Introduction and hello

[SoCal WaterSpout]

Hi everybody! My name is Tina, and I moved to the southern coast of California (Irvine, to be exact), about a month ago, from inland North Carolina. Not counting living on the shore of lake michigan in a town called Grand Haven, this is the first time I've ever lived this close to the beach, or at least near big waves and salt water.

I've never surfed a day in my life, but I am signed up to take lessons soon at a place called Kahuna Bob's in San Diego. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I go down to the beach about every other day, and watch the surfers, and look forward to the day I'll have a board of my own. If things go right with my lessons, and if I love it as much as I think I will, I'm going to pick up a board of my own very soon, probably within the next month or two.

The beaches closest to me are Laguna Beach, and Huntington Beach - both within a 10-15 minute drive. Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself, and say hello. Any advice you can give a complete newbie to the sport would be much appreciated.

[Laguna]

Hey Tina welcome to the forum.
Hope the lessons go well and you really get into surfing because it is the best friggin thing on this planet! Keep us up to date with your progress. Any questions and everyone here will be happy to help you out. Southern California - aren't you lucky. Sounds like you live in a killer place.

[Old Guys Rule]

Welcome. Don't forget Newport Beach and San Clemente, both are close to you and have great surf.

[SoCal WaterSpout]

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize how blessed I am living here. It's just a beautiful area to begin with - mountains, beach and palm trees, all rolled into one. I've never lived in a place quite like this. The weather here I'm told is a constant 70° - 75°F year round. And from what I read on here in various, it seems that we have some of the best waves in the entire world. Indeed I am lucky!!!

I bought a 4/3 O'Neill Heat wetsuit last week. Got it for 50% off at a surf shop in Huntington beach. I bought a $30 body board to go along with it, so I can at least get a feel for the waves before I start my lessons. I'll probably give it a test run this weekend. Would have done it already, but I'm just getting over the flu.

[SoCal WaterSpout]

welcome. Don't forget Newport Beach and San Clemente. Both are close to you and have great surf.

Love San Clemente. I'm sure I will spend lots of time there when I get my board. I ate at a place the other day called Fisherman's restaurant at the base of the pier. I'm a big fan of seafood anyways - I'm a strict vegetarian most of the time, but if I do eat meat, the only thing I eat is fish. Can't give that up. You could have ordered anything random thing on the menu, and I would have been just as happy. In fact, the place where I'm going to take lessons isn't far from there.

[Old Guys Rule]

My guess is you will be taking your lessons over at T st. I hope you learn to love the sport as much as I do. Plan on getting a few wetsuites for the different water temperatures. The water is certainly a bit colder right now.

[isaluteyou]

welcome and best of luck with the surfing lessons hopefully you will have a great first session.

[dondiemand]

welcome to the forum and welcome to so cal..if ever you're in l.a., hit me up, i can show you some of the local breaks..goodluck

[justloafing]

I can't believe you left the NC waves for Southern California waves. What are you thinking? Hehehehehehehehe

I hope you have a blast wahine.

[Bub]

Welcome! After a few lessons you'll be better than myself guaranteed!

As a fellow newbie to the sport (6 months on this message board...about onlyt 10 hrs in the water on 5 different surf trips since July) here are some of my lessons learned/recommendations:

1) Especially your 1st few times out, try and stay clear from piers, jettys or places where there are crowds of surfers or obstacles that you could drift into requiring alot of paddling to keep yourself from getting in trouble (crashing against rocks, piers etc). Unless your a very advanced and strong swimmer already, you'll get really tired trying to fight ocean currents up/down the coast and keeping placement in a lineup. Allowing yourself plenty of open beachfront to drift along peacefully will be a huge help. You'll be much more relaxed, unstressed if you can find a secluded spot along the beach with 1-2 friends for company (or keep an eye on you in case of trouble).

2) When learning to surf, don't try tackling surf bigger than 4ft or so. Its much harder learning to pop-up and balance on your board if its really inverted and not very flat to the horizon. Additionally, you'll get really exhausted trying to get "out back" on big wave days. When/if you do catch one and ride it in, you'll dread the effort its going to take you to paddle back out again. You want as much repetition as possible to get better and that can be much more easily achieved with smaller waves. As a beginner its not the quality of the waves as much as the quantity of waves you get to ride in each session. Once you get more experienced, you'll naturally get more selective on when its worth your while to venture out.

