Surfing Waves

It was a gorgeous day at Bo. Corduroy sets rolling in and a mellow vibe in the lineup. I paddled out and waited my turn by doing a few egg beater 360's to watch seagulls stealing fish from the pelicans and a seal popping up through the kelp to check me out.

My wave finally came, a gorgeous 4 footer with a long peeling face that was going to section all the way in. I stroked with everything I had but went no where. I was stuck...Glued...JAMMED! The wave rolled by to someone else's delight and I was left holding a wad of kelp on my leash. The blades took me so long to clear that I took the next wave on the head.

How to not takeoff? Wetsuits and seaweed.....well at least there aren't any crocodiles

BoMan wrote: I was stuck...Glued...JAMMED!

A few years ago when I lived in Sydney, my local beachie was Maroubra, which has a steamtrain rip down at the southern end. Even on the biggest day, jump in by the rocks, and hey presto, you're out back ... but... one section passed over a kelp bed. The number of times I was gently stroking along with the rip to the edge of the impact zone, and then a big set would appear on the horizon, time to start really paddling to get out far enough... nope, I've got 20 kg of sea foliage attached, going nowhere... at least until the set landed on my head

Big kelp forests seem to help the waves stay glassy though. I'd rather deal with kelp than choppy wave faces.

The egg beater turns wound up my leash...I'm my own worst enemy!

I remember my scuba diving instructor telling us to always exit our dives with lots of spare air so we'd have time to deal with things on the surface that might be unexpected. He told a story about two divers who were cruising around a kelp forest. They stayed down till their tanks were just about empty and when they tried to surface they discovered there was a three feet thick kelp blanket on top of them. Panic ensued and that was all she wrote.

The other day I was surfing at a small but decently clean break mostly for long boarders and SUPers. I noticed no one was riding all the way to the end but wanting to get as long a ride a possible I kept on until I pretty much stopped. I hopped off the board to find myself in the midst of a kelp bed. I had to fight off all the kelp wanting to keep me in there.