I'm 36 (very close to 37) and started surfing at 31. I grew up in Kansas and went all over the US for school, eventually landing in New England and staying in southern Maine, about an hour north of Boston. I had a job that required a lot of reading and sitting at a desk, not unlike grad school, and gained a good bit of weight from when I was younger and very athletic. I dated a
surf instructor briefly for a few months in 2015, she lent me The Book of Surfing: An Extreme Guide and told me to study up and get ready to learn. I began watching pro surfing, watching surfers at my local which was just down the road and I never really thought about surfing up here before, but always wanted to learn. I was out of shape and had random injuries, then before any lessons we broke up. I decided to go through learning to surf and just teach myself. Felt it would be a positive takeaway from that relationship. It took awhile to get a roof rack for my Honda Civic and wetsuit and gear (the water is pretty cold in Maine), and eventually got what I needed and had a friend in a coffee shop who surfs and told me he'd take me out whenever. So, having read a lot about surfing and the conditions, followed like 3 surf apps for conditions, I reached out to him during a Nor'easter just before Christmas 2015 and he lent me one of his boards, unwaxed or minimally waxed, way too small for me in hindsight, and I went out for 20min fighting the white water and just tried to get on the board to even paddle and struggled and kept sliding off or getting knocked off by white water. I took a break and went out again for another 20min, eventually tweaked my lower back and got out, totally exhausted and out of shape, but needing motivation to get back in shape and finally found it. I was horrible and couldn't do anything right besides put my wetsuit on correctly, but I was hooked. I committed to going to the gym 2-4 times a week, more when not surfing/hiking, less if doing either in order to give my body time to recover. In the next 2-3 yrs, I lost 80lbs, built paddle muscles, and totally transformed my physique from the gym and surfing. I'm 6' and was 265lbs, dropped to 180-190lbs (depending on the week).
I bought a soft top from a local shop and went out for every single swell, some very big, some tiny. Did some things right, learned some bad habits which I eventually kicked. Got very good on the soft top even in double overhead conditions, and eventually bought and cycled through boards on Craigslist. After getting the basics down and being comfortable riding one board, I decided to swing for a new board. Went through a few new boards looking for what felt right and seemed fun. I was progressing quickly, so I over did it on volume and within a few months of getting a new board found they were way too big for me and got rid of them. Then, decided to try different types of boards to get better all around. Got a single fin egg from Josh Hall, custom, 8' mid length. It was long, but pretty thin compared to shorter thruster boards I'd tried. Took a lot more work to paddle but eventually learned it's great in head high conditions with offshore, and not the best on small days which we get a lot of. I began using it mostly for big Nor'easter or hurricane swells to paddle out easier and to knife into bombs. Got a classic, heavy, hand shaped Kurtis Woodin log, single fin. Took awhile to figure out and ride leashless, but fun and opened up small days and could ditch the soft top which I used for lessons for local kids and gave to a friend. Super hard to paddle and heavy, but great overall. Best I can do now is Cheater 5, walking it and maybe a spin on it, in addition to regular maneuvers in the water cutbacks, etc. Haven't consistently been able to hang 10 nor have I been able to hang heels yet, still progressing. Worked at going down in size on the mid length thrusters/funboards I'd been riding on Craigslist and after working down to 6'8" felt comfortable enough to swap for a 6'2" and then a 6'. Eventually wanted to try a fish and got a deal on a quad fish which I love and have played around and mixed and matched fins for. Got a long fish recently with keel fins, but it isn't that long a fish, been trying it out on head high days or bigger for fun. Currently have a 6'2" Bing quad fish, 6'8" Christenson long fish, 9'4" Woodin nose rider (One Love model), 6' Channel Islands squash tail Rocket Wide, and a 8' Josh Hall egg.
Ride all of them, and while my newest is the 6' CI, I've become pretty proficient on each board and am progressing at different stages on each. Only just becoming comfortable with the speed and small size of a small performance shortboard. It's taken a lot of time. I'm older and not getting younger, but the sweet spot seems to be the hybrid shortboards or the slightly wider or voluminous shortboards that are a cross between a hybrid and a proper shortboard. I used to really have to think about timing and read the sets and focus on the mechanics of standing up, but now, especially on a shortboard, I barely even need to paddle and sometimes just lean and go and focus more on what maneuver I plan to do after I takeoff, whether down the line and barrel hunt, or turns. I've not really done any proper airs, but done some solid 5-10' ejects off the back of waves on some big days. I'm content with not doing fancy airs. I just want to be able to do what I can think of doing in my head on a wave, and I'm about there and grateful for the gift surfing is for me and the God-given ability to even make it out on big days, let alone stand out as one of the better surfers as my local. I've had seasons where surfing becomes more mechanical and all about getting the next wave and not enjoying it, but it all goes back to calming down, and just trying to block out the addiction and negativity that can be out there and just having fun. Having the respect of locals who have surfed all their lives, some being pros and sponsored, is it's own reward and more than any big air for me at least.
by Yoav400 » Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:38 pm 
. Turning around to paddle back out It finally dawned on me why people bail early. Paddling through to the lineup again I was huffing like two a day football practices of my youth. I caught 7 waves but had to wrap the two hour lesson early cause my arms were absolute jello. 
