Surfing Waves

Welcome, )(urley/Coehn
Background Info: This little thread will be more of a journal for myself, to look back on and see if I made an progress if any. Currently, I am 17 turning 18, and I live 10minutes from the beach. I do have a surfing background thanks to my dad who helped me learn how to stand up on a board when I was about 10 or so; it was a very long time ago. I have always liked the beach but never really had the time to go there throughout my childhood/I was lazy. I would hit the beach about once or twice a year in the summer and it would stay that way because of my restrictive friends who did not like the beach, idiots its Australia common! I have always wanted to be a “beach bum” no literally, but I never really took the initiative until now.

The beginning
Day 1 (02/04/2010- Finally, after the harsh year 12 exams, it was the school holidays. I had really been looking forward to this. I began to think of what I could do on the holidays and before I knew it I had a sudden urge to go for a surf, but in this case I thought I would try out my old bodyboard just to work my way slowly back into it. The only thing stopping me was waiting until the first day of school holidays started.
At the peak of dawn; a very early 8am for me, I found myself at the beach with my bodyboard (that is torn at the nose and flops around) in my left hand. I was wearing my dads old, old, wetsuit and flippers that I had when I was like 10, size small. Although I couldn’t wait to see how this would turn out.
The waves were about 3-4 foot and I was kind of used to this, not afraid at all due to my past swimming experiences. The waves were great, I managed to go left and right on the very first waves I caught. I had so much fun that day and I came out of the surf blue, with my feet aching due to my extremely small flippers that hurt my feet. It was worth it though!
From then, at home I kept thinking how much I enjoyed the first day of school holidays at the beach. This lead me onto watching YouTube videos of surfers & bodyboarders which further inspired me to continue. Then I came across this forum, unexpectedly reading about the tales of dbah’s great fun and exiting surfing journey in California. And this is when my day finally ended. Well I thought it would, but I found myself wide awake at night thinking about the surfing videos and my own experiences that day. This urge to bodyboard came about again and I planned to go out for a surf the next day; weather permitting (its Autumn).

Day 2 (03/04/2010)- After waking up at 7:40am, I drove myself to the beach in order to check the surf out. It was about 4 foot again and abit rougher then yesterdays. I had to go out I thought to myself, even if it was to practice. I was right, it was only to practice, The waves were big and sometimes barrelling (always dreamed of being inside one, one day) but were dumping almost 2seconds after. I found my self out in the water, not being able to catch once single dam wave. It did annoy me but at the same time I was having so much fun. It felt like I was just you know… living haha. I thought that I better go in since there was basically no chance of catching a wave without whitewashing. I began to head in without realising once big set creeping up behind me. Turning my head around checking for a wave, I saw the monster. I grinned for half a second and at one moment wanted to try and catch it. Only until I realised I was to far ashore, it was about to break ontop of me. Doing the only thing I thought was right at that moment I just dived underneath the wave waiting for it to break ontop of me. It was more powerful then I thought! I expected to get knocked around as you usually do but this time the wave ripped my leg-rope straight off me sending my bodyboard (still half broken) with the wave. I was without a board and common sense was to get it back in order to keep float (easier). The second wave out of the big set came and funnily enough I body surfed it mad  I got to my board easily and decided to head out of the water.
A couple of the old surfy legends watched on as I got dumped before hand and I got a few good comments as I walked by back to my car. Even though I didn’t catch a wave it was still so much fun.
Back home I skimmed across this forum and saw dbah’s thread again. I had an idea, well an idea that dbah had. Why not also make a forum about my surfing journey? (All credits to dbah for the inspiration) Was I dedicated enough to continue? Only one way to find out!
After writing from here on in present tense (well not really but yeh..) I have text my cousin who is a mad surfer and he agreed to lend me his bodyboard. Hopefully its in better condition then mine . I’m still keen to check the surf out tomorrow but it is raining at this stage so im not sure. I wonder how it will turn out from here? (Heading into winter and all.)

Mate, by sharing your journey you have already lost the idea of surfing. I don't mean to be rude or harsh.

If you can be at peace with yourself and enjoy surfing for the intangible benefits rather than the ability to showcase it - then you have found the path.

Keep the feelings and emotions to your self and express them in ways that are tangible, i.e. volunteer for social clubs. Be nice to your mum and don't cheat on girl friends. What ever, but you don't need to show case it.

Peace and enjoy.

meanglish wrote:Mate, by sharing your journey you have already lost the idea of surfing. I don't mean to be rude or harsh.

If you can be at peace with yourself and enjoy surfing for the intangible benefits rather than the ability to showcase it - then you have found the path.

Keep the feelings and emotions to your self and express them in ways that are tangible, i.e. volunteer for social clubs. Be nice to your mum and don't cheat on girl friends. What ever, but you don't need to show case it.

Peace and enjoy.

dude its for his own experiance. like a journal. he wants to see and log in data to see how his progress shows, so that one day he can look back, and see how bad he really was ;D


keep it up )(urley, i'm glad i gave u inspiration lol.

meanglish wrote:Mate, by sharing your journey you have already lost the idea of surfing. I don't mean to be rude or harsh.

If you can be at peace with yourself and enjoy surfing for the intangible benefits rather than the ability to showcase it - then you have found the path.

Keep the feelings and emotions to your self and express them in ways that are tangible, i.e. volunteer for social clubs. Be nice to your mum and don't cheat on girl friends. What ever, but you don't need to show case it.

Peace and enjoy.

As a beginner surfer I have yet to fully understand what drives myself to the beach and the reasons for I would do it , and I think you have put a very good point out helping me decide if this is a fad or a life long ambition. Aswell as reading dbah's post and his thread, I have enjoyed reading what seem to be the same passion and drive to why "we" go to the beach. Therefore I reckon I will tear down this thread and keep my stupid journal personal but still keep on readin dbah's, so keep it up . One things for sure, I havent given up surfing on day 3 xD. Cheers thanks for the advice