Your Best,Wave, Surf, Story do tell us sharing!

[jaffa1949]

As Requested by Oldmansurfer who is not as old as some a thread for your bests of. Surf Tales.

[oldmansurfer]

YAY!! I know that surfing is part skill and part luck. People have said it is better to be lucky than good. I told you about my fantastic wave that I caught due to guys hogging the waves. It was just luck that I did the right maneuver to get me tubed repeatedly. Luck has been part of most of my best waves. My favorite surf story is one where I think no one should say anything other than I was lucky and yet someone did.

I was surfing at Hanalei which is a right and it was really nice and about 4 to 6 feet (8 to 12 foot faces). There weren't many people out and I was getting a lot of waves. Previously I had come up with a maneuver for backside waves where there was a section that was going to pass me by and I needed to increase my speed. Frontside you can make little speed turns where you weight and unweight rapidly and climb fairly high under the lip if you need to but backside the shape of the wave is wrong and you can't go as high on the wave and when you make little speed turns you may get clipped on the head by the lip especially if you are already tubed. SO one day I just tried turning under the lip so that at one point I am completely upside down and my face is just inches away from the wave. It's a quick turn and it seemed to work at getting me some speed. Anyway I wondered if I could do the same turn frontside so I tired it just under the lip where it is throwing out.

The result is that as I turned under the lip, the lip smacked me hard in the chest and water sprayed everywhere and it pushed me back down the face so that I could do the same maneuver again. It was really exhilarating as the wave smacked me solid but I didn't fall down and in fact it helped me to change directions and get back down the face. I was having a blast doing this maneuver over and over again then suddenly I turned a bit too in fornt of the lip and the lip wasn't falling over rapidly in that area so instead of smacking me it just held me and my board dropped out from under my feet. I dangled there for a few seconds and then the wave released me and I fell and landed square on my back on my board.

The board continued going along the wave with me lying on my back feet first and I proceeded to get totally tubed. The lip was hitting well in front of the board and there was nothing I could do. It was such an unfamiliar position to be in, I was sort of just unbelieving and watching this all go down. The view from laying on my back was spectacular and quite different form what you normally see in the tube. I was just taking all in and waiting for the inevitable wipe out. But I came out of the tube and I could see a section down the wave where I would likely get tubed again so I figured it would be cool to stand up and get tubed standing. Unfortunately I fell when I tried to do that.

I was getting my board and getting ready to paddle back out when a guy who was paddling out came up to me and said "Hey man! That was some fancy surfing. What do you call that?" I answered "Falling down." He said "No man , I mean that thing lying on your back in the tube. What's it called? The coffin. Yeah that's it the coffin." I asked him if he saw the first part of that wave and he said he hadn't so I explained to him how I was doing a turn under the lip and how the lip held me and I fell on my board by accident. He said "Naw man you got some skills I wish I could do that." I asked him what he meant the turn under the lip or riding on my back. He said "Riding on your back man that is awesome."

Go figure. The thing I was doing that took some skill was turning under the lip, riding on my back was a total accident. Still it was an awesome experience. So maybe it is better to be lucky.

[pandarturo]

I just go straight

[oldmansurfer]

I know there are a lot of newbie surfers on this forum so I'll tell a story of a newbie surf experience and how I figured out that if you don't fall down people think you can surf. I had been a body surfer and a paipo boarder and a knee boarder till I was 18 years old. I started surfing and had been at it for about 2 months. I had only rid head high waves at the biggest so far despite the fact that bodysurfing and paipo boarding and knee boarding I had been in waves more than three times that high. Anyway my surfer friends who knew I had started surfing asked me if I wanted to go surfing with them. I told them no where big and they said yeah it will be small.

