So I'm learning to surf

[Ottime]

Sounds like you got it. Such a buzz. Your at a fun point, where every day is pretty amazing. Keep the stoke and it will always be fun to get in the water.

[icelanticskier]

shit, 25+ years in and the fun point keeps gettin more funerer. even in subpar.

rock on girl!!!

rog

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Riding a ten foot soft top steadily now, no more 11ft, and switching around with a variety of regular fiberglass shorter boards. I can feel how shorter boards need more speed/energy/bigger wave and I'm learning where I belong on any random board. I've actually had some really exciting rides, swell high as my waist. It's getting back out through the break that shuts me down, wears me out. But I get stronger every day. Yesterday I had bigger wave closing out on me but I was so determined for the ride that I've got a death grip on the rails and I'm just trying to see through this wall of water to stay level with the horizon. Spit me out and I was up! Wave petered out immediately though. Maybe on of these days I'll get good enough to be on the point where the wave is just curling over. One time I was there by sheer accident yesterday, so excited, but I screwed up the angle of the nose and dived. Bummer.

I'm just barely starting to develop some eyes in the back of my head, trying to see what's going on behind me while I'm still paddling land trying to stay in the right direction and not run over any children.

Still can't turn at will. So frustrating. I have some pics riding the inside and it looks like I've always got all my weight on my front foot. Maybe it's a skiing thing. But people are telling me I need to use my back foot. Is it like a skateboard when you flip the front up and swivel it on the back wheels alone?

It feels really good that everyone here knows me as a surfer now, even if I'm sooooooo bad. It's a supportive bunch at the Lahaina breakwall. Got a popup at least.

One good thing, I ain't skeered of the speed when I get really surged at the beginning of a good wave. Like hooking into the rubber band on a flight deck or something. So exciting and fun. So I love the speed and energy. Excited to ride as big as I can manage someday.

That has me stoked! Woohoo, go get it...

[shera]

Thanks guys. I'm stoked too, so stoked. I've been at the same break all summer and feel a true intimacy with it. If I'm not surfing, I'm watching. Learning something new every single day.

I've been riding 9 foot boards and it's definitely a sweet spot. I can turn the rockered ones!!! But they're tricky to pop up on and I like the faster feeling of a flatter board better.

A really cool thing is that my perspective is changing from the two dimensional flat water in front of me to the 3d world that the wave exists in. Paddling for waves yesterday I was able to watch and keep track of what was happening behind and alongside me better than ever before. It's like my eyes are opening up somehow.

I'm leaving Maui in just a few days. Will probably surf in San Diego before I head for the mountains. Hope it's a good time since I'll be living there next summer. I wonder how much I need to learn all over again after a winter away from the beach.

[Ottime]

I was 13 at the time, but when I learned, I got to surf just during the summer and a few weekends in fall. No surf at all from October until June. May if I was lucky. Anyway, did not seem to lose too much over the winter. A day or two to get your center back. A week plus to regain your arms.

[shera]

Yeah, the arm strength is my biggest issue. Took me months to get strong and I don't want that to hold me back again. I gotta figure out what to do this winter besides pushups.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Get a Swiss ball/ physio ball, lay down on it on your stomach (toes touching the ground) and either work a pulley system (fancy) or strips of bicycle innertube (strips) back and forth (ghetto) to mimick paddling... or at least, that's what I was thinking.

[Camilo]

Yeah, the arm strength is my biggest issue. Took me months to get strong and I don't want that to hold me back again. I gotta figure out what to do this winter besides pushups.

If you don't have access to a pool, find a Chuck Norris total gym 1000 on craigslist.

[shera]

Thanks for all the feedback and support. I'm back on the mainland, in San Diego, and missing my Maui break. I was finally surfing 9' boards every time. I think I found my first dream board, from New Surf Project. Got one sweet ride and felt a harmony with the board and the wave that I never experienced before.

Hope to get out here in San Diego at least one time before I head for the hills.

I love surfing. That is all.

[shera]

A little beginner stoke for ya

[Ottime]

fuck yeah. full size that.


That one right behind you that no one wants looks like it was nice. I know a single snap shot tells nothing, but that set up looks like Toe's Over in Capitola. I was just down there with my son the other day for his first time on a board. 3 minutes of paddling, and then an hour playing in the shore break. Have a good winter, and now you have something to look forward to in summer.

[shera]

That one right behind you that no one wants looks like it was nice. I know a single snap shot tells nothing, but that set up looks like Toe's Over in Capitola. I was just down there with my son the other day for his first time on a board. 3 minutes of paddling, and then an hour playing in the shore break. Have a good winter, and now you have something to look forward to in summer.

