Latest Surfs...

[Jester]

2nd time surfing on a reef today.. Realised I really like late take-offs, I'm lazy and the no paddle take off is my nirvana
I think all that beach break learning has left me with a thirst for throwing my weight forwards and back quickly to find that sweet spot and fly down the face. Love it.
Took quite a number of waves, went down the line on all of them, had one really really long ride but felt like it didn't count because most of it was white-water after the initial green wave ran out. Didn't do as many positive turns today or climb up and down the face that much..either wasn't concentrating on that part or the moon was in the wrong quarter
Stuff to work on next time so! Still pleased..plus my tan is coming on, at least on my face anyway

[IanCaio]

Sounds like it was a fun session! Never surfed a reef yet, but the idea of having a more consistent shaped wave amazes me. Like being able to predict each section of the wave before it happens, not something I suppose is frequent on beach breaks.

I'm not sure if I have much control on late take-offs, because most of the times I wipe out I'm not sure if the lip threw me over (too late take-off) or I just did something wrong (bad weight transfer during the take-off).
Sometimes though, I take-off so late that I kinda float over the lip and them slam the face of the wave, really cool feeling when it happens! But it's the kind of thing I guess would wipe me out hard on a bigger wave .

My take-offs usually don't require much paddling when I'm in the perfect spot, but I'm not sure I can call them late take-offs. I really wish I could record myself surfing sometimes, would be cool to be able to see more clearly everything that is happening!

[Jester]

IanCaio it's great!! It's so much more predictable and so easy to get out to, and when you wipe out, you just gotta paddle to the side and your clear to cruise back to your starting position again. It's a totally different ball-game!!
The waves hit with a much nicer power as well, I think coz there's deeper water underneath they just don't seem to tumble you as bad its like the deeper water is more stable and holds you better as the wave passes over, near the beach I usually get rag-dolled all over the place by the same size wave!

I really really like surfing a reef!

[oldmansurfer]

Sounds like you have a deeper reef break. Some of them break in shallow water and pound you into the reef if you wipe out. I surf a break called Horners and before I surfed at Hanalei which were both deeper reef breaks where I rarely touched the bottom. Both of those break still pound you if you get caught inside by a set but not so much on the wave you rode. Also while the no paddle takeoff is fun when you can do it what it usually means is that you can take off a little deeper or maybe even a lot deeper with paddling and get a better ride

[IanCaio]

Took one of my crazy decisions and took my motorcycle, traveled more than 100 miles at night to get a saturday 3.5-4ft swell, before traveling more 100 miles monday to visit my father .

Met up with some local friends, but the swell probably refracted. Small and weak waves at first breaking shallow, then the best moment of the day with 2ft breaking further out and opening some good lefts and eventually some rights, and then finally they got even weaker than when I got there.
It was worth it for the fun with my friends, and any surfing is better than none .

About the surfing itself: I'm feeling my control over the board is getting better, my pumping is starting to improve, so bigger rides are happening more often.
My friend said he saw me dropping one or two that he thought would wipe me out, so I guess I'm improving my drop too. Also, sometimes I'm dropping and turning while I pop up, to get in the line as soon as possible. It worked a few times.

Now the bad news.. Shallow waters, dinged the tail of my board (not sure how, maybe it hitted the sand) enough to let the foam visible. Easy fix I guess, comparing to the ones I did, but it will cost me a trip back here with no surfing (could fix it tomorrow, but I think one day isnt enough to dry the foam). Also my fiberglass isn't here, though I could give a resin only fix just to get it back on water sooner. Also, this one blew my mind, the fiberglass from a lateral fin delaminated perfectly, which makes me think polyester resin doesn't stick really well to carbon fiber pieces. I will think of what to do about this one, but maybe the time to buy another board is getting closer.. My wallet doesn't feel the same way .

Experimented a friends surfboard today, 5'8" shortboard. Thicker and a little wider than mine. Felt it had good control, maybe my next one will be a similar model

Well, enough writing!

[Jester]

I wanted to like your comment about friends and family till I came to the bit about the board damage!! lol

Went out today and tried a 7'4 board... Oh. My. Days! So hard to pop up on in the small waves I had!! I've been getting soft on my oil tanker and I think my pop up must actually be horrible!! Either that or it was the tiny tiny waves.. Yes let's blame the waves..ahem!!