We get to the beach and it is breaking about 4 feet which is easily well overhead (8 foot face). I tell them it's too big and they are like "are you afraid of drowning?" I thought about it and no I wasn't afraid at all since I could easily go out there with no board and do well so I go out. I tell them all to not make fun of me since I am still learning. So I catch a 4 foot wave and manage to stand up and I am going so fast I over turn and shoot right up the face of the wave and so I turn back down and I am almost falling off the board each time I turn and over turn again and shoot right back to the bottom of the wave again. I continue this arms flailing as I try to maintain balance and to my surprise I ride the wave to the end and cut out without wiping out. I hoped no one saw me flailing around there and paddled back out. One of my friends comes up to me and says "I thought you said you couldn't surf man? You were shredding it!" I answered "I was out of control." My friend says "I'll say.... you were totally. Awesome wave man."

From my perspective I was off balance and almost falling down for most of the wave but because I didn't fall down I "knew how to surf." Anyway it's something that has come repeatedly to me as I learned to surf. I was out surfing small waves when I first restarted surfing. I couldn't hardly turn the board but after surfing for my allotted 30 minutes a young Korean woman who was learning how to surf too came up to me and said "You are a very good surfer." I answered "Me? Well maybe I used to be but I am not anymore." She said "No. You are good." I asked her "what makes you think that?" She says "You no fall down." I had actually fallen a couple of times but mostly I didn't fall down. Anyway it seems to me that if you fall down then people think you don't know how to surf but if you don't then you are "the surfer."

[jwoz]

Hahaha "You no fall down." I can't wait till I get to that stage. I'm still working on getting over the "you no paddle so well" stage. Keep the stories coming they are good reads!

[oldmansurfer]

I was out surfing at my usual break and the only other person out was a guy who was my classmate in high school and I had only recently graduated. He paddled over to me to say "I don't want to see you on my waves. What I mean by my waves is if I am on a wave then it is my wave. I don't care if you were on first or after me if I am surfing it then it is my wave." I responded "Don't you remember me? I grew up with you. I just graduated with you from high school." He responds " I don't care. I don't want to see you on my waves."

It was easy enough since there were plenty of waves, I just made sure he caught a wave then I caught one. I caught a wave and got completely tubed and on the end of the section the tube collapsed but I managed to stay on my board and pop out of the whitewater. My classmate was there trying to take off then he just stopped and looked at me. I surfed past him and tried to make sure he didn't take off on that wave which he didn't so I finished off the wave and paddled back out. He started paddling over to me and I thought I might have to fight him now but he just asked me "How did you do that?" I asked him back "Do what?" He said "Stay on your board when the tube collapsed on you." I thought about it a bit and answered "I just lean into the wave so the force of the wave is pushing me down into the board instead of sideways and hope it lets up quickly like it did." I used to get tubed on the shore break and stand up while leaning into the wave to cut out. It was automatic to me. Anyway we surfed some more and he never gave me any problems.

I think perhaps that when I surf I don't have a preconceived notion of what I can and can't do so I just do things and not worry about how I do them or if I should be able to do them. I was surfing a bit later with a guy I met at the local community college when I started college. We surfed a break by a hotel near the harbor here. I was still not using a board leash, my board was made with no plug before they were available. He had never not surfed with a leash and wondered how I managed but I caught one wave and got hit by the lip for a few seconds and managed to stay on my board. He asked me "How did you do that?" I thought he was wondering how I managed to hang on to my board when I wiped out so I answered "It's a skill you develop from surfing without a leash. You just grab your board if possible and hang on for your life." He said "Yeah that too but I was wondering how you managed to not fall down when the lip hit you." I told him "You just lean into the wave so that he lip pushes you down onto your board."

[oldmansurfer]

My story for the day
One morning I went surfing early in the morning at Kealia beach by the parking lot near the river mouth on the Anahola side of the bridge. I hadn't tried this before (early morning surfing) but My friend talked me into it the day before. We were in the water before 7 am. There was absolutely no wind and the waves were small (3 to 4 feet) but easily overhead breaking top to bottom tubing out. They were great waves and we both got tubed on every single wave. I took off and got deeply tubed on every wave and then either came out of the end of the wave or it collapsed on me. When it collapsed on me I usually managed to stay on my board and either continue on or cut out because the waves were so thin lipped they had little power.

