Surfing Waves

Show us your favorite webcam! Here are a couple of spots I surfed as a college student.

Capitola (summer vacation and holidays)
https://foxxr.com/beachcamlive/

UCSB Campus Point (when I should have been studying)
http://128.111.168.38/surf.html

I like this site http://kauai-webcam.com/index.html particularly the Hanalei beach and Kalapaki beach web cams but also the one below which is PKs on the south side

This one should get interesting over the next few weeks.

http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/mav ... rnia_4152/

This one looks pretty good for today.

http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/sun ... oahu_4746/

Okay, I have to head out to the surf myself.

This one is good for today http://www.surfline.com/video/webisodes/live-dahui-backdoor-shootout_151282

oldmansurfer wrote:This one is good for today http://www.surfline.com/video/webisodes/live-dahui-backdoor-shootout_151282

I like that shortboard takeoff at 0:15. Surfing is a blast, but I have to admit that I'm a super lazy surfer. I'm not a hunter aggressively paddling to get to that perfect wave over there at spot X. I'm more like the guy who thinks I could paddle over there and get that wave or I could wait for the next one that might break right where I'm at now. . . yeah, I think I'll wait here and see what comes next. One of the appeals of a shortboard is that I can sit along the impact zone, depending on the swell, and just take off leisurely like the guy in your video instead of having to paddle my ass off to get into the wave.

http://balibelly.com/bingin

My favorite

Took a look at the balibelly webcam - looking pretty miserable today

Like the last 2 months unfortunately......

RinkyDink wrote:

oldmansurfer wrote:This one is good for today http://www.surfline.com/video/webisodes/live-dahui-backdoor-shootout_151282

I like that shortboard takeoff at 0:15. Surfing is a blast, but I have to admit that I'm a super lazy surfer. I'm not a hunter aggressively paddling to get to that perfect wave over there at spot X. I'm more like the guy who thinks I could paddle over there and get that wave or I could wait for the next one that might break right where I'm at now. . . yeah, I think I'll wait here and see what comes next. One of the appeals of a shortboard is that I can sit along the impact zone, depending on the swell, and just take off leisurely like the guy in your video instead of having to paddle my ass off to get into the wave.

They quit running the contest after a bit so no live feed anymore. Definitely pipeline is not a place that you want to surf then. No one surfing there is staying in one place waiting for waves to come to them. It's all about positioning. In the wrong position and you won't be catching any waves or you will be getting clobbered by the sets. No one casually surfs pipeline (unless it is really small).

oldmansurfer wrote:They quit running the contest after a bit so no live feed anymore. Definitely pipeline is not a place that you want to surf then. No one surfing there is staying in one place waiting for waves to come to them. It's all about positioning. In the wrong position and you won't be catching any waves or you will be getting clobbered by the sets. No one casually surfs pipeline (unless it is really small).

I can watch the recording of it, but I've got a Surfline membership. At any rate, if you can watch the guy at 0:15 seconds in the video you posted, you can see that he leisurely paddles to position himself at the peak. He's not paddling much at all though. I'm not saying that a shortboard will always allow a surfer to sit and wait for a wave at the impact zone, but you can clearly see in the video that it's an option. It helps that at Pipeline you have a very steep drop at takeoff whether you're at wave speed or not. In other words, at Pipeline the incline of the wave is steep enough to allow surfers to glide down the incline and gain speed pretty quickly if their popup is lightning fast. Paddling hard and reaching wave speed is obviously the safest way to ensure a good takeoff, but it's not the only takeoff option.

RinkyDink wrote:

oldmansurfer wrote: I'm not saying that a shortboard will always allow a surfer to sit and wait for a wave at the impact zone, but you can clearly see in the video that it's an option.

Here's another example, not as good, but it shows a similar takeoff. Watch John Florence's takeoff (start at 0:34). You can see he's waiting close to the impact zone and he doesn't have to paddle too much to get into that wave.

He is not sitting around waiting for waves to come to him. He is paddling to a very specific place and staying there by paddling. He is alert to sets coming and not relaxing or cruising although it may seem like that but he was raised at that beach so he really knows it well and probably exerts minimal effort compared to others

oldmansurfer wrote:I like this site http://kauai-webcam.com/index.html particularly the Hanalei beach and Kalapaki beach web cams but also the one below which is PKs on the south side

I've always liked the Princeville area. Some good rights breaking today!

http://livesurfcamhawaii.com/kauai/princeville-beach-cam.html

There is a North swell running today. That camera angle isn't good for the swell but that is Hanalei and the corner part is the bowl I think. It's probably around 8 foot (Hawaiian)

I love watching Steamer's Lane. It's fun to see how longboarders ride steeper waves and navigate the crowd.

http://www.surfershot.com/steamer-lane-surfcam