Surfing Waves

So in a week or so I'll be off to sw france for five weeks, I'm guessing I'll get between twenty and twenty five sessions.

At the moment I can pop up in the white water 95 persent, by the time my holidays over I would like to be able to turn and ride green waves? Is this realistic ? Should I be setting higher goals? Are they the right goals?
I'm 56 5ft 10 and weigh 170 lbs (76kg) just sold the 8ft foam board and has some of you know now have a 8ft torg epoxy mini long.
Thanks for looking.

There are so many factors that go into how fast someone learns to surf but it sounds reasonable to me. As I mentioned before my experience learning was quite different and my goal was to ride a green wave the first day and I didn't even try to ride whitewater. I don't know the speed others learn but I am sure others will chime in here who have that knowledge but goals are changeable. You can set a goal and achieve it immediately then set another goal or you can set a goal and realize it's too difficult and set a more realistic goal. I had been kneeboarding prior to surfing and had absolutely no interest in riding whitewater. My approach was to paddle for green waves but I already knew approximately how to do that since I had been kneeboarding and body boarding and bodysurfing for 10 years before that. I managed to paddle and catch the waves, popup and drop down the face and most often pearl at the bottom but manged to not pearl on at least a couple waves my first day. If I was in the wrong place and a broken wave was coming I would paddle and catch that wave but once on it I tried to get over to where the wave was unbroken and if I couldn't I cut out. However this tactic required that I was in the right place to catch green waves. I hear advice from others is to catch a whitewater wave and stay laying down but turn the board until you get onto the unbroken face then popup. I currently do this on rare occasions when I get hit by the breaking lip before I popup and it's too bouncy to popup but once again you need to be in the right place to catch green waves. Hope you have fun in France

Silvery wrote:At the moment I can pop up in the white water 95 persent, by the time my holidays over I would like to be able to turn and ride green waves? Is this realistic ? Should I be setting higher goals? Are they the right goals?

Forget about "turning" as in Cutbacks, Top Turns and even Bottom turns. Your goal should be able to catch green waves a majority of the time. That in it self will take up a few weeks. ( and going to a unfamiliar break, not knowing the local rules and the "locals" themselves ) Turning can not happen if your wallowing in the soup. You need to be able to ride across a clean face in trim, break trim to turn up or break trim to turn down. Doing stuff in the whitewater is only "Veering". Thus, you need to catch green waves FIRST BEFORE you can turn. Sorry, natures rules: crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run.

One other goal is stay safe. I know France can have huge tide changes creating strong currents as the tide goes out. Make sure you find out what the tides are doing and when it's safe for a newbie.

I agree with wkk as to what to expect. But, to be honest, catching and unbroken wave at an angle and nudging your board to go down the line will provide you with enough enjoyment.

Also take into account that surfing will wear you out if you arent a regular or otherwise quite fit eg if you surf 2hrs a day for 4 days in a row, you will probably find your 5th day you are exhausted and cant surf. If you are there fore 5 weeks then 4 -5 sessions a week is reasonable, but you might find some of them are a bit shorter.

Lowering ur goals can be most productive. In the end it's only about having fun

Ultimately surfing is a different thing for different people and you get to set your own goals. The only thing required is that you stand on the board and ride the wave.......well maybe even that isn't required you could just lay down and ride the wave. In the old days Hawaiians used to ride laying or sitting down. Only those who were good surfers stood up. But you do have to ride a wave because if you didn't it would be called paddling a board ( or "surfing a crowded break")

Thanks for all your reply's very mind focusing.
To be able to bottom turn to enable me to ride the face of a wave by the end of my holidays is my hope and dream.

Silvery wrote:Thanks for all your reply's very mind focusing.
To be able to bottom turn to enable me to ride the face of a wave by the end of my holidays is my hope and dream.

just look where you want to go and the rest will follow

Where do you go? I am leaving for Biscarosse in a week. The forecast looks very good

Silvery wrote:Thanks for all your reply's very mind focusing.
To be able to bottom turn to enable me to ride the face of a wave by the end of my holidays is my hope and dream.

