Surfing Waves

icetime wrote:The surfer makes the board, I see people on foamies that absolutely rip and kooks on shortboards

That statement got me thinking of this kook I saw while surfing at this spot in North Chiba, Japan. He was riding a Firewire Tomo Vanguard ( about $1300.00 USD here ) Every wave I saw him on, he was on both knees with both hands death grabbing the rails, just getting pulverized going over the falls. The thing that stands out is I noticed he had a longboard nose guard wrap around the nose ( and you know those Vanguards have a unique nose design )
Do you have any stories of Kooks on shortboards ?

How much time ya got?

There was a guy out the other day with a Gath and booties....in chest to shoulder high Kuta (sandy beach break). He had a go pro on the nose, long sleeve brightly coloured rashie with logos all over it, kabuki-esque zinc over nearly every inch of his face, big surf watch; he had it all. Poor guy couldn't catch a wave....was forever being cut off and dropped in on, or he'd just pop up crazy and the board would go one way and he the other..........then I saw the need for the helmet as he got run down by an out of control foamie after blowing yet another wave and sputtering around in the pits.....at least he understood where he was probably going to be right?

Too often the story is either one or the other - either it's dropping in and causing at minimum the wave to be lost for both or it's a worn out paddler on a board too short taking a break in the pits while paddling right up the gut, sometimes in the water cooling off for their rest with the board floating alongside creating a floating blockade.

I get some laughs though....like when I'm long boarding and a flotilla who watched me take a good wave paddles out on their shortboards to the takeoff spot that I had been on then attempt to catch the wave with boards of half the volume I have at the same spot....or even better when I'm out there waiting on a wave with the longboard and they come out and surreptitiously slowly paddle around me and head deeper so that they are in position to take the wave that I marked out and had been waiting on....good luck to them.

I have more.....that should get things started anyway.....

I do actually, me yesterday and the day before.

I think I need more foam.

pmcaero wrote:I do actually, me yesterday and the day before.

I think I need more foam.

Ha! Sometimes I'm the kook on a shortie too. Ill take a shorter board out on days when its pitching fast. I love a late drop and a quick carve down the face and my bigger board doesn't have the rocker for that type of surfing.

I'm a terrible shortboarder, but I'll say this - it forces me to not be lazy on my take- offs.

The OP reminds me of someone I know in my family. MUST have all the latest gear before even attempting any new endeavour. It just isn't possible otherwise.

I see these guys everyday out in HB. The water has cooled off a bit so they are less abundant, but the tell tale signs usually are;
-Paddling out while too far back on the board
-Inability to sit on their board consistently
-Never, or very rarely, out in the water alone
-Rarely start paddling early enough and are never in an area where they can make the wave.

On a recent trip I paddled out to find an exhausted newb. He wore a shorty wetsuit with a hanging shoulder strap and shivered mightily in the wind and the 58 degree water. He was bobbing on a shortboard in the impact zone and took wave after wave on the head. He had borrowed a friend's gear and was out on his own. Kudos for stoke but not so much for common sense.

I convinced him to paddle in and try again with a proper suit and longboard. The next day I gave him a few pointers and he had a lot of fun trimming and carving turns on his belly and eventually got to his feet in the white water. When I return to that beach in the summer, I'm sure he'll be the one giving pointers.

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Winston S. Churchill

JJGreenberg wrote: I love a late drop and a quick carve down the face and my bigger board doesn't have the rocker for that type of surfing.

I have another board which I consider "the perfect board", rocker, sharp nose and lots of volume, but it's way too busted now to use .
I'm looking for something in between my shortboard and that older board, so I can still fit it in the car without using the roof racks.

I generally surf in conditions that would be too challenging for a beginner. The conditions are too challenging for most surfers. So I never see beginners except when it's not so challenging and most often the beginners are taking lessons and not on shortboards. However on this forum it seems often people think they need a high perfomance board to do average turns. They can't do the turns on the board they have so they get a high performance shortboard thinking it's going to solve their problems. If I were a younger guy and had more time to surf than I do, I would probably go that direction too and in reality maybe I will go shorter than 7'6" but the learning curve is so slow for me that I doubt it. Plus I like being able to catch waves that I am way out of position for a shortboard. I don't need to duck dive although it would help a bit

They always amuse me. Until they let go of their board at it smacks someone in the face.

It's always funny to see kooks laying on their shortboard like a wounded turtle.... arms sticking out acting as pontoons. We ask them, " you sure you want to ride that here in Waikiki ?" They say " yeah, I'm fine". And when they go to sit up the board shoots out the back and spears a local in the back of the head.

I still have a cut on the top of my head nearly two weeks after that tourist's kooked duck dive and the board shot out the back and took me out.....at least I'm not dizzy anymore (or any more than before!)

My favourite sight was some teenager riding an all new lost surfboard, they cost buttloads over here, around 700 USD or something, anyways, the guy was an anchor he would sit in one spot and wait for the waves to come to him then get caught inside and do this really bad duck dive so he'd get sucked backwards, when he was paddling for a wave he would try to get up using one knee and then lifting the other foot then him dancing with his balance to get on his feet.... then go straight and lose the wave because of very little volume, that made me wonder is it true there are people out there that think if they buy a board a pro surfer rides they'll suddenly become kelly slater level?

Just saw this....

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/13-of-th ... f_the_day/

Big H wrote:I still have a cut on the top of my head nearly two weeks after that tourist's kooked duck dive and the board shot out the back and took me out.....at least I'm not dizzy anymore (or any more than before!)

I've done it so many times on a funboard. I always pray when I look back to see if I've killed anyone. I got bad techniques, weak arms and not enough weight to pull it off.

My worst surf injury was incurred by a kook dropping in inches in front of me and then falling off his board, which snapped back and smacked me in the face. A very underwhelming story, but surfing in crowds is a bit like driving: even if you are a safe driver it's other people on the road that you have to worry about.