Summer - who surfs and what level?
| Poll: Who surfs and what level? Total Votes: 40 |
|
|---|---|
| No | 5  |
| No but I want to learn | 6 |
| Yes but pretty much a beginner | 17 |
| Yes at an intermediate level | 6 |
| Yes and have done it most of my life so I’m decent at it. | 6 |
Hah it’s just tongue in cheek between Cords and I. I’d be more offended as a fellow surfer that I’m even being classified in the same group I probably need a “drowner” sub category.
Can’t speak for the “sane” comment though…...
I have been planning on dragging the board out this holidays but so far the surf/winds have been pretty bad. Also worried about how my shoulder will hold up as it’s pinching when swimming.
You guys are all too young to remember but we had a water park behind Mac Square in the 80’s - there was a giant, almost vert slide into a pool and the pool bottom was tapered like a beach. 2 people at a time would use the slide and when they hit the pool it created waves. Families would hang there like at the beach.
They had plans to build an actual wave pool but closed down before it happened.
I knew we let you creepy old guys hang around here for a reason! I’ll have to quiz my parents about this as I certainly know nothing about it.
I went with option 3.
I started a few years ago, but never really went out enough to progress at it. Started with a short board, found it too hard to learn on, so went and got a bigger board. Had a bit more luck with it, but just don’t go enough. Now I have 2 boards sitting in the shed that hardly see the light of day. 
I’ve hung onto them because I don’t want to give up on learning, but I’ve been considering selling them recently. I think I’ll try and go as much as I can over this coming summer, and see how I go. If I can progress, and enjoy it, I’ll at least hang onto my long board. If not, it might be time to sell. And buy a new snowboard. 
Lol I missed most of the 80’s due to not being born haha keen for this new waterpark coming to Syd tho! Will be smashed with families and kids but. Anywho, back on topic lol 
Thinking of getting back into a heap this summer, pulling out the old skateboard, getting my uncle to send my boogie board down from the good coast and starting up wake boarding 
keen for this new waterpark coming to Syd tho! Will be smashed with families and kids but.
I really hope it’s packed! Even this weekend just past with the warmer weather it started getting heaps busier around here. I’ll be glad if they have an alternative place to underage smoke, play their terrible doof doof music and kick their footballs into people. /rant
starting up wake boarding
We need to make this happen!
keen for this new waterpark coming to Syd tho! Will be smashed with families and kids but.
I really hope it’s packed! Even this weekend just past with the warmer weather it started getting heaps busier around here. I’ll be glad if they have an alternative place to underage smoke, play their terrible doof doof music and kick/throw their footballs.
Lol most of them might move away for a week or two but as they will more than likely have to pay to get in, they’ll venture back out to hang with you again. Who knows, you might be moving on and spending more time with us out on the boat and can avoid them? Lol
i boog and standup & usually conditions dictate which i do as im alot more comfortable on bigger waves on the esky lid. I love both styles of wave catching BUT i started in my youth on a bodyboard and have lately found myself reverting back to it more and more and having alot more fun, especially down my way where the surfing/surfers seem to take it all very seriously. Im just out the for fun, so i hoot and hollar which often gets me some strange and sometimes angry looks but i think to myself its meant to be fun, we arent out here competing in the world tour why take is soo serious.
So im not entering into or perpetuating the whole lay down or stand up argument, just stating that i love both and hope to continue to do so for many years…......but GEEEEEEBUSSSSS the water is cold down here at the moment!!
sorry nthn, it was just a tongue in cheek rib - just as DRC knew it was. I ride a standup more often than I ride a boog at the moment, as mostly (as with Mr Rad Pants) its too crap to ride the boog.
Trent I credit living in Melbourne with getting me back into snowboarding. My first year down there I rocked up to Woolamai about 5:30 one morning, the carpark was already fairly busy despite the air being about 5-6 degrees and the water a balmy 10 degrees. I remember thinking there has to be more to life in Victoria than freezing your tits off trying to surf through winter. Turns out there is so I gave up surfing through winter pretty much and went to Buller most weekends. Back in Sydney it’s not that dire so usually surf through winter, this year was an exception due to injury, still yet to surf since May 11 even though after one false start I got given the all clear last Tuesday.
Perhaps I should have gone with the beginner option as I’m pretty sure I will resemble a drowning elephant seal the first couple of times. I am working from home today however so I might see about a lunchtime flounder and see how it goes.
Apologies if the sane comment came of wrong. Was just playing of another comment. I mostly bodyboard but have dabbled in stand up. My best mate rides a stick. I’m a fence sitter in the stick v lid battle, I think it’s ridiculous
Actually I have a question for those of you learning to surf, I started on a foamy when I was about 4-5 and dabbled between foamy and booger till 6-7 when I pretty much stayed standing up ever since so I was too young to ever really feel embarassed or self conscious about learning. The biggest thing about learning is spending the time in the water consistently until you have developed the motor skills to a point where it becomes like riding a bike but due to any number of factors I’m guessing people just don’t do it.