If you're with a good instructor at a reef break, it is definitely possible. Alone, on a too small board at a unfamiliar break with a weak paddle, it will be too difficult. If you were with me at Waikiki, all it would take is a 1/2 on the beach and 1 hour in the water to get you going across the face. Just go in with a open mind, Don't to force it, Listen to the wave and (like pmcaero said) , "where you look is where you go".

Oldie wrote:Where do you go? I am leaving for Biscarosse in a week. The forecast looks very good

Where you stopping at Biscarosse and how long for?
Going messanges then maybe into the pyrenees near san seb I might do a week near St Giles on the way down, we do campsites (me wife and little dog) and like to keep it flexible.
Great reply's and all makes sense in my head, I know it won't all click straight off the bat, I'm being realistic with cautious optimism.

Checklist
1. Find spot X. Check
2. Paddle hard with the three extra. Check
3. Make sure nose is one inch out water. Check
4. Pop up feet shoulder width apart right foot at 10/11 o'clock. Check
5. Look along face of wave weight slightly on toes maybe drop left hand slightly. Check
What can go wrong

Silvery wrote:
Where you stopping at Biscarosse and how long for?

We are renting a house near the beach in Biscarosse-Plage from Jul 29th for three weeks. It also has beautiful camp sites under the pine trees. Looks you will be more south, but drop me a pn in case you come to the area.

Oldie wrote: drop me a pn in case you come to the area.

Done

I set myself a goal of being able to do turns by February this year. Shortly after I set that goal I realised it wasn't impossible but it was going to be difficult. There were many days that I couldn't get out the back which you may find you will have quote a few of those days when in France when a decent West swell rolls in.

What I did was break it down into Alot smaller goals and set them on the day when I saw what I was facing.

There were days i would look at the surf and think not a chance I'm getting out the back so I worked on turtle rolling and just general fitness. So I went out and aimed to carry out 1 successful turtle roll every time I paddled out then spun and caught a wave, once I was doing that 1 right most the time I aimed to do 2 then 3 every time I went out. This helped massively with my general fitness and also getting out the back when it was that bit bigger.

Once out the back don't try and get to the perfect spot straight away. You will usually see a load of people already there and all you will do is annoy them and risk injuring yourself or them until you can turn and avoid them. What you want to do is just sit off to the side and pick up the waves that are not being ridden.

From there aim for catching green waves try catching them steeper and flatter to see what you can catch and can't. Once your catching the waves try to do bottom turns then go down the line then try angled take offs and other turns on the wave.

Once you feel you can avoid someone whilst on the wave slowly make your way to the perfect spot just moving closer and closer in.

That's what I have been doing and I am flying at the moment. If you asked me back in January what I thought I would be able to do now I wouldn't of said paddling to the correct spot, nailing the bottom turn almost everytime and trying to do top turns and carrying out some scruffy looking top turns now.

One thing I would say is pace yourself as well. If you are doing 2 hour sessions daily you will be exhausted so will need rest days quite regular. I can do 3 hard days in a row before it gets me if I have a day where it's fairly flat and don't have a hard paddle that day I can make 4 but that is really my max then I end up shattered for a day.

Thanks that's really good advice.

Silvery wrote:

Oldie wrote: drop me a pn in case you come to the area.

Done

Have resent pm didn't work first time, my mistake

waikikikichan wrote:If you're with a good instructor at a reef break, it is definitely possible. Alone, on a too small board at a unfamiliar break with a weak paddle, it will be too difficult. If you were with me at Waikiki, all it would take is a 1/2 on the beach and 1 hour in the water to get you going across the face. Just go in with a open mind, Don't to force it, Listen to the wave and (like pmcaero said) , "where you look is where you go".

Yes you were bang on the money with this post, actually started with a nice get used to my new board in two ft waves in wimeroux then had a week of flat around le boule.
Had four days trying at Biscarosse ' sent you a text oldun' now I'm near Anglet surfing at tarnos plage heavy on/cross shore close outs mostly though the skilled surfers out there are making a fine job of it.

So any progress? Inches rather than miles.

Damn. I did not get a text - just checked again. This is a pity.

We are leaving tomorrow and the last days had been good.

All the best for your next steps!

We were on a little french site at Mayotte, traffic around Biscarosse town was murder. Ok around Biscarosse plage, don't know what went wrong with the text ?