Surfing Waves

Last week I got to see a picture taken by a camera with a tele lens of me surfing, I was shocked from my stance, not sure how I was even surfing waves with no issue, turns out I was standing tall and using my chest as weight forward instead of dropping the knees, I've stop doing it now but I didn't really notice it before, what about you guys, have you seen a picture of you surfing yet if so what was your reaction

I often stand tall when there is nothing to do on the wave but wait. If I am just cruising as in just ankle turns I have a narrow and tall stance and sometimes I might do a small cutback with arm over head standing tall narrow stance. If there is more activity then a crouched wider stance. Unfortunately I surf alone and no one wants to take my picture. My wife took a picture of me surfing and it was while I was cutting out of a wave and I thought "Oh my gosh out of all of the times she could have taken a picture why wait till then?"

This isn't me but it's how I usually surf "low and slow Bo." This fall I will beg my daughter to close Pokemon and snap a photo.

BoMan wrote:
This isn't me but it's how I usually surf "low and slow Bo." This fall I will beg my daughter to close Pokemon and snap a photo.

Damn, I can't get that low, my legs are kind of stiff, hopefully they'll get more flexible over time

BoMan wrote:
This isn't me but it's how I usually surf "low and slow Bo." This fall I will beg my daughter to close Pokemon and snap a photo.

If I was on that board and those waves I would probably be standing all the ways up with my feet a foot apart or less in that particular spot on the wave (unless I needed to do a big speed turn in which case I might be in the same position)

The first time I was photographed surfing, I was on a double overhead wave that was just starting to barrel, and I was high up on the wave, crouched right down and forward for drive, just starting to drop down the face so I could cut back and let the lip crest over my head...

...and then I saw the photo...

A kneehigh sloppy mushburger with me flapping about just in front of the whitewater with my feet right together, standing up straight, looking down at the board.

Ignorance is bliss.

oldmansurfer wrote:If I was on that board and those waves I would probably be standing all the ways up with my feet a foot apart or less in that particular spot on the wave (unless I needed to do a big speed turn in which case I might be in the same position)

You would rock our lineup!
Unless it's glassy I have the nasty habit of bouncing off when I stand all the way up.

drowningbitbybit wrote:The first time I was photographed surfing, I was on a double overhead wave that was just starting to barrel, and I was high up on the wave, crouched right down and forward for drive, just starting to drop down the face so I could cut back and let the lip crest over my head...

...and then I saw the photo...

A kneehigh sloppy mushburger with me flapping about just in front of the whitewater with my feet right together, standing up straight, looking down at the board.

Ignorance is bliss.

It's like when you come out of the surf thinking 'yeah reasonable size today' and stop and look back from the beach and notice it's about waist high

This is the only existing picture of me surfing as far as I know.

On my 1st picture, you could photoshop a toilet bowl into the photo and it would look like I have perfect technique.

BoMan wrote:
This isn't me but it's how I usually surf "low and slow Bo." This fall I will beg my daughter to close Pokemon and snap a photo.

Low and slow is how I've been riding this summer since the waves are so small while and I'm trying to go as fast and far as I can. I "think" I look close to the pic BUT very possible I am in the dreaded p## stance

This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.
I was 12 or 13, first year in high school and the board was this 9' 6" balsa pig board , known by all as the can opener.The older guys had just allowed me out into the point surf for the first time ,this was strictly enforced by the older guys, you had to be allowed!!!!!

We had to pay ten shillings to register our boards and the lifeguards had the power to confiscate boards that strayed into swimming areas, or if you paddled out through a swimming area.
Solution paddle out off the rocks you see in the foreground of shot one or do a fast run across the beach and paddle away, reverse order coming in when they weren't watching.
Registration sticker
as we headed towards the end of high school 1967 we were going shorter in board length and longer in hair and the Vietnam draft was hanging over our heads.
Here I am with my first foam board gradually becoming a short board.
The Japanese guy was our school's first Rotary exchange student we taught him to surf and swear Aussie style 1967 Local newspaper photo. Dee Why Point in the back ground and fully posed

Then 45 years later I noticed my straight style hasn't changed much
but I now have a picture of my backhand turn that brought me to that position three frames earlier

BTW the waves in all the shots felt bigger faster and better than the photos.

Huh, you look almost exactly the same with your hands and legs. Maybe slightly more 'power' behind the turns.

jaffa1949 wrote:This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.

That's before I was born!

Nice turn that last pic Jaffa!

I like this picture of me at Medewi in 2009, for it's educational purposes.. It took me years until I finally understood the fault in arm position, and the blockade to turn my shoulders and surf more vertical because of that.

jaffa1949 wrote:This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.

There were beautiful colors in the world in 1962 but you'd never know it. Pictures of my youth are black and white too! (and faded...and warped)

Great photo's.

I surfed at Dee Why point in 2013 just once. It was incredibly busy, not like it looks in the sixties.

I'm lucky enough to have loads of photo's of myself surfing, due to having some friends/ex girlfriend with decent camera lenses. I'm sure my first one though will have been of myself doing something terrible.

jaffa1949 wrote:This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.

Early DY 1962.jpg

I was 12 or 13, first year in high school and the board was this 9' 6" balsa pig board , known by all as the can opener.The older guys had just allowed me out into the point surf for the first time ,this was strictly enforced by the older guys, you had to be allowed!!!!!

The Can Opener.jpg

We had to pay ten shillings to register our boards and the lifeguards had the power to confiscate boards that strayed into swimming areas, or if you paddled out through a swimming area.
Solution paddle out off the rocks you see in the foreground of shot one or do a fast run across the beach and paddle away, reverse order coming in when they weren't watching.
Registration sticker

Scanned Image.jpg

as we headed towards the end of high school 1967 we were going shorter in board length and longer in hair and the Vietnam draft was hanging over our heads.
Here I am with my first foam board gradually becoming a short board.
The Japanese guy was our school's first Rotary exchange student we taught him to surf and swear Aussie style 1967 Local newspaper photo. Dee Why Point in the back ground and fully posed

Sixties surf.jpg

Wow my parents weren't even born back then
I wonder what it was like having lineups with only balsa longboards back then, I only see a load of shortboarders, a couple foamies and the occasional minimal but not really any logs

BoMan wrote:

jaffa1949 wrote:This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.

There were beautiful colors in the world in 1962 but you'd never know it. Pictures of my youth are black and white too! (and faded...and warped)

One of my kids has once asked me, "was the world in just black and white a long time ago?" That same kid is hogging my phone to play pokemon go I'm not sure I trust him enough to hand him my phone on the beach to film me surf while I'd be hundreds of yards away. When I'm ready to face the reality of my poor style I should just hire someone.

saltydog wrote:

BoMan wrote:

jaffa1949 wrote:This was a picture of me surfing Dee Why point in 1961/62.

There were beautiful colors in the world in 1962 but you'd never know it. Pictures of my youth are black and white too! (and faded...and warped)

One of my kids has once asked me, "was the world in just black and white a long time ago?" That same kid is hogging my phone to play pokemon go I'm not sure I trust him enough to hand him my phone on the beach to film me surf while I'd be hundreds of yards away. When I'm ready to face the reality of my poor style I should just hire someone.

The day someone makes a camera that's cheap and can follow you while surfing, from shore obviously, not a drone, I would be the first to buy it, considering how much you can improve from seeing yourself in the water