How on earth do you guys manage on your tiny 6'0s and stuff, they're ridiculous, if I get a 7'2 as DTC was suggesting it's def gonna take a lot of getting used to!! Wish me luck *Gulp*

[IanCaio]

The longboard and shortboard pop ups are a little different, so it takes a little time to adjust it.
First difference: with a longboard you can pop up sooner in the wave, while on a shortboard you need to be close or in the critical spot of the wave (when it's about to break) before poping up.
The second one: if the shortboard is short enough so your feet are out, you need to place your back foot in position, on the tailpad/tail wax, before poping up. Something like on this video, but with practice the movement blends with all the others and it feels so smooth you won't even notice. I didn't notice it today at least .

Now a question myself, why some people say it's wrong to hold on the rails on the pop up? He says you can only do it on barreling, but I always hold the rail and it never felt wrong. I also never slipped my hands poping up. I could try to use spread hands on the middle but I would feel odd at first and maybe feel less in control.

Oh, by the way, smaller waves are harder to get with shorterboards, so don't be frustrated if you had trouble today!

[Jester]

Dude thanks for that so much! Wanna get back out and try again now.. Ayeyay-aye that Megan!! Ooof couldn't stop looking at her hips and thighs the whole way through that vid
Sorry I've no idea about the holding rails thing, always just pushed from palms but then raised a bit to fingertips I think to make more room under chest, maybe if you hold the rails it shortens your arms and gives you less room, also locks your shoulders parallel to the angle of the board and topples you over if it bucks around?? That's my guess anyway
Anyway... Megan

[drowningbitbybit]

Now a question myself, why some people say it's wrong to hold on the rails on the pop up?

a) It's easier to slip and smash yourself in the face with your own surfboard.
b) Your hands are starting from lower down and further apart so it's less efficient.
c) With your hands on the rails, you'll tend to shunt the board down into the water ( = stall) as you pop up, but if your hands are on the deck, you'll shunt the board forwards, and hence it helps you catch the wave and gain speed right from the off.

Putting your hands on the rail during a pop-up isn't the worst surfing sin imaginable, but it's better to have them on the deck. It feels odd to use the deck the first time, but after a while it'll just be the normal way to do it.



Surf today is a bit of crowded, gutless windswell so here I am on the internet talking about it instead!

[oldmansurfer]

reasons to hold the rail on the popup added stability and can do a rail grab drop in on steep waves. If you are Kelly Slater that is what he does. But then again if you are asking here then you're not KS

[oldmansurfer]

I am watching the women surf at Margaret River but there is some surf so soon I will be hitting it.

[IanCaio]

Jester,
Hahahaha, I was going to warn you but I forgot to write something like "the girl might be a big distraction on the video, you will struggle to pay attention to what he says". To be honest when I was watching this video before posting I had to watch the first minute twice because I didn't hear much the first time .

DBB,
Thanks! I might try the palm pop up next time just to see how it feels, check if it seems to improve my drop.
Talking about boards smacking faces, today I was paddling to a wave along with a friend (on priority), and when I saw he was droping the wave suddenly catched me, and on a desperate attempt to bail the wave I accidentaly pearled, or made a frontflip, not sure. As I raised from the water the board, which seemed to be still in the air, hitted me in the head with the fin. I'm still surprised it didn't bleed, but sure was painful. Maybe it explains in parts why this delamination happened..

Oldmansurfer,
Maybe I'm just starting earlier on my pipeline trainning
Just kidding! I don't know, it just feels more natural to me, the stability makes sense since having your hands wider gives you more control of the board.

I'm thinking of hitting another surfspot tomorrow (a stronger one, so there's some chance to get some waves). Would cover the ding with some silver tape and use superglue to glue the fin delamination until I get the resin job done, just so I can hit the water once more before leaving. Bad idea?

