Surfing Waves

All too often I cannot find a buddy for my all day surf trips and I go alone. Quite reasonably, my wife tells me about the many things that can go wrong and keeps going until she realizes that she's dealing with a little boy That said, the conversations have made me very wary of dangers in the ocean and I would like to share a cautionary tale with a lesson learned. You are welcome to do the same!

On a chest high day, I was paddling out behind a group of beginners who were splashing each other and not paying attention to the waves. A set came in and crushed them sending bodies and boards every where. I looked up just in time to see a board racing toward my head. I was just able to slide off and dive before getting hit. It's said that surfboards cause the majority of surfing injuries... and I believe it!

After that, I decided to never follow behind another surfer paddling out and always keep control of my board.

BoMan,
This is actually a surfing rule: "never follow behind another surfer paddling out"
This is actually another surfing rule: "always keep control of my board"
billie

Yeah never follow another paddler out. Flank them by at least as much angle as the break coming in. My advice is to protect yourself from the sun.

And remember an 8ft board with an 8ft leggie plus the surfer being hit and pushed back by the wave a second before you means you can be hit even if you are 20 or 25 ft behind

Nothing like learning the hard way!!!

There was a couple who decided to do some lovey dovey water play in the surf right underneath the best peak working on the beach....about 25 heads out today....they were blissfully unaware, caught up in their own world but since I'd seen a swimmer ploughed over two days ago in a similar situation it was fresh on my mind esp. since there was a mini fleet of mini mals waiting for the next wave all aimed right at them.....anyhow, I took a wave and when I was about 30ft from them (6ft body, 7ft leggie, 6' board, still safe distance) I laid down off the back so that the surf would kick the board around pretty good at the end of the leash as the wave broke....I was off to the side of the couple as well; no danger to them even if my leash snapped, but close enough to catch their attention and allow them to put 2 and 2 together....they moved away from all the surfers and peace reigned......

oldmansurfer wrote:My advice is to protect yourself from the sun.

Amen to that, OMS!

After years of running, biking and surfing without protection I have to see the dermatologist every 6 months to treat my skin with liquid nitrogen. Although I've been using sun block for a long time the early damage cannot be undone.

Don't surf around a SUPer trying to go through the wave you are riding................or if you do be quick about it and don't choose that time to turn back toward the SUP or even to go down the wave toward the beach. I had my shin bruised and toenail smashed by them and actually got hit twice a week apart by this same scenario.........Ok so I am a slow learner

oldmansurfer wrote:My advice is to protect yourself from the sun.

No need to worry about that in Ireland.

Once you feel comfortable taking off, popping up, dropping down the wave and making a bottom turn if you want to improve lineup where you feel comfortable then move over 3 feet/1 yard/1 meter deeper into the lineup then work from there till you feel comfortable then move over another 3 feet.

Big H wrote:There was a couple who decided to do some lovey dovey water play in the surf right underneath the best peak working on the beach....about 25 heads out today....they were blissfully unaware, caught up in their own world

I was at the beach over Christmas and there was a group of about 8 learner surfers at a nice little waist high peak - not total beginners, but they were falling off, abandoning boards, perling, poo stance, all the rest. Having fun but not really in control. About 50m down the beach from the flagged area

So I was sitting on the beach watching them all having fun and about 3 or 4 families decided that they would all go and swim just in front of the surfers, maybe catch a few bodysurfs in the waves. Little kids and all ages paddling around in the white water. I was just waiting for one of the surfers to plough straight into someone or fall off and have a board spear into a kid or something. It annoyed/worried me so much that people were paying so little attention to what was going on and putting everyone at risk. After a few minutes I actually wandered over and found one of the mothers standing in the shallows looking after the little kids and said (in a white lie) 'um, my friend is out there surfing and he is just learning, I thought I would mention that there is no way he is good enough to avoid running into your child. Just as a warning, you might want to move 10m down the beach out of his way' (I should have said 'to the flagged area' (where the lifesavers are) but it wasn't a dangerous beach). Luckily the woman took my warning the right way and moved the kids (although the grown ups stayed in the water in the wrong place). I was a bit worried she would think I was ordering her around or something.

