Latest Surfs...

[BaNZ]

Today the stars aligned for me. I got to the surf spot and I told my friend, hey I don't think I can surf this. This is too big for me, there is no way I can outrun the wall created by the south swell. Not only it's breaking left nicely, it is a super long ride. I'm regular foot and I avoid surfing left hand breaks at all cost.

I told my friend to watch out for me because I might need rescue. Him being there give me a piece of mind. I took it easy and try to recall the tips I got from the forum. Remain calm, controlled my breathing, not panic and try and time the sets. Turns out once you get to the lineup, the wave isn't that big, probably just waist and maximum shoulder height. The wave interval was long and it was easy to get out.

I surfed for about 45 mins and took the smaller waves that came through. I had lots of fun and surprisingly I was doing better manoeuvres then I can with going right. No idea how.

Eventually most of the longboarders have left so I'm left with 2 other guys. I noticed the other guys are not catching any waves when they are sitting furthest outside. So I paddled next to them and had small friendly chitchat. They said they haven't surfed for awhile so they are gassed out. They missed quite a few sets that came in. I kinda panic a little because I was sitting next to a huge boil (around 5-7 feet wide). For a moment I felt a huge force underneath which I thought might be a big fish or something. They told me it's the boil and don't worry, you won't hit the reef. I sat next to them for about 2-3 sets of wave that I was just too scared to catch. They weren't able to catch them because they were tired.

I decided I'm going to catch the next big set that comes in. In my head I know this is going to be steep but I try not to think about it. When it came I was paddling hard for it, turns out I caught it early and it wasn't as steep as I thought. I prop myself up to make sure my newly made friends aren't on it. Then I ride down the line. Holy sh*t, it jacked up really fast as I presume the wave hit the shelf and I was deep in the wave. I saw many shortboarders were poking their boards down the line. The wave was big and these shortboards were higher than me, I thought it might be my imagination and I manage to finish the whole ride and all the way in. I started paddling back out and quite a few other surfers were commenting that was a good wave and most likely the biggest set of the day. They were cheering for me and I was really happy and satisfied.

I surfed for another hour or so afterwards. I tried to replicate the ride again but this time the wave wasn't big. I paddle for it and got on. This time a longboard girl was trying to swim out. I had my vision focused on her rather down the line because I was worried that I might hit her. So what happen next was that the wave closed out and got my board. I fell flat on my face and my body really hurts. I'm pretty sure I made a loud splash and my friend just laughed at me.

Overall I think I made good progress today. Definitely caught one of the biggest ride I've ever had. My friend saw it and say it was much taller than me as he didn't expect that I make it and was about to drop in.

[BaNZ]

Forecast was 3-4 feet with overhead sets coming in from time to time. It was just line and line of waves in the horizon. There were just about 5 longboarders out when I got in the water. It was clean but slight wind in the first hour and it got much better later on with clean glassy waves.

Really built my confidence because I racked up the wave count. I paddled furthest out and was catching the bigger sets. Really feels good when I'm the one catching waves and not just watching the 2-3 better surfer hogging everything. There was an abundance of wave for everyone. Although I caught the most waves, I only managed to finish riding 2-3 waves all the way to the beach. The rest were either poor choice that walled up quickly, or I sit too deep or that I'm not able to surf past the section that breaks quicker.

Somehow these days it feels like surfing is getting easier and easier. I think surfing nearly every other day and having better diet really helped! Still working on the lack of sleep though.

[lukathegrom]

After surfing for a month in Portugal Im finally starting to learn turns.
To preface this, I've surfed before on occasion but would consider myself a beginner, I ride a 5'5 fish and love it.

I paddled out at my local beachie on a head high + onshore day, ducked a few closeouts, and the moment i got out into the lineup a set came through right in front of me. I turned, put my head down and paddled, popped up at the top and bottom turned into a right that sectioned on me. another similar one closing out on me and then i tried going left. Popped up, bottom turned into a top turn that saw my board detach from my feet. Not an impressive session but it felt amazing to start making progress down the line. This is after a few years of not being in the water, but i find that having grown a lot im way better suited to deal with heavier days, and with the winter season coming i'm stoked to improve as much as possible.

