Surfing Waves

Hi ,

Having spent years wanting to learn how to surf I FINALLY got round to it this year. Left it a bit late as I am 40, for the last few years I have been raising a family so my desire to surf ended up being no more than a distant wish compared to more mundane things like school uniforms, kids needing clothes,paying a mortgage etc. I had a lesson whilst on a family holiday in Cornwall ( Polzeath) which I loved. I live an hours drive away from Cayton Bay and have been there twice with my 12 year old daughter recently and hope to keep going at least once a month, though may take a break during the coldest months. I may book another lesson too , perhaps at Scarborough to help me in my quest to ride waves for longer!!
I am 6'4" and weigh roughly 178 lbs ( tall and skinny basically!). I currently still hire a foam board and wetsuit but hope to buy a w/suit soon and then save for a board, perhaps buying one early 08. I have read a lot on this site and seem to think a mini mal will best serve me as a beginner, though not sure on length ( 8 ft+ ?) and width.
My other problem is reading the surf forecast sites such as magicseaweed.com which seems to change its information on conditions for a particular day frequently. As a beginner what conditions are still surfable, ie swell period and wave height? Also, as hard as I try I find it impossible to zip up my wetsuit completely and fasten it etc without help ..do all wetsuits fasten up from the back or are there other designs?

Finally, please forgive me if my questions seem daft, there are so many sites that sometimes I feel I have been bombarded with too much info!!

Hi, welcome to the forum, good to hear you're getting into surfing, and you're never to old, my dad only just started out too (rides an 8ft mal and still isn't great, can just about stand, but this is expected), cool.

Minimal would be best, although a longboard would be better, depending on what you wish to do in the future (shortboarding or longboarding?)

Magicseaweed isn't great at forcasting the east coast as far as i know (which isn't much about that area yet) but there are wave buoys which can give more accurate readings (don't know of many yet). Again i'm not sure what swell height and period would create a wave up there, but guessing anything from 2ft+ swell and 8+ second period (to create a beginners wave), not too sure, (that would only create a small wave anyway) but don't know too much on the area yet.

There are wetsuits (new technology) that zip up from the front, such as this

http://www.xcelwetsuits.com/surf/index. ... a=products

there's a huge range of makes that do these zips and i prefer them

I'm normally around Scarborough area when its on.
Cayton is best mid to high tide, low if you fancy surfing over the reef at pumphouse. Check conditions on the surf shop cam or give the shop a call.
http://www.caytonbaysurfshop.co.uk/

Secret Spot in Scarborough itself has a web cam too for North Bay only works low to mid tide and picks up the same swell as Cayton. Watch out for rocks just beneath the surface to the left of the cafe in the middle.

http://www.secretspot.co.uk/static/surf/index_cam.shtml

South bay is normally regarded as beginer wave as is a lot mellower. Always busy and a foot or two smaller due to its orientation. It can handle NW winds though.

As for MSW it does miss a lot of East Coast Swells so try to learn to read the spectrals.

Hope that helps

Just want to thank you for your responses, I will check out the sites mentioned and check out the spectrals too...

no probs, hope you enjoy your next surf