surfing and spouses etc

[oldmansurfer]

Since everyone has so much to say about wives and surfing what about a thread about wives/husbands/girlfriends/boyfriends/gnomes/roommates etc. and how they interact with your surfing.

My wife used to surf with me long ago. She got a fin to the leg and several stiches and her desire to surf went way down. I now have her 6'2" thruster. She goes with me to the beach usually once a week and rides a boogie board now. She doesn't complain about surfing. She puts up with me looking at bikini clad women. Sometimes she will say did you see that one with the big (insert some anatomical term) and even point them out for me or sometimes I think just wanting to see me strain my eyes looking. She is a pal. In my old age I don't really spend much time looking around unless she notices something. I have had a roommate who surfed but we didn't surf together much. We were on different schedules during the day. I had other roommates who didn't surf and they didn't care what I did.

[oldmansurfer]

Back when I first met my wife I was just out of college and was very overweight and out of shape but maybe in as good shape as I am now. My wife was surfing on the inside and I was on the outside and she wiped out and got finned by her board. She was in obvious distress and I needed a break from surfing anyway since I was so out of shape. So I went in and found her holding her leg on the beach and crying. She was worried it was a serious injury. I asked her to let go of the wound and it started bleeding so I let her grab it again and picked her up and carried her down the beach over 50 yard to where my van was parked. The sand was deep and with the extra weight my feet were sinking in to my ankles in the sand. It was a tortuous treck back to the car. By the time I reached there I was pushing my limits. I had to tell myself that it was only a little more and while trying to convince myself that I wasn't going to die and I would make it to the car a stranger runs up to me and says "Oh my gosh! Are you OK?" I answered "I think I will be OK" and he says "No not you. Her!" I said "Oh yeah she will be OK but I am not so sure about me." I finally reach the car and get her into the car. He asks me if he can help in any way. I am so tired I can't really think, I am just trying to get my breath and get some oxygen to my brain so I don't say anything. He says "can I get your boards?" I look down the beach and realize our boards are more than 50 yards down the beach and I am dead tired still just trying to get some oxygen to the brain. I say "Sure yeah, go get our boards." and breath deeply trying to catch my breath. By the time he gets back I am sure that I will survive and thank him for the help. My soon to be wife needed a bunch of stitches but she was ok. I made a mental note that if it happened again I would have her paddle her board back closer to the car.

[BaNZ]

I'm glad that your wife is okay! I really don't understand what is wrong with watching bikini women. Mine gets so annoyed with it.

I send this to my gf every time when she complains about surfing.
http://www.theimpermanents.net/2013/06/ ... urfer.html

Every weekend it is the same question, you going to the beach AGAIN??!!! Can we not do something else like normal couples would do? I thought we wouldn't need to go since you went last weekend and the weekend before that. You surfed the entire year last year, can't you pick a different hobby. Don't you get bored of it?

Honey, can we go to Germany or Poland for holiday? (I check MSW). NOPE, there is no beach/swell there.

Why are you looking at surf websites? Are you planning to buy more boards? You got 3 already!

What hits me the most is, "why are you always looking at surf videos, you will never be as good as them".

[CARBr6]

Well I guess I am the lucky one!!
My girl, soon to be wife, is also a surfer. Her dad was a surfer until a football accident put him in a wheelchair and constant pain. I had finally found myself single and looking for something to do 'for myself' when I finally took the plunge and booked myself onto a surfing holiday. Ticking a box and fulfilling a lifelong dream to ride the waves. Shortly after booking this holiday I met her. We then discovered that surfing was another of the many things we had in common, so we went off and bought a camper van and made Cornwall our spiritual home, then we bought ourselves boards and regularly travel to the coasts at weekends on the promise of the tiniest bit of swelll!!

We even managed to squeeze in a bit of surfing in Nova Scotia whilst out there for a family wedding, coming out of the surf and driving straight to the airport on our last day.

So I never get any complaints about the desire and will to surf. The only complaint she has is that there isn't enough!
Although she did inform me that IF we are going to find surf every weekend then that means that I have to do all my housework chores during the week! Seems like a fair trade off, and the bathroom I am renovating has been a bare shell for a number of weeks while the waves have been pumping.

[drowningbitbybit]

Well I guess I am the lucky one!!
My girl, soon to be wife, is also a surfer.