[oldmansurfer]

I went out the last two weekends in small sloppy surf. In the old days I would have said it was flat but there were waves and I caught a bunch both days but nothing notable. Of note is I took out my 7'6" board for the first time in over a year. My eight foot board has a leak and I am letting it dry out. I am happy to use this board as long as it's not more than double overhead and lately there has been nothing even close to that. It has less rocker than my longboard and when I first used it I had trouble paddling it due to the flatness I needed to paddle with the nose closer to the water line and it goes under water quite often when I do that but then then comes right back out. Seemed just slightly harder to catch wave but slightly more maneuverable although it's hard to tell in small mushy waves that were often double waves and lots of backwash.. There was also an unusually strong side current for the small mushy waves. It was a challenge to lineup the waves as well as ride them but then challenge is good. You need to challenge yourself to improve. I got my exercise. This 7'6" board would be the one I am most likely to break in two because it has a bamboo stringer on the top surface of the board. If you're interested I recently increased my dumbbells' weights from 10 pounds to 15 pounds where I had them before my shoulder injury. I also increased the weight of my stretchy bands I use for a couple of the rehab exercises I am doing for my shoulder. Have to wait for some good waves to see how I do with this board. It might have been 2 years since I used it. I was using the 7 foot board for a while before my shoulder in jury. I have to figure out what each board can and can't do compared to the 8 footer but this one was made for mushy days so it's a good choice for now.

[USlater]

Next tuesday I'm gonna post there some pictures

[oldmansurfer]

It's been a month since I surfed and missed some good waves but I got out today at middle Horners. Caught 4 waves if you count falling on the drop. I had a late drop which normally I do well with but today I was using my 7'6" board which I haven't used much in a year basically just the last time I was out a month ago and my instincts on a steep drop are to put more pressure on my back foot but this board unlike my usual 8 foot board has no tail rocker and it has a wider tail also which results in more scoot on the drop, as in it doesn't dig into the wave but scoots along the surface so when I put more pressure on my back foot it shoots forward and I fall backwards off the board. The first wave I tried to catch I was in what seemed to be exactly the right place but when I attempted to pop up my hand slipped and I ended up missing the wave. Then the first wave I caught I was too deep to go left (which is how this wave breaks most often and went right and had a reasonable first wave nothing exciting but made the drop and did what it took to stay on the wave and ride it to the inside. The next wave I was going to make a bottom to top turn but it became apparent that it was going to closeout in front of me so I did a bottom turn to cutout (single arcing turn from bottom to top and off the wave.) The last wave was my best wave I did a backside bottom turn to top turn almost an off the lip or maybe but the lip crumbled still it felt good.

[oldmansurfer]

I was hoping to catch some rights as the day before there were some as I drove by but when I got there there were about 4 people out where the rights had been but no waves came in while I waited. In the meantime Horners had some waves and no one out there so I went there. It was about a 300 to 400 yard paddle out and I couldn't stay lined up so didn't catch anything came further and further in finally caught some whitewater to get me closer to the shore where I investigated the inside break which had seemed okay before paddling out. The inside is a fast breaking shallow reef hey but beggars can't be choosers. I caught a few inside waves. One wave I caught it was pitching over so I turned up the wave but the lip had pitched already so I punched through the lip and was briefly in the tube before it collapsed on me. Was that a tube ride? I wouldn't call it that but I would call it fun. Managed to escape without damage to me or my board . Where I wiped out was just above waist deep and my board was just a foot or two away from inches deep water on the end of the leash. It's a fun little fast steep wave but shallow reef. Good for boogey boarding. there's usually some waves to be ridden somewhere on that beach. Oh yeah forgot to mention the inside is a right so I did get some rights

[Naeco78]

One wave I caught it was pitching over so I turned up the wave but the lip had pitched already so I punched through the lip and was briefly in the tube before it collapsed on me. Was that a tube ride? I wouldn't call it that but I would call it fun. Managed to escape without damage to me or my board .

I've heard of punching through the curtain to get out of the tube.. but never to get in lol. Probably need to hit it just right. Sounds like a fun session

[oldmansurfer]

I guess it's much more common for someone to punch through the lip out of the tube but it's about the same amount of difficulty to go the other way. I think it's less common because if you punch out of the lip you are trying to avoid wiping out in the tube but when you punch in you are most likely going to wipeout in the tube although its possible to make it out on the right wave. I had one particular day when the waves were really thin lipped where I went both ways on the same wave. In my case this time it was entirely an accident. I was committed to go that direction and definitely didn't want to go the other direction since it was into super shallow reef. I grew up paipo boarding this wave so am still a little familiar with it but not as much as I was at one time. Used to surf there no leash back in the day (50 years ago).

[Naeco78]

Ive never done it ,but to me, it sounds much harder to punch into a barrel because you would need to be ridding parallel to the tube before passing through. There isnt as much margin for error. That's impressive that you pulled it off. I've been clipped by the lip many times on the way in.. but that's different.

But exiting through the tube is a little easier i think, because you can straighten out towards shore and have the falling lip push you forward instead of sideways onto your back. I never had much luck coming out standing before that change.

