Surfing Waves

Before anyone jumps on me, this is a actual posting on Craigslist Tokyo. I didn't call him an idiot, he called himself one.
"So I'm one of those idiots who buys a surfboard because he can skate and snowboard thinking it's gonna be easy and that it will make him super cool in front of his co-workers when he tells them how he rented an Airbnb in Chiba over the weekend and then gets pummeled by the ocean for 2 years and realizes that learning a new sport at 35 is fleshin' stupid anyway because being a beginner at anything sucks when you're old and you're a father now for Christ sake start acting like it and pickup smoking cigars or drinking expensive whiskey and while you're at it why don't you ever tuck in your shirt like all the other dads you look like a narc."


Maybe he would still be surfing today, if he started out on a long(er) board ?

Darwinism at its finest
He had the Yen but not the will.

Maybe he would still be surfing today, if he started out on a long(er) board ?

Maybe. But if he started surfing to look cool - probably not as even on a longboard it is hard to learn. But age is no excuse.

Yeah age is no excuse you can start at any age, depends on how determined you are and if you're stubborn you're not getting anywhere.
The funniest thing I see is people coming to the beach on under volumed boards and you see them sinking thinking they're a pro

waikikikichan wrote:Before anyone jumps on me, this is a actual posting on Craigslist Tokyo. I didn't call him an idiot, he called himself one.
"So I'm one of those idiots who buys a surfboard because he can skate and snowboard thinking it's gonna be easy and that it will make him super cool in front of his co-workers when he tells them how he rented an Airbnb in Chiba over the weekend and then gets pummeled by the ocean for 2 years and realizes that learning a new sport at 35 is fleshin' stupid anyway because being a beginner at anything sucks when you're old and you're a father now for Christ sake start acting like it and pickup smoking cigars or drinking expensive whiskey and while you're at it why don't you ever tuck in your shirt like all the other dads you look like a narc."

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Maybe he would still be surfing today, if he started out on a long(er) board ?

it dont matter. its on the man and not on the skate or the surf.
a boxer can beat an all around mma fighter. its on the man how he uses his boxing and defense. perhaps the boxer has a good takedown defense. and the boxer is good at 3 dimensional boxing hitting from knee to head.

its on the man !

this dude didnt take the road he should have taken perhaps.
perhaps like u said he should have started longboarding
perhaps he never gave the basics a chance and tried to be the best by skipping the essential parts
perhaps he just isnt very talented in surfing?
maybe he isnt a fast learner anymore
perhaps his athletic and pectar are so degraded that his issues are somewhere else then surfing.
perhaps overly stubborn

its a gray area.

skateboarding helps me big time with steering. but it didnt help me untill the basics were given attention to.
and age has nothing to do with it.

as a skateboarder i look at all the possible possibilities and errors and adaptations.

swim skills
fitness body and weight
cardio
skateboard skills( wether u think not) they are an influence due to the above mentioned things fitness)
whats for you: a long board or a high volumed funboard or a foamy shortboard or high volumed fishboard.
believe me or not but ask around you. not everyone feels good to go on a long board.
humble teaching. try to balance my stubbornity and fight the inner self to still be able to listen and take pieces from all around and give also a piece of yourself to the surf story.

who knows this guy might be all over it like i was in begin. that i would be a day one thing( which isnt real after trying)


im convinced he didnt look at all the aspects. but still im just assuming
but his age aint one of them. im sure of that

Think he probably could've done better on a longboard, but this type of person is usually the same one that starts on a foamy and 2 weeks later is asking about transitioning to a Fish because the website says "it paddles like a longboard" and they want an easier paddle out.

I look at posts like this as a good thing. One less person in the water and someone gets to come up on a lightly used Robert August board for cheap(that's around $250 right?), not to mention a free pack of instant noodles too

Hey, at least he knows how to price the board right

Age is a total excuse. Some of us here are living proof that people can learn to surf in our 30s, 40s, and so on if we use the right board and put effort into it.

There are a bunch of wannabie anything in Japan (I've lived there for some time.) I sort of doubt he can snowboard that well either.

saltydog wrote:Hey, at least he knows how to price the board right

Age is a total excuse. Some of us here are living proof that people can learn to surf in our 30s, 40s, and so on if we use the right board and put effort into it.

