How hard is it to learn on a fishboard?

[Driftingalong]

what was it like to learn on it? an endless struggle? or just a slight effort? :]

and also, once you learn to stand on the board.. why would one want something else, boardwise?

It wasn't an endless struggle, but it wasn't a slight effort either. It's hard to say...depends how often you'll be able to surf. Also, I'm 5'7", but 148lbs (I think I was even around 160 when I was actually starting out) so you'll float a lot easier.

As far as wanting something else...if you stick with it you'll see.

[hellspawn1]

what was it like to learn on it? an endless struggle? or just a slight effort? :]

and also, once you learn to stand on the board.. why would one want something else, boardwise?

It wasn't an endless struggle, but it wasn't a slight effort either. It's hard to say...depends how often you'll be able to surf. Also, I'm 5'7", but 148lbs (I think I was even around 160 when I was actually starting out) so you'll float a lot easier.

As far as wanting something else...if you stick with it you'll see.

how long did it take before you could stand and ride a little?

and do you mean that once you get the hang of it, you immediatly want another board? or.. hmm

[Driftingalong]

If I remember correctly; it goes something like this (skip to bottom for short version):

Started in August '03 (age 27, full time job) It took a couple months to catch waves and stand up (and fall off)...then the water got cold and I had no wet suit.

Come spring I got a 3/2 wetsuit so I could get back out there. It was like starting over again...I got up some and fell a lot...rode a couple crappy waves straight in...started turning (sort of)...caught a couple really sweet rides that actually lasted a few seconds. Got some boots and gloves to surf a little longer into the late fall/early winter (gloves suck)...getting up a little more consistently. Then comes the cold...

Got a new board at a end of winter sale (6'6" x 19.5" x 2.5")...spring time starting over again (pretty much using the 6'6" exclusively). Not as bad as last time since I new more of what I was doing (but the consistency of my successful pop-ups dropped a lot). The new board wasn't as hard to paddle as I thought it would be. It actually seemed to accelerate faster when catching waves, but was deffinately a little trickier to stay up on. I could duck dive this one (couldn't duck dive the other). Getting up a little more consistently, turning (sort of)...Then came winter...

Got a hooded 5/4 suit...was able to go out once in Dec, once in Jan. and twice in Feb. Holy crap was that tuff....Got a new board at the end of winter sale (9'8" x 21.75" x 3.063")...Started using the longboard exclusively as I really liked it, but that took a couple weeks to get it worked out...Tried a few more sessions on the shortboard (6'6", don't even take the "Big Guy Fish" out anymore). After the initial shock of wobblyness and extra effort to paddle, man what a difference, I actually found it easier to catch waves. The knowledge I picked up from the longboard helped sooo much...now I'm getting sweet rides with both...doing actual turns. Which brings us to today.

Too long?


A couple of months to answer your question.
A couple of years to actually feal like I could call myself a surfer.

[hellspawn1]

that's a pretty sweet story, I take it you live in Britain or sumptin' , cuz of that "the water got cold"

brr... there's no limit to what kinda water surfers go into

me... I'm a tropical man, man...!

however, wasn't it a real downer that it took you MONTHS before you could even get up? cred 2 u though, for sticking to it and not giving up, I guess it payed off....eventually

[rich r]

You have to view it as any other sport.

How many tosses at a basket do you throw, or how many times do you try to dribble before you feel you can play basketball?

Could you dribble, pass, trap and shoot a soccer ball(football for everyone outside the US) without flubbing it your first times playing?

How many times do you swing the bat at a thrown ball before you hit it? (baseball or cricket)

Did you just wade into the water and know how to swim perfectly?

How about riding a bike? Start right off without training wheels? How about when the training wheels came off?

Think about it - all these things take months and years to even start getting right, let alone to be any good at it. But people launch into surfing because they think it's cool, or they think it'll be a good image makeover to go with their kook poser Hollister shirts.

In the end, it takes as long as you put into it. You go every day for weeks on end, you'll be standing after a month. Take a few lessons to learn the basics and you'll get up faster. Go on the weekends, and maybe it'll take six months or a year to get up.

Surfing isn't any different than any other skill, so be prepared to put in the time/effort, or please stay out of the water because you'll just make it more dangerous for the rest of us to paddle out.

[Driftingalong]

I'm in Maryland, USA...water goes from 70's (°F) in the summer to 30's in the dead of winter. I'll go out in the winter if there are waves no problem, but I won't go out for just anything like I will when it's warmer.

The waves around here aren't always the best quality (or even around; i.e. flat). So, I didn't necessarily get out a whole lot in those first few months anyway. Still I could feel myself progressing each time I went out, and managed to keep the stoke alive with various small achievements...

I so glad I stuck with it, but I never actually thought of stopping. I deffinately improved my paddling a lot; since that's mostly all I could do. Then fairly early on into getting that 6'6" board I actually caught a wave that was at least head high. I stood up and flew down the face so fast I couldn't believe it, but then I hit this bump and was air borne, I landed bairly, hit another bump and the board shot out from under me. That was so frickin' awesome even though I never even made it to the bottom. I caught a glimps of the possibilities and I wanted MORE! And, I got one more that day and managed the bottom turn, but the section was closing out in front of me and I didn't have the skill to go around it and just rode its wash back to shore...