Point Breaks

[Lomax]

I noticed something I have been doing wrong at points.

I have always paddled towards the beach or angled slightly down the line. I realize now that it's best if you paddle towards the point. Especially on small days. On a longboard it probably doesn't matter as much, but on a shortboard, if you take the wrong angle, you're not going anywhere.

Also, anybody else run into issues generating enough speed on small days at a point to keep with the breaking wave? It seems easier to stay on a shoulder at a beach. I would imagine that's why the break is 99% longboarders, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.

[IB_Surfer]

I surf baja once a month, one of my favorite spots is an uncrowded point break that I've caught at least double overhead. The point makes is wrap super slowly, so you end up on a monster wave that you have to paddle your ass off just to catch. What I ended up doing is using a fish, took care of my glide problems. The wave hardly jacks up, it more or less rolls up to a wall then peels gently, so the fish lets me get in there easier. Once in a while it will barrel through there, so time for a shortboard or a semi-gun, but I always pack a fish in case it's rolling along. Here is a pic of me in baja surfing that spot about overhead and a half, no way I could have caught those waves on a shortie:

[garbarrage]

think it depends on the point.. 3 different points within a 20 minute drive of where i live, each one completely different. one of them (the nearest) is similar to your pic mathteacher except it jacks a little more and is definitely shortboardable although better with a little volume. if you paddle towards the point here tho 9 out of 10 times you get caught behind the white and its really hard to get out.

the other 2 are a little more serious... at both of these spots if you paddle towards the point horrible things happen. on one of them the wave hits a shelf before it wraps into the point. if you paddle towards the point here you will be launched onto the slab the dragged across boulder reef. pretty sketchy unless you paddle towards the shoulder, in which case if you miss your take-off you land in deep water and just have to contend with a pretty long hold down. miss a few waves but take less severe beatings.

my point is that different set-ups require different strategies, and often the best way of figuring it out is to watch other surfers who know the break to see how they do it... then forget everything you've seen in the excitement and learn the hard way!

[J-Rock]

Well if the point is a reef then it is because it is high tide and most good points need low tide and 5 ft to be good to surf. If its 3 ft just go to a beach break, more power.