3) If the wind is really whipping up (regardless of direction of wind / wave conditions). I wouldn't bother going out as a beginner. The quick moving water currents and sitting up on your board "out back" will turn you into a sail boat, and you'll spend most of your time paddling around getting exhausted. That's just not any fun if your not well conditioned.

4) Bodyboarding and surfboarding is like comparing apples and oranges. Manuvering a much larger surfboard into the right place at the right time takes alot more hrs.- in- the-water experiencel and a better "eye" at identifying the right wave to choose than it does in bodyboarding. Bodyboarding is primarily leg strength for propulsion in the water and surfing is 100% arms/shoulders. You'll quickly learn in your 1st surf lesson how much stronger your legs are than your shoulders.

5) Popping up and balancing on a surfboard really isn't the most challenging part of surfing (at least for me.. assuming you'll start on a board 8-9 ft as a beginner). The difficulties for me are:
a) dealing w/ endurance/fatigue issues from paddling
b) knowing which wave is the right one to choose in a set
c) being in the correct starting location when you begin to paddle to catch a wave...most of the time you need to paddle in a little closer to the shore than you probably think you should start from. missing a few waves in a row just adds to the fatigue issues.

When I've succeeded at a,b,c above usually I can pop up and keep balance on the board with greater than 50-75% success rate without falling off the board. That's probably not that bad for someone whos only has experience thus far at attempting to "stand up" on about 20 waves max. thus far. Creating enough opportunities for yourself to get the chance to "pop up" that is the real challenge for a beginner.

Hope this info. helps.

[SoCal WaterSpout]

Thank you Bub, that is extremely helpful!

I've been practicing the "pop up" on my living room floor at night, trying to get myself conditioned before I start my lessons. My back was sore for the next day or two after the first time I tried it, so I want to get my muscles in better shape so I'm not really hurting after my first lesson.

I'm a fairly decent swimmer, but those ocean waves do look pretty wicked at times. I don't plan on jumping anything over 3 to 4 feet the first dozen times I go out.

Again, thanks for the help, it's much appreciated!

Tina

[Bub]

Some other tips to make your early experiences more enjoyable:

Don't paddle rushed and frantic to get "outback". If you have the time sit on the beach for 15 minutes or so and study the timing of the sets that would be ideal. Make your entry into the water after a set (usually 3 big waves in a row) There is a general fear of beginners to rush outback because they are scared of getting pummelled by a big wave set when paddling out (at least I was and still am at times). If you are only surfing 3-4 footers max. and you wait until a set comes in, you can take a nice, slow relaxed paddle out with only some minimal bashing around by the waves. Duckdiving through the waves takes experience but if you aren't tackling 5+ footers you probably can get away without having to do much duck-diving attempts if you time your entry correctly. And there really is nothing to fear when paddling out in smaller surf on a sandy beach area ...you might get knocked off your board at worst case scenario but small waves you should get hurt and you shouldn't lose too much progress...probably only get pushed 10-20ft back towards the beach that you have to recover but thats about it.

Aother tip (that I've never applied) that a surfer in OBX( your neck of the woods) gave me was to ride a rip current out and it can really make gettig outback much easier. I guess you need to identify a rip current nearby where you are planning to surf though...I don' t know if that is a dangerous recommendation for a beginner surfer or not though. I'd not recommend taking me up on that advice though unless some of the more experienced surfers on this board approve of that strategy though. Just a tip a fellow surfer gave me, when I mentioned how fatigued I was paddling the 1st time I tried surfing.

[mostyn]

hi, hope it goes well.

[justloafing]

Rip currents help so much. Rip currents will bring you out back where you want to be. That is about as far as a rip current has effect on you any how then it dissapates (sp?) So in other words take the Rip if you can find one on the heavy days.

[surferdude_scarborough]

Allowing yourself plenty of open beachfront to drift along peacefully will be a huge help.

this is good yes but not too much or it can be a long walk up the beach when you're done. back to sandsend from whitby for instance!!