in street fighter 2 hyper fighting . Be guile and turtle when he jumps you know what to do ;)

"Vega is really nerfed in street fighter 4 . Isn't he really low tier also ? I remember him being one of the best characters in street fighter 2 hyper fighting . Be guile and turtle when he jumps you know what to do ;) "

Vega would be a lot better if he didn't waste all his time prancing around and yodeling. 

I've tried to play as him, but he seemed really slow.  I basically just cannon spike him whenever he goes for a wall dive, and throw in a hooligan combo throw every now and again to piss the player off.

As a Vega player, here's the odds I'll do something out of a crouching position. 6 times out of 10, I'll do the rolling attack. 4 times out of 10, I'm going to do something aerial. 4 times out of 10, that aerial move is going to be the quick across screen human missile. 6 times out of 10, that aerial move is going to be the jump with arms outstretched. At least half the time I do that arms outstretched move, I'm going to throw instead of hold out my arms. I'm also going to backflip EVERY time I see you throw a projectile or a shoyruken if I have the chance. I will most likely not bother using my Ultra, so don't worry about that. The super is more likely, but still pretty uncommon. I'm mostly relying on mixing up what I do out of a crouch to keep you off balance, with a few low claw swipes if you block. I THROW A LOT. You block that roll? I throw. You block my torpedo? I backflip, air flip over you, and throw. I hope this helps you guys against Vega players. He's a hard person to play as, but countering him can be easy if you can figure out the players tactics quickly. And chances are, they'll be playing like I am.