Surfing Waves

I had a rather crap experience today. I went out to the beach alone. It was overcast, low tide and pretty flat. There were only a couple of other surfers out. I messed around close to shore and quickly became frustrated by the lack of waves. I looked out further away and noticed a surfer ripping about 70/100 meters away. I thought "sweet, I'll go a little further out, I should be ok". I started paddling out pretty far, i realized that this was the furthest out ive ever been, but the waves breaking further out was too good to pass up. I stopped about 30meters away from the other surfer and started trying to paddle into a few waves. At that stage it had gone pretty flat even that far away from shore. I looked over to see if the other surfer was still around, and noticed that he was now about 80 meters away from me. I had been slowly drifting away to the right and even further out than I already was. I also noticed that the surfer had a friend on a jet ski with him...thats why he was so far out.

At that stage, I thought it was definitely time to paddle back in, as that shore was looking way too far away. This is when things turned bad. I started furiously paddling back, only to get pushed further out to sea. The shore was looking further and further away. I was hopelessly paddling. I was so far out, I wasn't even sure if the life guards could see me. I decided that if I didn't start making some noise and waving my arms now, it was going to be too late. So thats exactly was I started doing. No one could see me for about 10mins. I seriously thought that this was the end of it. I paddled my heart out one last time, and as luck would have it, a couple of waves picked up, and helped me make some head way back to shore. At that stage, the lifeguards could see me a noticed that I was in trouble. Just as soon as their boat hit the water and headed towards me, my feet hit the sand and I started walking back to shore, exhausted. The lifeguard asked if I was OK, I just said "thanks for coming out, i'm OK now".

In the end, I walked away with my pride seriously dented, but I also learned a valuable lesson. I'm never paddling out too far without a friend around.

Had to get this off my chest. Hope it can be a lesson to another beginner surfer like myself.

Where were you surfing?

Auckland, New Zealand.

If you get caught in a rip you should always paddle horizontal to the beach until you escape it.

A rip taking hom out that far? They don't go out that far and plus it sounded pretty flat for there to even be a rip. Were you near an inlet or was the wind hard offshore? One thing to always look before you go out is the conditions or any hazards. Take 10 minutes and see what it is doing.

Hmm it doesn't sound like paddling out was the problem, it was more poor beach awareness.

In the first book I got on surfing (2nd hand in NZ, by Nat Young) the first couple to pages were devoted to beach/ocean awareness.

If you haven't surfed somewhere before you should spend at least some time watching the ocean. This lets you see any potential problems and also see where the best places to go are. Also consider talking to the lifeguard if there is one.

Then choose an area you want to go. Looking at the beach line up two objects so that you can tell if you start to move sideways.

I notice this site doesn't have an article on beach/ocean awareness and it is probably the most important part of surfing with regards to safety!

bit of a beginner myself and never evern thought about a howling offshore as being a hazard. this site rocks! any one know of any other not so obvious hazards i should know about?

fairly strong in the water so rips etc. more of a pain in the butt than a hazard.

i've heard there are a few rips that do actually go a long way out to sea. actually saw one in sligo on a reef (not sure of the name of it but sure anyone surfing the area a lot will know it). it has a river running into it which stops the waves dead when they hit it and then you can actually see the current which looks like it goes out to sea as far as i can see. scary lookin which is a pity because its a really nice wave by the look of it.

molikai express.....take ya from Ohau to Molikai..know your hazards b4 you paddle. also know your limits and conditioning level

sounds likeyou had quite an ordeal.

Reminds somewhat of what happened to me a few years ago - looking back at it amuses me.

Me and a buddy took one of those cheapo blow up dingies and paddled it fecking far out. We had a make shift anchor made out of plastic bags filled with stones. Any way we anchored off rolled some big ass doobies. Got mashed and fell asleep. We woke up without ores, no anchor and no land to be seen. Took us literally hours to make it back. We took turns in hand paddling. I was fleshing knackered when i got back.

KiwiSurfer wrote:Auckland, New Zealand.

Where in Auckland?

Some nasty rips for the newbs at Piha etc.

It was at Muriwai. I kept thinking about it for the rest of the day yesterday. I'm still really amped to go surfing today though, so it hasn't discouraged me. I now have a new found respect for the sea. I'm glad I learned this lesson.

So was there a rivermouth? What do you think caused the current to carry you out like that?

I'm not really sure. Definitely not a river mouth. Perhaps it was an out going low tide. I really should have stuck around and talked to the life guard about what might have been the cause..

Definitely sounds like a frightening experience, glad you came out OK. Got to agree with the others, know your break before you head out.

isaluteyou wrote:sounds likeyou had quite an ordeal.

Reminds somewhat of what happened to me a few years ago - looking back at it amuses me.

Me and a buddy took one of those cheapo blow up dingies and paddled it fecking far out. We had a make shift anchor made out of plastic bags filled with stones. Any way we anchored off rolled some big ass doobies. Got mashed and fell asleep. We woke up without ores, no anchor and no land to be seen. Took us literally hours to make it back. We took turns in hand paddling. I was fleshing knackered when i got back.

Never go out at sea, in a dingey without a cellphone, esp if you are going to get high.