There are a bunch of wannabie anything in Japan (I've lived there for some time.) I sort of doubt he can snowboard that well either.

look lemme put it like this

let us say you skated madly from the age of 12 to 20 and then stopped and had office work untill the age of 35. yes then age becomes a factor to get your body back lean and ripped and cardio.
if you kept it lean and ripped untill 35 then thats allready build up. and then u can move on to the learning curve of surfing and even if you stopped at 33. you give it a run and get back to where you were.

the age can be a factor but it isnt a rule that applies to everyone.

guys like jaffa and oldman are doing great.

and honestly is 30 and 40 really old?????? i find it young even to my standards. it is proven that fighters are best at the age of 33. bas rutten did an interview where he said the same. and surely fighters train damn hard.
ofcourse hey age gets us all. 30 40 is young tho

another side is that the human brain is perfect. and it is a known fact that the brain changes per use. so the example of the lean and ripped is just one. but also if your brains werent intelectually stimulated all your life then the skill of a talent becomes less likely. not discriminating on intelect. but it does matter how it evolves

Lots of sports people are at their best at early 30s because it's the age that combines having 15 years experience and training and still having a high level of physical ability; different to starting at 33 and having a limited time to practice and improve

Of course with a lot of time and will and persistence you can learn at any age. But time isn't always available and there are people who are used to success and no longer want to fight for it. Or who just don't see surfing as something important enough to fight for and spend that much time on.

Hence something easy to do that reduces the time needed and the persistence needed and the effort needed - ie a longer board - just seems worthwhile. Of course you still need time and persistence but just enough less to keep the promise of getting there dangling almost within reach

Maybe he just didn't enjoy it. Crazy I know but just maybe... Surfing isn't for everyone (I'd love one of my friends to come with me but none of them like it so I go solo )

Their loss

learning to surf is not as easy as almost everyone thinks it is

Europeans never really took to the sport until wetsuit technology was advanced enough to ensure they never got a chill. They roll a bit pampered over there.

Cowabungadude wrote:Maybe he just didn't enjoy it. Crazy I know but just maybe... Surfing isn't for everyone (I'd love one of my friends to come with me but none of them like it so I go solo )

Their loss

i have a friend. that friend is a song
etta james: at last
i listen that and looking at the sea and i get in love more then before
i look at my surfboards on the sand all well prepared
i choose one and walk while i smell the air that only a few nowadays appreciate
when my first feet touches the border of water and sand i stand still and look.
and walk untill the water depth i at my neck.
getting on the board and just look around and paddle to that place where most waves arrive the correct way

man my friends dont even look at me anymore since i went surfing. but hey we cant expect everyone to come along
free will

and i agree

their loss for not giving this healthy sport a try

RinkyDink wrote:Europeans never really took to the sport until wetsuit technology was advanced enough to ensure they never got a chill. They roll a bit pampered over there.

give the europeans some more props. they actually organize cold water swimming cause they believe it makes you less sick. and they do that without wetsuits. sometimes i only use rash vests and a short.
a question to you. does a wetsuit help that much. cold is still cold.

now maybe u be like its a dumb reaction. in norway a wetsuit is good to have. but in holland and belgium and 1 4th of france u can use a slim wetsuite or a rashvest. the differenc e between having a wetsuit and rash is minimal. cause cold is cold in those waters. and its up to us to move. if we move we stay o, a good celsius degree. if we stop moving in the water yeah the cold will reach you more

RinkyDink wrote:Europeans never really took to the sport until wetsuit technology was advanced enough to ensure they never got a chill. They roll a bit pampered over there.

Your timing of when Europeans took to surfing,slightly out although popularity for the masses did come with surf type wetsuits, prior to that football jerseys took some of the wind chill out!
In France and England sea bathing and wooden body boards ridden prone were evident just after WWII there was longboard surfing in the 1960s and there was a firm contingent of Australians in the Life saving scene. Bathing costume, neck to knee. Admittedly winter surfing was not happening.

Go back through Bruce Brown' s early surf movies and you will see about the introduction of the rubber shirt!

A lot of early wetsuits were diving suits with beaver tails and huge nappy rash between the legs!

Surfers were a tougher lot then , heavy boards , no leashes , lose your board swim to shore paddle out repeat, catch wave repeat.

I'm just having some fun. Europeans are just like everybody else when it comes to surfing. It's all good.

I am a little of surfing history trivia buff. Wetsuits certainly allowed surfing to reach the Poles, the North and South ones, although there are some desperate spots in the Baltic.
I wouldn't like to surf the Great Lakes without a prime wetsuit, and Iceland wouldn't be a nice land without them either. We would all be crammed on tropic shores. Currently board shorts and rash shirt here and sun screen!