Surfing Waves

The 1st time I ever tried surfing was last October - with uni surf club. I remember walking out into lines and lines of white water with a pink soft top board whos nose was peeling off so it had been ducktaped back together, and was getting absolutely hammered just trying to get out into the shorebreak!

It took me about half an hour to just manage to lie on the board and paddle, as I wAS HAMMERED CONSTANTLY BY WHITE WASH! (oops caps lock on)

why did I keep going back in? gawd knows and so, 9 months, two boards and two wetsuits later (and minus a whole load of cash!) I'm here and still lovin it, and when i'm out playin in the water I'm still constantly stoked, even though I STILL get hammered by whitewash

My first time on 'big boards' (ie. those sexy yellow foamies that everywhere in Cornwall has!) was April this year at Crantock. After years of playing around on bodyboards catching whitewater, Sean decided that he'd catch more and go faster with a bigger board...not to be out-done I hired one too!

Not sure how big it was really, but there must've been a couple of foot and a howling onshore - masses and masses of white foam smacking me in the face, and the rips scaring my pants off! I caught the first wave I paddled for and felt like I was flying...first thing I said when I got back out was "how fleshin' fast do these thigns go?!" Soooo stoked!!

Sadly, don't think I caught another wave all sesh...kept jumping on too far forward and got really good at wiping out headfirst

Next time out we decided that bodyboarding on whopping great foam boards made us look a little silly, so obviously we'd look really cool if we tried to stand up! Crantock again, saw a girl who was learning to pop-up so we copied her in the whitewater, and spent the next 4 hours practising! Ended up with VERY red faces....always wear sunscreen!!!

And so stoked now, we've both gone out and bought boards (glad I'm not the only one who's done that and still getting a pounding by the whitewater!)...loving it, loving it, loving it!!

I had a hangover

The first time I went surfing, I was 17, (seven years ago - wow, I'm sooo old now!!!) and it was a July day, really big and choppy and torrential rain (but the cash happy surf school decided to take us out anyway)..

I kept wiping out and being dragged under the water pulled along by the board, and it was high tide so I was dragged along the rocks and pebbles which hurt a lot.

The surf school ignored my pleas of 'I'm feeling a little cold, could someone drive me home', despite me putting on the obligatory medical form that I had problems with my circulation... and more fool them, because they ended up taking me to Hospital an hour later as I got hypothermia...!!!!

Took me 6 years after to properly catch the surfing bug.....

ps - I won't name and shame the surf school in question, I think they've changed a lot now and are more professional...

harsh

That is harsh I feel sorry for you now My first time surfing I got a big 8'4 and I was about 5'5 at the time around 12-13 or something tried all day without getting anything started to get mad and determined and then I ended up catching a nice white wash wave and was the best feeling in the world and caught the bug.

my first time was brilliant. i just hired a huge yellow foamy with a mate like everybody does. i sort of new the theory of how to stand up from an assembly given by my primary school teacher years ago in which he demonstrated the pop up. anyways i got riding in to the beach mastered pretty soon. i even started catching some small green waves n riding them to the beach. when i say small i mean about 2-3 ft. all in all was a pretty good day!!

james

lol hypothermia on your first surf! well fair play to you for going back in at all, that would put a lot of people off for life!

My first surfing experience is rather fresh in the memory as it is less than twelve hours old. I rented a 7'10" longboard from the local surf shop (I live in Jacksonville, FL) and after locking up my car, I walked across the street, waxed the board as though it was my own, and waded out into the Atlantic.

Paddling was no problem for me, but standing was. I wound up doing my fair share of kneeboarding before I slowly picked up the popup. Had I rented any shortboards I'd have binned my surfing attempt within an hour, but I stayed out on the waves for over four hours (before heading home for a dinner my aunt was holding) until they started to die down. Yeah, it may not be a Hollywood moment, but I would say the bug has bitten me and I look forward to my next adventure on a longboard.

Another lesson learned the hard way was the value of rash guards. After about an hour my torso had friction burn like none other, after paddling like a madman through the waves. In short, I came back with a great tan, a mild sunburn on my back, and a desire to head back out there the next weekend I get the chance...