My friend told me to look at the shore while in the tube and I did. The lips were so thin and clean I could clearly see the shoreline from in the tube. It was just like looking through a window. My friend wanted to know if you could see a surfer through the lip so he went to the beach for a wave or two to watch me. He came back out and said he could and told me to go check it out. I looked at the perfect waves coming in and thought about not riding them. My friend said " The waves not going anywhere. Going still be breaking when you come back out." So reluctantly I paddled in ran up on the beach and watched. On the first wave my friend wiped out and I started getting nervous watching all those beautiful tubes coming in unridden. I was thinking "I could be on that wave.....or that one....or that one!!!!" My friend wiped out again and again I saw the unridden perfection coming in. I yelled to him "Catch a wave already." He wiped out again. I yelled to him "that's it, I'm going back out." He yelled back "I going catch the next one....Promise!!" So I waited and was driven nearly crazy by the thought of all those waves going unridden. Finally he caught and rode a wave and it was amazing how well you could see him through the wave. However I couldn't stand it anymore so I scrambled back into the perfection. I asked my friend later and he said he was trying to drop his shorts and moon me through the wave and that's why he was falling. On the first wave he had undone his tie and his shorts went right to his feet when he tried to stand and then he almost lost them. The next time he tried to untie them and wiped out and after that he was worried about wiping out and so he did. Crazy guy LOL

After numerous waves it was the same thing over and over so I tried different things. The waves were so weak that I figured maybe I could do some different things. First I tried sticking my hand out through the lip and that was easily accomplished although I couldn't hold it there for long because my arms weren't strong enough. I figured that probably I could punch through the lip or go from in the tube through the lip to outside of the wave. The first couple attempts I fell but only after getting out of the wave. I figured it was from the wave hitting my board after I went through the lip so I made a stronger turn to the outside so I cleared the lip and was successful. Then I tried to go back into the wave. I fell again but after a few attempts I did it, Went from being tubed to punching through the tube to the outside and then punching back into the tube through the lip. I did that a few times and then tried to ride with the lip hitting me on the head so that I was half way in and half way out. When you are on a wave and the lip hits you constantly if you get even slightly off balance the constant force of the wave pushes you more and more out of balance till you fall. I kept trying till I made a wave for the whole distance with the lip hitting me on the head. I hoped to get one eye in the tube and one out but the lip was just a little to thick for that or I just couldn't adjust my head right.



I never saw conditions like that again. You always hear surfers talk about how glassy the waves were but these were the epitome of glassy. They were actually clear as glass.

[oldmansurfer]

I was about 19 and went surfing at Hanalei (a long tubing right). I hadn't been surfing there in a while but heard the swell was up. Paddling out I had no idea how many surfers were already out. You couldn't see how many very well from the shore in larger surf. When I got out there were about 60 surfers! Way too many for me. I would have a hard time competing for waves with that many. I sat there and tried to figure out which side of the crowd to hang out on because I would have a better chance to ride some waves if I hung on one side or the other. On the inside (the Bowl) I could catch the leftovers or the waves where people wipe out since every single wave will have someone riding it. On the outside (Impossibles) I may be able to get the wave before the others have a chance. After catching a couple shorter and smaller leftover waves I decided to try outside and paddled over. It was real difficult there too since a few others had already pushed out into that area. They were stronger paddlers than me at that point and it was a fight for every wave and I lost every time.

Then I noticed waves breaking over about 75 yards from everyone which only broke about every 15 minutes or so but no one there. The waves looked fast but ridable and with no one there if I caught a wave every 15 minutes that would be one more wave every 15 minutes than what I was catching where I was. So I paddled over there. The first wave that came in after I got there I took off on and immediately got covered up by the wave. I was in the tube but completely covered in white water and figured I would be lunching it soon. But suddenly my head popped out of the whitewater. I could see down the wave and I was so far back in the tube I could not see where the wave was breaking. The wave made a gradual turn and I could not see the breaking part of the wave as it was hidden by the bend in the wave which was 30 yards or so ahead. I was at least 30 yards deep in the tube which is the furthest back that I had ever been. Gradually my body and board emerged from the whitewater and I could see light at the end of the tube but no sky because the wave curved a bit. I came closer and closer to the breaking lip and started thinking I was going to make it and sure enough I emerged from the tube to see 5 guys paddling to catch the wave I was riding. I figured maybe they didn't see me and yelled "WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO" Partly to warn them and partly because I was so stoked I just had to yell at the top of my lungs.