[oldmansurfer]

I haven't ever tried superglue on a surfboard

[oldmansurfer]

I went out today and it was breaking everywhere at the beach I go to. Even the little shallow reef break called Crookeds was breaking but it was all mushy crumbling break. As I got there some boogie boarders were going out to the same break that I usually go to but there were lots of breaks so I went outside further. I really didn't catch any good waves but did get a sort of tube ride. I was riding a mush burger and the inside section was walling up so I kept going and it looked like the last 5 foot section of the wave was going to tube so I tucked under it and it threw out and over me smacking my outside shoulder and holding it back a little causing me to rotate my shoulders as I rode out of the wave so I did a cutback since I was faced that way anyway. Anyway still a fun day and lots of practice reading waves.

[oldmansurfer]

Mushburgers again today although it looked like there were some better waves I wasn't able to line up anything great. I go a lot of exercise paddling and practice reading waves. All by myself today but there were a bunch of surfers out at Horners which is why I didn't go there. My wife told me that tourists were gasping at my wipeouts LOL but it was just the usual nothing particularly brutal or even scary. I imagine it was when I fell on takeoff on an overhead wave because the wave crumbled at the top and tossed the rear of my board up making me popup in a leaning back position so I fell off the back of the board (something I rarely do but a mild wipeout).

[dtc]

Surfed yesterday in drizzle and 30 km/h winds where the air temp was 11deg (and apparent temp under 7 deg) but the water temp was 21.5 deg (all Celsius). Very glad the water and air temps weren't the other way around. Don't know how you Europeans do it.

All 4-5 second period wind blown mush with occasional 1.5X head high close out bombs to keep it interesting. Had to wait until the NSW SUP championship finished up before I could get in the water as no where else had waves.

Today 85 km/h winds with driving rain. Didn't bother...

[Jester]

OK so had a really fun day out yesterday. Went out on the reef again but it heard what I'd been saying on here about it being easy and decided to teach me a lesson and a dose of respect!

It was bigger than before and quicker too, normally about 5-6ft faces but occasional bomb set of 7-9. Wind was offshore which was unusual for here and I finally experienced what other people complain of on here of spray in your face!! Man! Had to actually close my eyes and just paddle like crazy till the nose dipped below and waheyyy. Really is awkward

I got seriously ragged by the wave a few times, tried to hold on to my board each time and only managed it 50% as it was really violent. Still held on as long as I could. The hold down was longer than before as not really getting pinned by the water but dragged along in the wash for what felt like a really long way. On one I actually felt the fear as I'm used to the point where it usually lets me go and it carried on another 5 seconds (felt way longer) had to look for the surface as lost all sense of up and down, bit scary if I'm honest. Was getting closer to the reef too and started to worry about my head. Didn't know what direction I was moving but knew I was being moved FAST!

Went over the falls on another wave, face-planted from 6ft, not so bad. Got bucked forward off a wave going full tilt and landed chest first at speed, Ouch!! Nearly winded on that one. Came to the surface after a massive clean up set to feel a strange lightness of my leg, realized my leash had snapped and my board was gone! now I had the new experience of swimming back out of the line up to the beach and through the breakers. Was good for me and really reinforced the idea that you shouldn't go out if you can't swim back! Had all your words of wisdom at the forefront of my mind in that moment I can tell you!

Thank heavens for my trusty bic! There she was lying on the rocks after being through goodness knows what and not a bother on her.

Wasn't a bad day surfing though! I learnt a LOT!! Lots of new experiences and wisdom teaching by mother nature. Caught a lot of waves, really feel I can nail a takeoff now and again. Had one massive long ride that I think I could do better on if I had it again as I didn't prepare my turns enough/didn't look where I was going as I was staring at the wave because of it's power and speed. Stayed on too long and ended up on submerged rocks getting ragged in the breakers. Thank goodness I had gloves and boots! Leg got trapped between two rocks as a wave hit but luckily bent the right way so as not to snap.

Great day out though, weather was epic and the vibe was good, awesome to be out there cheering each other on and calling people into waves. Great fun, great day. Time for a new leash lol

[dtc]

that sounds like a session for the ages - is there anything that you didn't do? hit the reef, hit the rocks, lose a board, snap a leash, long hold downs, face planting...and still smiling at the end of it

[drowningbitbybit]

I learnt a LOT!! Lots of new experiences and wisdom teaching by mother nature.

*bitchslap*

She does like to give a lesson in humility every now and then doesn't she?

[oldmansurfer]

Don't worry, by the time you get old like me you will have learned to wipeout gracefully