Surfing Waves

I guess this applies more to Los Angeles (in particular, the South Bay), but should you stay out of the water after it rains? In my short time surfing, I've always been taught to stay out for a couple of days, but a friend of mine just recently told me that it doesn't matter whatsoever. (He's been wrong about a lot of stuff before, and I have a good feeling he is about this, as well )

Everyone knows you shuldnt surf after rain in a city...........all the crap is washed into the water and you could die of fever

Yeah I think that's a good rule of thumb. Depends on where you live, I wouldn't want to get poked by some heroine users needles though.

Go ahead if you like the smell of poo. You also risk the chance of having an infection(if you have an open wound) and possibly catching a cold and flu also.

my my ...you guys have it bad,

if i waited for a couple of days after it rained here in the uk I would never get a sesh in !!

it doesnt rain that much in socal so when it does go for a heavy downpour like we have had recently all that dirt that has been building up gets washed into the ocean. Which s not a particually good. So taking a 48 hour time out is wise

There have been posts on here before about why you shouldn't surf after the rain, but lets just say if you surf around a town or city you'll have all the muck from the streets and likely a lot of human faeces from the overflowing sewers in the water.
Unless the waves are really good, give it a miss.

in florida rain is all we get during summer
so any hurricane passing through is worth it
(my apologies texas and louisiana)

Whoa!!! b123 your friend is just a tad off!!! Common knowledge "stay out after the rain douches shizz and ??? into the water and then wait for it to disipate. Were allso talking a couple of days after the rain is the time it takes for the water to travel the distance too so it in reality ends up being a couple of days after the rains stop that you wait a couple of days for the shizz to douch out then wait a couple of days for the ocean to purge the shizz. Allso read the water reports.

yeah, i kind of get worried when im surfing while its raining.down here in brazil its been raining quite alot, and alot of the people down here just doesnt seem to give a crap about the enviroment, the city im at has a river that feeds directly to the sea, that river is poluted beyond saving,its possible but no mayor will waste money on it. good thing i surf at another beach,but that beach has a lake feeding it and the mouth is few yard from the break, they open it up to the sea when it overflows from the rain so who knows what people threw into that water.im not a like a biggg tree hugger, but i care, cause if stuff keeps going this way, i sure hope the movie "when the earth stood still" actualy happens..sorry that felt like a rant, livng in a third world country isnt soo wicked.

I wish the sewer guys don't dump all the shit1 in the ocean. Its vacation right now and all I m thinking about is surfing right now. I hate living in socal.

phillwilson wrote:my my ...you guys have it bad,

if i waited for a couple of days after it rained here in the uk I would never get a sesh in !!

its kinda different in tropical areas. like in seattle it rains all day every day yet hawaii gets like 10x more rain than seattle. it downpoars like 10 inches in a few hours, there are flash floods, and it washes garbage, mud, plants, dead animals and overflows sewers into the ocean. a couple years ago a guy in hawaii actually got infected with a flesh eating bacteria from this in the ocean, his body bloatd to 4x its notmal size, his skin tore apart from expanding, and he died. sharks swarm the shore eating drowned animals washed out to sea. its no joke!

Of course if you live in rural area you'll still have to contend with what gets washed off the fields which could potentially be pretty nasty too.

From my understanding of the circumstances the guy that died in Hawaii got the infection because he was surfing in a harbor, which obviously is a dumb idea because water just doesn't circulate in there at all, not to mention it is a dumping ground for everyones crap in every city, I am sure by mostly tourists (even though I don't do that sorry for the dumbies that come and jack your home up).
I persoanlly don't bother with the waiting after rains. If there are waves I am in the water. Mostly because it tends to be the only time I can go surfing without the circus. Went out yesterday and had a killer time. Best part is that there was only about 10 guys in the water that I could see. Got all the waves I wanted.

Officially 72 hour rule to let the bacteria get killed by salt....with that said I have a modified rule that takes in account: the wave size, amount of wind, quality of shape, inches of rain, length between good rains...and my personal need to get waves. It is a ratio thing that is not teachable.....comes from years of dodging turds!!

Also, local knowlege is helpfull. I surf in San Diego and know the "safer" areas to hit after rain. If you have any local friends that surf all the time ask them, they know the bad and good places depending on conditions.

For example, there is a beach in san diego that is preety safe after winter rain. Two river mouth jetties are not the same lenght plus the north swell pushes the junk south, so the north side beach is actually pretty safe in the winter. There might be something similar in your area, but you have to know your spots.

Yes, Hawaiisuxxxxx! Seriously!

Can you believe theres guys out there surfing brown waves? Retards. Easy way to get a staph or e-coli infection!

The worst rain was like a week ago, and I still don't feel cool about getting in the water. And we got more sharks than ever because of the gross runoff and gross dead animals. Screw that! Surf's flat here lately anyways...