Ooh, I kinda think I'm the lucky one because my mrs doesn't like surfing

Saturday morning, she goes off and does her thing (she's into that aerial silks thingy - madness...) and I go off and do my thing. Later on, we'll tell each other about the things we did, and both think that the other one is mental

Every now and then, I like to tell her about a particularly spectacular wipeout and the inevitable hold-down just to freak her out . "How is that fun?" is her inevitable question. She'll never understand

[SurferGirl83]

I think mine tollerates my surfing habit as he knows it makes me happy! He has tried to give surfing a go, previously it has resulted in a broken toe and an ankle sprain but he's recently tried again and seems to be quite happy lying on the board being carried to the shore! I might still make a bodyboarder of him but want him to feel the stoke of getting to his feet and riding that first wave so I shall continue to encourage.

He see's himself more as my support crew, helping me put my board on the roof of the car (despite being capable of doing it myself), carrying stuff to the beach and sitting with our stuff whilst I surf. I usually get his cooperation with the promise of food when it comes to going anywhere! I do worry though that he gets bored of sitting around for hours waiting for me.

I wish that he was into surfing but then saying that I have little interest in his hobby other than being supportive of him doing it. I guess that's what life is about!

[dtc]

a stranger runs up to me and says "Oh my gosh! Are you OK?" I answered "I think I will be OK" and he says "No not you. Her!"

Love it.

and that link from BanZ, classic

I dont live at the beach and I've sort of managed to wrangle an arrangement that when we are at the beach (fairly often) then I get to go surfing every day regardless without any argument. In return (a) she gets to go for a walk or something while I look after the kids on the sand at some other time and (b) when we are at home I dont do anything on the weekends (not that there is anything I really want to do, but I put it forward as being the reason she cant complain during beach time). Oh, and (c) if I do go surfing, I dont go fishing on the same day (which usually means fishing only when there is no surf)

So pretty well off, just got to earn the brownie points in order to spend them, which seems fair

What I havent managed is too many weekends by myself at the beach. Thats the next step, but every time I think I'm going to have the ability to do it (eg my wife goes away for the weekend so therefore I should get a weekend away), my work sends me away for 2 or 3 days. For me its not a choice, but for my wife its the same extra effort as if I was at the beach...

Unfortunately my kids have limited attraction to surfing at this stage, so it cant be a family thing. And while I am slowly working on them about fishing, their attention span is too short for that to be much of a dual purpose expedition (ie when I get to go fishing AND look like I'm being a good father)

Just need to get my kids to the age where I can leave them at home by themselves.

[SurferGirl83]

Honey, can we go to Germany or Poland for holiday? (I check MSW). NOPE, there is no beach/swell there.

Glad I am not the only one who considers their holiday destinations based on whether you can surf there! I will send my husband this link https://surfing-waves.com/atlas.html and say we can go anywhere in the world provided it's on this list!

[jaffa1949]

There is hope for BaNz there is surf in Germany , Poland and Austria and Switzerland , genuine Baltic Barrels, North Sea surf for Germany and Denmark, above arctic surf at Tromso under the midnight sun, Iceland has nice surf , an hot springs for afters, Taiwan has Chinese culture and surf, .
There are river wave surfs in the landlocked European countries.
Think of surf as anti stress hydrotherapy........... Surf destinations are about imagination?
Then of course the classic tropic isles.
It took me two wives to get a second one who appreciates my surfing and the great thing of teaching my family to surf.

Get with the program people, get surf appreciative partners, why make yours and their life miserable

[jaffa1949]

Without mentioning names one of or posters has become a singleton again, just him and his boards
Seems to be enjoying it!

[KoolCook]

I surf once a week...usually on Saturday mornings. Wifey doesn't surf...but I surf early in the mornings so I can get back home by noon and we still can spend the day together afterwards.

[drowningbitbybit]

I can get back home by noon and we still can spend the day together afterwards.

...with water dripping out of your nose at inappropriate moments

[oldmansurfer]

What hits me the most is, "why are you always looking at surf videos, you will never be as good as them".

Why watch movies? You're never going to be a movie star. Why watch any sport? You will never be as good as them. You can dream or it's motivation to improve your skill set or maybe they are just so good it is entertaining to watch them.

[BaNZ]

Why watch movies? You're never going to be a movie star. Why watch any sport? You will never be as good as them. You can dream or it's motivation to improve your skill set or maybe they are just so good it is entertaining to watch them.

Yes, exactly! When I look at the videos I can see what I'm not doing and use it as a guide! Plus I don't live in areas where you get consistent/descent surf. Watching how well people surf is fascinating, it's like art!

[KoolCook]

I learned surfing from watching videos. I never took lessons...just watched videos and other surfers at the beach.

If I had to do it all over again...I'd probably have taken lessons because I have gotten 'corrections' from other surfers that helped tremendously...(e.g. keeping my legs out of the water when paddling for a wave, dropping in at an angle on a steep/hollow wave with a long board, and stuff like that).