The first 4 guys backed off when they saw me but the fifth guy dropped in on me. He made the wave break where he took off kind of chandeliering which obstructed my view and made me decide to straighten out. If not for him I would have gotten a backdoor tube ride there. I got pounded by the wave and towed for a while till my leash came off my foot. Then I had to swim in to get my board. I was a little disappointed because I would have gotten tubed again if not for that one guy. Still it was the best tube ride of my life so hard to feel very bad about it. By the time I got my board and paddled back out one of the local guys had punched the guy who dropped in on me in the face and was telling him to get out of the water. I don't know if he dropped in on someone else or what but I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. I just paddled back to that spot again but never caught another incredible tube ride like that one again.

[oldmansurfer]

Back when I was just out of high school one of my friends managed to get a new surfboard. It was the latest design a "stinger", something I had only heard about and not seen till then. Here it was and I had no clue how he got the board since he had no money as far as I knew. I didn't press him for an answer as to how he got it since I really didn't want to hear it figuring he had done some kind of shady deal. But my friend knew I wanted to try the board out and see how it worked so he offered to let me try it out one day at Kealia Landing.



I surfed on it for about an hour and then decided I wanted my board back so I went in and waited on the beach for my friend to come in. The board was ok but I still prefered my own board. While I was waiting I saw a guy running down the beach from the far side of the beach. I started worrying that maybe this was his board and my friend stole it so I made up my mind that if that was the case I would just hand over the board. As he gets closer I hear him yelling at me and I think Oh my gosh it is his board so I kind of hold it out away from my body so he can take it easily but he stops by me and catches his breath a little and says his friend is drowning and and needs help while pointing down the beach to the far side. I guess he was so out of breath from running that I couldn't understand what he was yelling as he ran. I look down at the far side of the beach and there are 4 people in the water so I say "Looks like someone else is already out there helping your friend." He responds "Those guys don't know what they are doing. Come on! Help out my friend he's drowning" motioning me with his arm to follow him and then he runs down the beach so I follow him. At about a third of the way back to where his friend was the guy got completely winded so I continued on by myself.



By the time I get there there are only 2 people out in the water so I jump in and paddle out. One was outside the break and the other just inside of the break. I could not tell which one was having problems so when I got to where they could hear me I yelled "Which one of you is having problems?" The guy closest to me, a fit looking haole guy says "Me,Me,Me, I am!" So I put him on my surfboard and start pushing him in. There was a slight current going out right there but I was a strong enough swimmer to overcome that even pushing the board in and swimming behind it. I figure that is why he got into trouble this slight current was more than he could handle. He starts yelling at me "We're not getting closer to the shore!" I tell him calmly "We are." He says "No we aren't. We're hardly moving." I told him to relax and we were getting closer and that he was on the board so he wouldn't drown even if I did. Then I hear the other guy yelling "Help! Help!" So I ask the guy I am pushing in if the other guy was having problems too? He says "Yeah. I swam out to help him and got a cramp in my leg." I screamed "Why didn't you tell me?" Then calmed down and said "I have to leave you and go help that other guy. Just hang on to the board and I will come back and get you once I help the other guy." He was screaming at me that he didn't want to die and that he was going to drown. I pointed out that he had the board and He could float till someone else came for him if I drowned.



I swam out to the other guy who was a big Hawaiian guy. He seemed OK and because he was big he floated well so I asked him if he was in real trouble or just tired. He said he was tired so I told him I would take him in through the surf. I asked if he could hold his breath and he said he could so I told him that we were going to get hit by waves but if he could hold his breath it would be OK. He agreed so I proceeded to tow him into the breaking surf. The waves were only about 2 to 3 feet in that area and not big enough to pound us too hard but would help us get in. I watched and when a wave was coming I would tell him to take a deep breath and then as it hit I would push him up as high as I could and the wave would push him in then I would go get him and make sure he was OK then repeat this till we were well inside the break. By then my friend who had seen me go down the beach came down to find out what was up and paddled out to me. I told him what the problem was and he offered to take the big local guy in on the board he had (my board) so I swam back to my first victim and helped him get the rest of the way in.