Yeah, that particular wave you see coming up can go left or right, but the right is so infrequent. It's really a super fast breaking left in front of the wall most of the time. I was surfing outside exclusively for the last month or more but it was tricky for a noob. Looks like everyone is further out waiting for something bigger to come along.

I'm looking forward to next summer already.

Are you putting your boy in a wetsuit? He's just a toddler, right?

I'll attach a pic, not of me, that shows the outside wave better.

[shera]

This is more typical

[Ottime]

Yup. This is his first suit. He actually really enjoys heding down to 4 Mile, chatting up the surfers and playing in the shore break. Here he is mind surfing the inside wave.

[shera]

Aw, that is so adorable!!! You've been teaching him to swim? Did you use that one book?

[Alaskan Rover]

Commit to the pop up. No going to the knees. Have a friend check your board position as you paddle around. Either make a mental note or draw a line/ piece of tape where your nose or chin should be. There are so many things about learning to surf that need to become natural before you can really progress.

+1 on that!

A lot of people forget the importance of their beginning position on the board while beginners...they either try and stand up too far forward or too far back....either one will throw you off as you try and pop-up to a stand. Tape on the board where your nose should be works. I have a friend who painted two spots of bright red where his feet should go during the pop-up. It worked ! After he got the idea ingrained, he just took the cheap paint off with a lot of rubbing with "Goo Gone".

Having a friend watch your position on your board as you're popping up is excellent too. Even more helpful would be to have someone with a waterproof camera case take video from close range (from the side) as you are popping up, that way you can see for yourself what you're doing wrong....AND right!

Board balance during the pop-up is the single biggest factor while learning...the board seems so stable and robust when your lugging it on the beach...but once you're on the water, you find it's slippery and squirrely and wants to wig out on you with every false move. That's because you haven't got the momentum from the wave yet....once you ARE up and the momentum takes over, it becomes stable and a longboard you can ride it right to the shore! And YEAH...you'll have a tendency to try and knee board it on the wave, as it's so much easier. Start out right and try and fight that tendency.

So focus on your foot position and centering your mass as you pop-up...and get someone to video you as you pop-up.

Have fun!!

--

[Piggity]

Nice photos above, both real surfing and mind surfing are cool

[shera]

Nice photos above, both real surfing and mind surfing are cool

The little grom is beyond cool. I could teach him to rip on skis too. I've taught several 2 year olds and a couple are on race team now, killing it and loving life in the fast lane.

The nice thing about mind surfing is you don't need to fight through the break to do it.

[Piggity]

I'm the man at mind surfing, I beat every section and never fall. Too bad reality kicks in more often than not

[jipstyle]

Yeah, the arm strength is my biggest issue. Took me months to get strong and I don't want that to hold me back again. I gotta figure out what to do this winter besides pushups.

Try climbing .. paddling is the only thing that I found easy when I started surfing because my arms and back were already in decent shape from years of hauling myself up granite faces. Best yet .. it is hella fun.

[shera]

Try climbing .. paddling is the only thing that I found easy when I started surfing because my arms and back were already in decent shape from years of hauling myself up granite faces. Best yet .. it is hella fun.

Hehe, if you only knew how much climbing I've done - countless days, countless mountains. More than anything else really. But not with ropes, with my skis on my back. And it seems I'm using my legs for all of that. There's a climbing wall at the rec center and I guess I could try hauling myself up it with my arms the same way I'm swimming with only my arms to get them stronger.

I do hit the deck and bust out 15 pushups whenever it occurs to me.

I've finally made the transition to skiing and climbing my beloved Colorado mountains and it's a happy groove. The beach seems very far away right now.

[Ottime]

I live at the beach and it seems far away when the snow start falling. Scored chest deep turns yesterday, which was way better than sloppy surf. Glad to hear the transition went well.

Climbing mountains with your skis on you back? You should really get some skins. They are awesome.

[shera]

I live at the beach and it seems far away when the snow start falling. Scored chest deep turns yesterday, which was way better than sloppy surf. Glad to hear the transition went well.

Climbing mountains with your skis on you back? You should really get some skins. They are awesome.

It's snowing here. Gonna get me some in the morning.

[Ottime]

Dude, the past two days have been soooooo good, and KW is still not turning lifts for a week. Decided I needed to stay one more night and get the bluebird dawn patrol tomorrow. And if it is not bluebird, it is still gonna be tits deep Colorado powder. Got me some snow fever, and I even have a brand new surfboard at home I have yet to get in the water.

[icelanticskier]

heh^^^^^

glad i don't have tits deep snow keeping me outta the water in winter

things are about to keep me even further from skiing. my beach commute is about to go from 15+ miles to the beach (newmarket-hampton) to 1 mile to the beach (longsands). just put an offer in on a house in york. they countered, i re-countered. can't wait!!!

glad yer getting snow stoke!!!!!

rog