Surfing Waves

Hi,
I just moved to Florida, I'm an older guy (60) and bought a nice longboard from degree33. I've been surfing a dozen times and love it but I have one frustration; the break itself and it's closeness to the beach/shallow water.

I surfed when I was younger in San Diego where I grew up and as bad as the waves were there much of the time they didn't close out like here and also they were much farther out in the water generally so rides were much longer.

Here even if I get a wave, it's not long before it's white water and they break so close to the beach that my ride is very short, and that's frustrating to me.

I'm wondering two things:

1.) Is that just the way it goes so suck it up

OR

2.) Is it a case that it takes me so long to get up on my feet that it feels like there is no wave left and also since I don't surf "down the line" as well as I should, I'm more angled into the beach that it's really my fault that this happens and it will get better over time as I get better?


In any case, looking forward to comments on this and I'm loving being in the water so far.

Which beach is it? I surfed Cocoa once and my God it was amazing. However the locals said this is one of the few days of the year and I got really lucky.

I often will surf a wave where I travel parallel to the shore two or three times the distance to the shore so if you want to ride longer you have to go along the unbroken face. Getting up slow just makes it all not possible. So my advice is to work at getting up quicker and going down the unbroken face.

I am on the gulf coast side, and I was having the same problem as you not long ago. The secret breakthrough was angling my takeoffs so that when I pop up, I am already traveling along the face of the wave (down the line). You paddle into the wave at an angle (not straight towards the beach), then pop up and lean into the face, staying higher on the wave in its power source - it changed everything. I switched my thinking from "paddle straight towards the beach" to "paddle along the face". This also helped me fit my bigger board into the smaller waves. It will not be easy or feel natural at first. So basically, I 2nd what OMS said - you have to get into the wave early and surf down the line to make anything of the ride. Another factor here too is that many times, the waves are just plain closeouts and aren't really suitable for surfing. The possibilities really open up when the better winter swells come along. But then again, so do the crowds!

Yes, it is frustrating surfing Beach Break when you were used to surfing at a Reef Break. Japan main island is mainly beach break. Waves are steep, quick and closeout out fast. I miss the gentle long rolling waves back home.


Fast forward to 5:51 mark.

Been surfing Florida for 25 years. Many days are like you described. But 10 to 15 days a year we get glassy head high+ surf. Two weeks ago we had 8 foot on sets from a tropical storm. Lots of fun. Best surf is during hurricane season and following winter nor' easters. I just try and have fun with whatever we get.

Tom

BaNZ wrote:Which beach is it? I surfed Cocoa once and my God it was amazing. However the locals said this is one of the few days of the year and I got really lucky.

It’s fort pierce state park.

oldmansurfer wrote:I often will surf a wave where I travel parallel to the shore two or three times the distance to the shore so if you want to ride longer you have to go along the unbroken face. Getting up slow just makes it all not possible. So my advice is to work at getting up quicker and going down the unbroken face.

Thanks, I suspected that.
I’ll keep at it!

I’m here now waiting on sunrise...

Jripper53 wrote:I am on the gulf coast side, and I was having the same problem as you not long ago. The secret breakthrough was angling my takeoffs so that when I pop up, I am already traveling along the face of the wave (down the line). You paddle into the wave at an angle (not straight towards the beach), then pop up and lean into the face, staying higher on the wave in its power source - it changed everything. I switched my thinking from "paddle straight towards the beach" to "paddle along the face". This also helped me fit my bigger board into the smaller waves. It will not be easy or feel natural at first. So basically, I 2nd what OMS said - you have to get into the wave early and surf down the line to make anything of the ride. Another factor here too is that many times, the waves are just plain closeouts and aren't really suitable for surfing. The possibilities really open up when the better winter swells come along. But then again, so do the crowds!

Thanks for the detailed reply!
I’m going to work on that today.

goatts wrote:Been surfing Florida for 25 years. Many days are like you described. But 10 to 15 days a year we get glassy head high+ surf. Two weeks ago we had 8 foot on sets from a tropical storm. Lots of fun. Best surf is during hurricane season and following winter nor' easters. I just try and have fun with whatever we get.

Tom

Thanks Tom!
I’m looking forward to it.

OK...I went out before work this morning and it was very nice...glassy but small and breaking VERY close to shore. The tide was high, 7:34 was the peak of the high tide and when I got there at 6:30 it was just marginal but by 7:30 the waves were very very close to shore and even though they LOOKED good..they seemed to not have power. I padded for many of them and never caught one. They'd go on endlessly and then break right on the sand.

I'm going to go out after work today, it's supposed to be 1-2 with the tide being high at 1:54 and low at 8pm so at 4pm it shouldn't be horrible. (any day surfing is better than staying at home anyway )

I got it backwards...the tide was low, not high. i just got back from there and it was great! the surf was 2ft + and lots of time to ride. i did pretty well but it got really crowded and I left.

rpavich wrote:OK...I went out before work this morning and it was very nice...glassy but small and breaking VERY close to shore. The tide was high, 7:34 was the peak of the high tide and when I got there at 6:30 it was just marginal but by 7:30 the waves were very very close to shore and even though they LOOKED good..they seemed to not have power. I padded for many of them and never caught one. They'd go on endlessly and then break right on the sand.

I'm going to go out after work today, it's supposed to be 1-2 with the tide being high at 1:54 and low at 8pm so at 4pm it shouldn't be horrible. (any day surfing is better than staying at home anyway )

Yeah the high tide was killing it early. It got good when the tide dropped around 10 or 11am just before winds turned on shore.

Tom

One 'tip' is that high tide and low tide are variable ie might be 5ft high one day and 3.5ft in two weeks. So look at where you surf and when the conditions are good and see what the tide height is for that time (eg 'its good at 3.5ft tide height'). So rather than surf high or low or mid tide, aim to surf when its 3.5ft tide

Of course if the waves are bigger or small that affects things a bit, so you over time end up with a bunch of variables (wave height, tide height, swell direction, swell period combine to give you waves, or no waves) and some other things that affect it (eg wind). Pay attention to these variables and eventually you will learn which spots work best in which conditions and at which tide and so forth. Saves just rocking up and crossing fingers

Thanks guys!
I learned a lot in just one day. I talked to a guy who was out there and watched him...he didn't wait for waves to come to his position, he moved around and followed the peaks, that was a learning experience for me. I realized that I just sit there and wait for something to happen.

Another thing to work on!

have a watch of this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyhwpzYvaQ

dtc wrote:have a watch of this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyhwpzYvaQ

Thanks! I'll watch it now

dtc wrote:have a watch of this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyhwpzYvaQ

Well that's exactly what this guy was doing...and doing it well. He caught 4 waves to my 1.

I'll re-watch that a few times to let it sink in.