Surfing Waves

What's the biggest challenge you've faced in becoming a better surfer?

For me it's flexibility. At 68 my hamstrings and back are stiffening and I've had to switch to a slower popup like this. https://barefootsurftravel.com/livemore-magazine/how-to-do-a-take-off It still gets the job done but I have to get into waves early.

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” - Confucius

TIME. Just the amount of time being in the ocean. The more experiences you go through, good and bad, the more knowledge you gain. We all want to spend more time surfing, but LIFE happens, work, family, even the amount of sunlight left in the day, affects to amount of TIME we can spend improving our surfing technique.

waikikikichan wrote:TIME. Just the amount of time being in the ocean. The more experiences you go through, good and bad, the more knowledge you gain. We all want to spend more time surfing, but LIFE happens, work, family, even the amount of sunlight left in the day, affects to amount of TIME we can spend improving our surfing technique.

Big time.

Time is definitely a factor for me too. But sometimes I wonder if my progression as a surfer would benefit from spending more time in the car getting to surf better quality waves at points and reefs rather than more time in the water surfing beach breaks that usually don't offer more than a few turns at best. So yeah, time, but also wave quality - and traffic - are my biggest obstacles.

My opinion is that it is time spent catching and riding waves that matters most and not so much wave quality. Poorer quality waves requires better wave reading and riding skills so you learn more surfing them. Good waves are better but only as far as the time you spend catching and riding them and they are easier to catch and ride so less learned for the time you spend. If you go sit in a crowded lineup and not catch waves very often it's better to go to uncrowded places and catch lots of junk waves. You don't learn anything sitting in a lineup waiting for your turn. My sore shoulder is my biggest hindrance lately, just got an MRI done so soon to get a diagnosis. This is just my opinion and if you can't catch or ride junk waves then just ignore this because it is the time you spend actually catching and riding waves that matters

oldmansurfer wrote: Poorer quality waves requires better wave reading and riding skills so you learn more surfing them

Because my travel time is over an hour for every sesh, I work hard with the tea leaves to avoid junk waves. That said, you have a good point. One day my home break closed out along with all the other nearby spots. I paddled out any way and practiced getting into waves early and scampering back to the tail to ride out the "crash landings." After many falls and countless grains of sand in the suit I made it more often than not. Yee Haw!

I agree that you can learn something from just about any wave, but let's face it - they're called "junk waves" for a reason. Junk waves may help improve your pop-ups and duck dives, but they generally aren't so good for improving your down-the-line or top-to-bottom surfing. Of course, if you can't catch waves in a crowded lineup at a decent break, or don't have access to good waves, then I guess it makes sense to make the most of the junk waves. Personally, I've had more memorable rides and more "a-ha!" moments after catching fewer, good waves than a bunch of crappy ones.

well perhaps the junk waves you surf aren't any good for going down the line but in the junk waves that I surf it is a matter of picking the right wave and doing the right thing quite often. On junk days there are a variety of waves coming in. I guess I have it good because I can take my pick of junk waves within a large area without very many surfers unless the waves are good. Before I go out I watch the waves and look for waves that would allow me more maneuvers and paddle out for that peak. Most of the waves will truly be junk but some waves will often have a longer wall to ride if you do everything right. It's all a matter of figuring out which wave coming in is going to be the one I saw from the beach with a longer wall and then surfing it right so you get to do some maneuvers. However even if it is closing out mostly I can find a place where I can get a bottom turn and maybe a top turn or a floater before it closes out If I get on a good wave I need to think about what I want to do when normally there isn't a lot of choices, but I already know how to do it from riding junk waves. Maybe the difference is that I used to surf long ago and quit so I have some wave knowledge that persisted even though I didn't surf for a while.