The paipo boards look like so much fun. Seems like lots of those types of boards are making a comeback nowadays, with people rediscovering older designs and finless options. I think the first time I saw a paipo board was on an H30 episode when they had a picture of Buttons surfing one as a kid. I didnt think I was very good at boogie boarding after that

[oldmansurfer]

When you’re in a tube you’re riding parallel to the shore and have to turn hard to punch through the lip. The trick either way is to go quickly so that the wave doesn’t hit your board much because that will make you fall. Maybe also you need a good sense of balance. I used to ride close out tubes and try to stand and punch through the back of the wave then ride over the falls in a kind of floater or cut out standing. That undoubtedly helped me in handling lip contact or at least the idea that it was difficult or impossible. Smaller lips are much easier to deal with but other surfers would often praise me for my ability to handle lip contact and I have no other reason why it would be so because they were all more experienced than I was I surfed one day with perfect little tubes and got a lot of practice punching in and out of the tube. Wrote about in a thread here about remarkable waves or something like that

[BaNZ]

This was at scripps pier two weekends ago. It's a beach break and nearly all of the waves closes out quickly. I caught a few waves that day but the ride was all short. Mostly around 5-10 seconds and I had to kick out.

[BoMan]

King Tide at my home break. Fun ride in the foreground while Duxbury Reef gets pounded in the distance. (Full screen view is best)

[BaNZ]

King Tide at my home break. Fun ride in the foreground while Duxbury Reef gets pounded in the distance. (Full screen view is best)

Do any surfer paddle all the way out to the reef? It looks far.

[BoMan]

Do any surfer paddle all the way out to the reef? It looks far.

No. The reef is above water at all tides. Standup boards venture closer when a rare southern swell gets over 7 feet. That said, when it's big the rides in that area can take you all the way to shore!

[jack2board]

Here is lockdown so no surf for us...

[oldmansurfer]

Went out today with my rockerless 7’6” difficult conditions head high surf. I took a few poundings and made a couple late drops. One wave broke in front of me and I rode the whitewater down but the wave had raced off without me. The other was a nice clean steep drop but the wave ended there and it was my last wave so I rode it in. I caught a few more waves but the waves were lurching up and you had to get down quickly. The rockerless widetailed board did that but I wasn’t prepared for the speed so was a little off balance and had to recover instead of doing what I should have which is jamming a hard bottom turn. Definitely got my exercise and practice for many surfing skills and got wet ocean massage

[BaNZ]

On my first wave today, I caught one that was my biggest ride ever. I was probably about 1-2 seconds from getting thrown off the board when I popup. As I flew down the line, I did not even think it was possible that the board can stick like a glue to the wave. My body froze and I did not do a bottom turn so I couldn't make it out the faster section.

I surfed another 1.5 hour afterwards trying to get that feeling again. But I was not able to. None of the wave that I caught later today was the same size or steepness.

Prepping for next Tuesday when the forecast is even better. Sunny, warmer and less wind. Downside is that it will be 6-7 feet which I don't think I can manage.

[BaNZ]

This morning was superb. I parked my car outside the car park because I know if I see the size of the wave, it would put me off from getting in the water. I walked down the usual ramp and realize the tide was so high and it wasn't easy to get out because of the massive rocks that the wave is crashing into it.

I did some stretching and warmed up a little. For some reason, I thought I better check my leash. Turns out that the waves from yesterday actually loosen up the knot. I'm so glad that I checked. I usually never check but as it was big today, I wanted to be extra careful. In my head I'm telling myself, is this a warning from God? Maybe I shouldn't get in the water.

I backtrack to another trail which is far more treacherous as it is steep and can be slippery. It also have giant concrete beams that most likely corroded away. I usually don't take this trail because I don't want to break my board and it's hard carrying a longboard. But once you get down, it's all sand so it's easy to paddle out.

I went to my usual spot to wait for an opening to paddle out. I saw a girl who had no leash on a longboard. I was like no way is she gonna get out. She got further out than me but lost her board and it carried the board back to the beach. I turned back because I know I'm not getting out from there. From the shore I was trying to see if I can spot anyone with a longboard. Nope, I'm the only one.

Eventually I did find a good spot where it wasn't breaking at all and I paddled all the way out to the line up. Caught some of the best, powerful waves of my life! Honestly after my 1st or 2nd wave, I thought. wow, this is enough. I've already had the best wave ever and it is time to pack up and go home. But I figure I should do 1 more wave and you know how it goes. On my last wave, I had to do the poop stance. The wave I caught was so big and gnarly that it was going across two point breaks which was over 50 feet apart. The poop stance sucked.

[BaNZ]

Today's surf. Wind started to pickup and it was high tide so it decreased in size.