Seeing as this is a boarding forum what makes you spend the time learning to snowboard but struggling to put in the time surfing? Everyone here was a beginner at snowboarding and dealt with the embarassment associated with eating it on tbars, running into people and various other pitfalls, why is surfing so much different? Is the learning curve too steep? Do you find there is more animosity towards beginners surfing than snowboarding? I dont really buy the whole it’s too far away thing, at worst I reckon 90% of members would live twice as close if not 4 times to the beach as they do to the snow. The cost is way down on snowboarding as well, no lift tickets or anything like that, you’re going to get fitter surfing than you are snowboarding and its a year round pursuit in most areas, you’re excused for winter in Victoria that’s just horrendous.
Interested to hear your responses, surfing for me has given me more than any other single pursuit, snowboarding is right up there as well but will never be the same to me as surfing.
No difference between standup/booger/mal/paddle in my mind.
It’s like debating skier vs boarder.
Both require a love of the environment in wich they are practiced.
Scooter vs skateboard is very different 
Westy boogers with no idea of wave etiquette belong in the scooter category tho.
Hope the surf section will have a instructional on wave etiquette when it launches.
I found learning to snowboard 1000x easier than learning to surf.
A few factors off the top of my head. The ocean is a lot trickier and more powerful than a relatively static mountain. When you get it wrong you can get punished pretty badly. As stated unfortunately it can be pretty tense out on the water (as it can be on the snow sometimes) with people taking it way too seriously which can be intimidating. As a beginner though I believe it’s my responsibility to stay out of the way of the better surfers which unfortunately can limit you to the worst bits of the break making it infinitely harder to paddle on it’s a vicious circle.
People get the impression the skill in surfing is the popping up/standing/turning. When I get to that bit I find it relatively simple in comparison to the underestimated skills like paddling/duck diving/positioning etc.
In my case It’s also easy to fall back into the temptation of just going for a relaxing swim (I often feel more confident swimming than I do surfing in similar surf conditions)
I also find it a fine line between being too small to bother vs too big and risky at my skill level, which can severely limit surfable days.
I’m also my own worst enemy having not ever had a lesson and trying to learn on a 6"7 epoxy short board which I paddle slowly and struggle to duck.
In the end I think the main thing limiting my progress is low wave count. If I could have someone analyse my inefficient paddling, teach me to duck properly and put me in the right places to catch the wave, I’d expect to see some improvement.
Westy boogers with no idea of wave etiquette belong in the scooter category tho.
Agreed this is where a lot of the animosity towards boogers comes from. They seem to have a knack of appearing kicking their fins in your face just as you are about to drop. Yelling out “sick barrel” on every 2ft close out is also grating. The same could be said for standups though when you get the douche who waits 10m further out bowls straight through everyone in the lineup then proceeds to paddle straight back out and repeat.
every beginner I know that has struggled it is because of ocean familiarity. Having been in the ocean since you were tiny, that wasn’t ever going to be a problem for you.
Its different because waves and the ocean are (as far as beginners can see) completely unpredictable. They look at the ocean and they don’t see or notice anything about waves in the way that experienced ocean goers do. I have a friend who is learning and if I ask them, they can’t tell me anything about what the waves look like or how they are breaking, where might be a good spot to try etc…and this isn’t even taking in to account the fear factor. People unfamiliar with the ocean and generally fairly scared of it. My friend learning absolutely freaked out about rocks that were 5 metres below the surface.
Reading the waves I think is one of the two biggest issues with learning to surf. To learn to read waves, you have to be in the ocean a lot. Trying 2-3 times in a summer just isn’t going to get you anywhere. You have to commit to doing it, and most people don’t understand that.
The other biggest issue is just paddling out. The hardest thing for me personally when learning was being stubborn and getting back on my board and paddling my hardest, even when I’d just got smashed by whitewater, as it can seem so pointless - but sometimes it really is the only way you’ll ever get out there. When you’re a beginner and you’re tired, the last thing you want to do is hop back up on the board and keep going. My brother taught me to get back on and do at least 20 really hard and strong paddles to do my best to get out of there.
oh and the other thing, a lot of people have terrible upper body strength, which really doesn’t help with paddling either.
I overlook a lot the idea that people don’t understand the ocean at all, trying to look at it with fresh eyes is a bit of a struggle, I haven’t really tried to teach someone to surf for quite some time now. Goes back to the idea that you need to spend a lot of time in the ocean to get comfortable with how it works and there is no cheat sheet or lesson that is really going to give you a head start on that I guess. Last time I was with a beginner was early this year, an american friend of my sisters who was from the mid west and had never seen an ocean before arriving in Australia. I took him up to kiddies at Palmy and concentrated on pushing him into unbroken waves, despite the fact he was an athlete he was very bad at paddling and timing of strokes and power. With all that said he got bitten by the bug and last I heard he is still trying to surf everyday and contemplating a move to coastal US so he can continue.
I would say that if you’re a strong swimmer you’re going to be ahead of the game in a lot of ways. Three months of bodysurfing a few days a week would go a long way to helping as well I reckon.
I would say that if you’re a strong swimmer you’re going to be ahead of the game in a lot of ways. Three months of bodysurfing a few days a week would go a long way to helping as well I reckon.
I absolutely agree with this. I love bodysurfing as much as surfing, and I know how much it has helped me with understanding the ocean, reading the waves, and being comfortable and relaxed in the surf. Obviously it also helps with physical conditioning and endurance.