Surfing Waves

Hey Guys,

Been sick of renting boarding and trying new boards everytime, it results in me relearning the board and i end losing a hour of each session.

I went down to xgames in mong kok, HK and managed to have a quick chat with the guy there, he recommended either the NSP or 7s Superfish 2. I settled on a 7s superfish 2 but only got the 6"3... I know i needed bigger but i'm limited by public transport and commuting it to my break.

Current stats:

Height: 5"5
Weight:145lbs
Not unfit but not in shape, im out every other day surfing if the swell allows or just padding to increase my technique / strength.
Surf: 1ft mush - 6ft hollow depending on season

It like a nice board to transport, feels pretty resilient and very light! im looking forward to taking this down to cheung sha tommorow and trying to catch some waves. Im not expecting to catch much or be very stable but hey i love the challenge....

Thanks jaffa for your help in my previous post!

- Andy

PS: I got 5 fins with this board, what would be a good setup to use? Ive got

2 x FCS G-X Fins
3 x FCS M-5 Fins

revised..

I was told by the dude in the shop they are epoxy, but upon a little search around it seems they are polyester?

http://www.surfindustries.com/surfboard ... ish_ll.php

It depends on which one you got. I've seen both poly and epoxy. Now the question begs to differ, what kind of epoxy? Just a laminate or fill on sandwich construction. Lol

its all to much for a beginner! im good at teaching my self but in easy to digest steps lol...

Would it help to have some pictures?

i did a few pop ups on my board bag no fins and theres already pressure dings? ( looks like i thrown a baseball at it.. ) is this normal or?

Lol well depends on hoe heavy footed you are, go ahead and put some pics up. But if you bought the board brand new and there are pressures most likely it's a poly board with a regular sun cure resin.

peazz wrote:i did a few pop ups on my board bag no fins and theres already pressure dings? ( looks like i thrown a baseball at it.. ) is this normal or?

definitely or

Quick lesson don't do pop ups on a board on dry land the force will give you immediate pressure dings the board bag is no protection, get a plywood shape or use masking tape on a vinyl floor to mark out a board shape.

If you had had the fins in you probably would have snapped out the plugs. you were dropping 2 x 70lb feet on the board. WTF were you thinking ???????

peazz wrote:i did a few pop ups on my board

It's been a while, but I think it's that time again. Yup, he's back...



Yeah, you didn't want to do that

Beginner stoke can cause enthusiastic activity and overwhelm the senses

The board isn't busted, it just has some depressions. Dont worry, just dont do it again until you have at least 2ft of water beneath you

Yeah I know i gave you a stir but it could have been worse imagine doing this in your dry land practice
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06 ... _hp_ref=uk

Whether the board was PU or epoxy it would have dented with the dry land pop up, it will still surf OK and we all get dings walking through doorway s and misjudging or having the board slip out of our hands etc etc.
The first ding on any new board is always traumatic

Well at least i figured this one out before doing any serious damage! there is only one noticable pressure ding and on the top deck... no biggie.

@Jaffa - Was defiantly not stupid enough to have the fins in, that's just common sense. We have some typhoon swell hitting the south islands atm, nothing special but some nice 2 - 5ft faces. Didn't go today just because the gusts were to high ( cant remember where i read this >< ) but going down to lantau for a all day session tomorrow and get used to this beast..

go and have fun , take care

Thanks a mate

Hey guys,

So i just got back from lantau and boy was it kicking off.... from the beach waves looked tiny, but once past the breaking waves it was a whole different kettle of fish, It made me realise im not as strong as i first thought, i made it out to the green water ( felt like 6-7ft faces to me ) and i was just to darn exhausted... my stamina is really low

Initially laying and padding on the board its quite comfortable apart from my body position. If i lay where it feels natural my legs are hanging on the back, in turn when i try to paddle for a green wave they create drag and i cant get up enough speed in time, same goes for white water, my feet are hindering hydrodynamics.

the nose of my board is only just out of the water, i tried pushing myself forward a bit more and arching my back to compensate but the board just nose dives... You guys have any advice? I feel i have gone to short to fast, but as i found out today 6"3 is the maximum limit for commuting (trains and taxi's). Theres no going to buy a long board and practicing on that i just wont be able to transport it, i need to find a way to adapt... Any help would be great guys

peazz, unfortunately transport won't allow you to have the board of a size that fits your learning level. the nly thing that is going to work in your situation is to get paddle fitness paddle when its flat paddle when its not, the take off strategy for shorter boards is to take off where the face is steeper, get into the surf as often as possible.
6'3" is surfable but you need now to put the work in!

Hey Jaffa,

Today made me really realise that my paddling is not all that, im pretty explosive with most things i do, but my paddling muscles just dont have that raw power yet, its hard to explain.

Its safe to say that my arms and shoulders are fried (more arms then shoulders) im going to need a day to recover then ill be back out again.

Is it ok for my legs to be hanging out the back of the board? i was under the impression they need to be on it and in the center for better flow / less drag, o do i need to scoot up the board and get more flexibility in my lower back / core? so my feet are on the board and centered?

EDIT: Seeing the waves build and slow down into huge lips today kind of freaked me out, i was so scared of one of the lips landing flat on my chest. None the less i negotiated my way through the wash machine and got out a good 3 or 4 times... Waves really started to build towards the end to a real uncomfortable level.. i never felt so much water being sucked into a wave as it approached. I ended up to tired to paddle back to shore kinda of going with the wave paddling, 5 second break, paddling etc had a good 6-7ft face land flat on my back as i was paddling in and got worked hard! still all fun i suppose :S

Mate, you just discovered what every beginner (and not so beginner) discovers. Sore arms, surf above your abilities, not knowing what to do...its just a matter of experience and knowledge. And paddling practice. You will face this quite often times before you get comfortable.

Actually, for me, a big part of being comfortable is knowing I can swim back to shore should anything happen (eg board breaks or leash breaks); so if you think the surf is too big/wild for you to swim back in without the board, then dont do it. Having lived in HK I know finding a pool to do laps can be quite hard or very expensive, but you do need to know how to swim pretty well.

In terms of paddling, most people just bend their knees a bit, like this, to get their feet out of the water. Your knees should be centred/balanced on the board, but your feet can stick up in the air a bit no problems.

DTC,

For the first time i have truely had muscle ache from surfing ^^ ive had around 7/8 sessions now, and mainly been weak waves, but fighting 5.5ft /10s / onshore winds was a whole different ball game, I did not expect to get any surf at all, I love challenge ( even if they are a bit dangerous at times ) and just wanted to make it out there a few times and push my body ( it was only the last paddling out / back i struggling ). I injured my back last year doing deadlifts and have not been down the gym since i miss the ache of a good workout.

I did alot of freediving in egypt and consider myself a strong swimmer under the water, but 'stamina' on top of the water for my arms has always been pretty low, I have identified whats holding me back at current ( paddling technique / stamina ) and will work on it to improve.. Im very determined to improve at this even if it does mean a busted lip from my board hitting me in the lip and busting it will let me body recover today, and can asure you ill be back out tomorrow even if its just for a long paddle

Thanks for the picture, Will be trying this out. I did see alot of people lifting there legs, but didnt know whether to follow suit because it could be a bad habit.

Hey, you can't start a thread bragging about your board and not post a pic!!!