The guy who had swam out to help the Hawaiian guy disappeared without saying a word once we got to the beach. I went to the big local guy and asked if he was OK and offered to go call an ambulance or anyone else if he needed. He said he didn't need anything else and that he was so thankful that I helped him, he wanted to give me money for it. I told him not to worry and that if I was in trouble and he could help me I am sure he would have so don't worry about it. He kept saying "Thank you , thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you....etc." I decided to leave before he got his breath and tried to force me to take money so I asked if he was OK again and he said he was and endless thank you's after that and I got my board back from my friend and we went back to the surf.

[55funsurf]

I live in Australia and my life has involved being in the surf in one way or another since early childhood memory. I am now 55, and weigh in at 69 kg, So I am lightweight....

From teenage years I had an innate fear of catching waves at Fairy Bower in Sydney. I would head out under encouragement from the so called mates....but rarely caught waves there...

I became one of the crowd that just hung out on the shoulder and it use to frustrate the hell out of me but fear always got the better of me....

In my late thirties and after a 7 year self inflicted dry spell with no surf, I started to get into it again.

But with a new approach as a clean and sober person and an overwhelming desire to get better and challenge my fears of bigger waves...

I trained hard on dry land, surfed regularly, bought new boards and started seeking advice from better surfers and people who I respected.......Yep, I asked dumb questions to start with but eventually got the right information......I gained the knowledge of where I needed to take off at Bower, a better understanding of the wave form and some tips about paddling in,,, I then went out there in every condition and for the sole purpose of preparing for a 'big day'....

A big day at Bower for me is when a whole heap pf people are perched on the cliff hooting everytime the sets start appearing, and the crew is many in the water, but most out there not doing anything...

So the day finally came....

Years of fear inside me as I paddled out, the long way, stick the rocks, I am paddling...Its good exercise and I need to warm up....

Picked up a small break on race course on the way out, dont know how that happened with the crowd that was there but I thought grab it and it was the perfect primer with a good little wall and a bit of oomph,

Back to the paddling, my trusty BM 7'8 and my helmut...Yep my mates have knocked the good old helmut, but I wont be without it...extra comfort and feels great to surf in...especially in a crowd and on rocks...

headed right over onto the inside and just kept it up until I was the person on the most inside point and everyone was then outside of me...that on its own was an achievement because I had learned that I had to be on the inide, second or third was not an option.....so I worked hard on the tactics to get the position.....Some people dont like the competition,,,too bad...

All the hootin starts up on the cliff, the line up starts paddling, and its my wave....kaboom....completely blew the first take off and took the drop,,,smash....

Stick that....I paddled like buggery and got back in the line up,,,,and worked it back to the inisde.....

I had learned my lessons but made one mistake....the first wave closed on the section and I needed to be selective and pay more attention to the wave shape and face before I comit....

Next set.....all go....8-10 foot easy...and surge rock poking its head up somewhere down the line.......

So I figured, the line up can have the first two waves as I am going for the third cos it looks really big and its very likely going to wrap....., I was on the inside and this was a situation that if I blew it, I would probably not get another wave for the day.....

My heart was pounding, and I turned my board, chin on the deck, like I had been trained.... and paddled like hell....

This was my big wave, the biggest wave of my life.....and as far as I was concerned I hadnt just spent the last 12 months training and busting my guts out to lose this moment,,,,

Got the perfect take off and all I can say is for anyone who knows big clean bower, its just an amazing wave as it literally builds and wraps around to race course....

I am not a big wave rider by any means and this little story is not to brag that I am, but that session saw me with 3 more big waves all the way and then I was out....

i can still recall the straight line speed, my sense of self assurance in trim and the turns and just the shear size of the face as it built from the first turn....

At this stage of my life, now 55, I am content with small fun waves but having said that I will have a go if its bigger but for me I need to be fit for it....