Not to mention the (otherwise impressive) old people who decide to go for their beach swim through the line up at about 1m per minute.

Here's a tip. Read the following thread and the articles linked in it. You will learn the best spread for your fingers for your paddling.

viewtopic.php?t=24865#p183076

Ol' Man, amen! LIke you said, don't surf around SUPs. They are dangerous in hands of most people that use them.

dtc wrote:[ I was a bit worried she would think I was ordering her around or something.

Honestly, it wouldn't matter if you were...I tell people esp. with kids all the time to move because they are in a rip....whether or not they know or care at least I did what I could do....the downside to ordering people around is that some folks will disregard you out of spite; I don't much like being told what to do either, so if you want the desired result (no kids with surfboards sticking out of their heads) I suppose a bit of tact and trickery is in order, but don't be shy or feel bad about it.....99% sure that they (whomever they are) are completely unaware of what potentially could happen to them otherwise they wouldn't be hugging and kissing, playing, having a coffee clutch circle, etc, EXACTLY in the path of anyone coming down the line....

Word of advice, a pissed off Marine don't care or don't give a damn about "your" rules or right of way, or surfing area. If your board hits his little girl, you are going to be broken. ( Well, that is what one Marine posted on another forum )

I don't really worry about getting broken....but I do worry about the little girls out there.....better to get them out of the way regardless of who their daddies are.

That was the point I tried to make with him. But he said she has to right to be there just as everyone else in the ocean. But I wondered "why in the surfing area", why in harms way ?" Plus he told me I shouldn't tell her what she can or can't do, without him getting in my face. So damn if you do, damn if you don't. You try to help, but they just argue. That's why I don't try to reason with some people.

billie_morini wrote:Ol' Man, amen! LIke you said, don't surf around SUPs. They are dangerous in hands of most people that use them.

LOL yeah dangerous things but I often surf around them but stay out of their way which is harder to do than a regular surfer since they may be in many different parts of the wave whereas a regular surfer is usually somewhere around where it is breaking. But what I meant to say is that it is very difficult for SUPer to go through a head high or higher breaking wave and they will loose their board and it may come back and hit you as you go around them riding on the same wave they are trying to go through. This happened twice to me neither time knocking me off my board but once bruising my shin and the other time bruising my other shin and splitting my toe nail. I avoid large crowds of SUPers but will go out if there are a few out and it's been a few years now and I haven't been injured again but my toe nail is not normal yet either.

oldmansurfer wrote:Don't surf around a SUPer trying to go through the wave you are riding................or if you do be quick about it and don't choose that time to turn back toward the SUP or even to go down the wave toward the beach.

I am amazed at how fast SUPs can move on a small wave. I paddled into a 3 footer along with a SUP that was easily 200 feet away and had to kick out immediately to avoid getting hit.

waikikikichan wrote:That was the point I tried to make with him. But he said she has to right to be there just as everyone else in the ocean. But I wondered "why in the surfing area", why in harms way ?" Plus he told me I shouldn't tell her what she can or can't do, without him getting in my face. So damn if you do, damn if you don't. You try to help, but they just argue. That's why I don't try to reason with some people.

Women are generally much more reasonable - always try the mother first!

Here's a tip from a face palm moment I had this morning. I'm drinking my coffee and I start wondering what the right length of a surf leash is. So I check out a couple Youtube beginner surfing videos on leashes and in one of them the guy in the video puts his leash on. However, he puts it on in a completely different way from me. He put it around his ankle and then pulled his wetsuit leg down over the top half of the leash. What a revelation that was for me! I had been frickin' putting my leash on over my wetsuit leg (not under it, duh!) and it was rotating all over the place during my sessions and entangling me all the time. So I go to the beach, put my leash on around my ankle in the best place (back foot with the connector perpendicular to the outside of the calf), pull my wetsuit leg over the top half of the leash, go surfing . . . absolutely no leash entanglements the whole session. One more surfing annoyance down.