I need to be fit for it because if I am not fit its an injsutice to myself and for every other surfer out in the water who is also making the commitment.....

So the message from this little story is for some of us it takes a heap of effort to challenge fear let alone overcome it.......but for me I learned in later life that my fear was underpinned by one fundamental thing that was missing....

I was missing an important piece of information that the safest and best place to actually take off was in fact the most inside point....

That the mind can delude some of us to seek safety on the shoulder is a self deception....

Once I started to better understand that, my approach changed because I had something to work for....For me that something was, I am going to be on the most inside position and to justify that, I made certain like hell that I was in good shape to manage that responsibility.....

... that is an attitude I still take into the water today, whether its one foot or bigger,,,

and sometimes for me it means that its better to sit on the beach and watch rather than be another person in a heavy wave situation just for the sake of being there.....

It follows then that if I am on the beach as a spectator, and I then decide I am going to be out there one day in the big stuff, then I need to prepare myself so when I get out there I am actually going to take off and be capable to get into it....If I am not prepared to put the prep in, then I shouldnt go out.....

Rossa

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah you need to be in shape or you will get hurt or die on bigger waves. I always get a thrill when I cut out from a wave that scares me.
I haven't been tubed much since I started surfing again over 3 years ago. I do get the occasional shoulder in the tube or my rear in the tube on smaller waves and once in a while a head slap by the lip as it tries to go over me and I do this maneuver on the end of waves where there is a small (waist high) closeout section I crouch down and let the lip throw over me then I stand up to cut out but to get a tube where I can see the lip ahead of me only once during this time. Partly this is because I don't look for good waves and surf right down from my house and partly this is because my long board doesn't hang on a wall well.

It was over a year ago while I was still surfing my 9'5" tri-fin longboard. It was a stormy day and I was the only one out in double over head waves (6 to 8 feet Hawaiian). I took off on a wave with a nice looking wall. It was quite a steep drop and I stepped back on the tail on the takeoff and angled my board slightly with my ankles hoping to not pearl. Worked perfect as I made a bottom turn the wave was so choppy my board was hopping up and down a bit and skittering chattering across the chop. Due to that I over turned and went straight back up the wave and hit the lip and stalled for another gut wrenching steep drop and I angled my board from the top. Didn't pearl again and looking down the wave it looked like a section that I might get tubed in so I just turned up on to the face of the wave and waited. I didn't try to get speed or to slow down I just made a turn letting my current speed and the wave determine how fast I went.

I got tubed with the lip coming down near the back of my board so not completely shacked but it's the best I had done so far. Up ahead I could see the tube was going to collapse and get smaller and there was a little break in the lip as it was throwing out. I don't know how but I just squeezed out of that gap before it all collapsed. I decided to go in since I was happy with that wave and the conditions were dangerous and I was getting tired.

[oldmansurfer]

Horner's is a break that I have surfed a lot because it is near my home where I grew up and all my homes that I have lived in. It's a reef break that has a shallow inside section that frequently has little tubes. Then next break out I always called middle Horner's. It's less often good there and then the outside break which is called outside Horner's or just Horner's. Outside of that nearly 0.75 miles out is a break that is called Makaiwas. When the conditions are right that is a big wave venue although not often surfed. I liked outside Horner's and got quite a few backside tube rides there and even some frontside tube rides as there is sometimes another peak that will break right which we never named but I have heard others call it "big rights". When I first started surfing larger waves there I was afraid of these huge backside walls and used to pump my way to safety. The only way I got tubed was to take off well behind the peak (which I did). My friends would belittle me for not staying closer to the breaking portion of the wave but I had only been surfing for a year at the time. So one of my most memorable tube rides was the first big left that I got tubed by slowing down.

I took off behind the peak on about an 8 foot wave but did not get tubed however this was a hollow slow breaking wave so I attempted to stall. I actually succeeded in stalling but stopped completely dead in the water. I was standing on my board and slowly going up the face of the wave since my board was just hanging there. I crouched as I got near the top and decided to try pushing the outer edge of my board down to break free of the wave. That worked and I started down the face and got totally tubed. The lip hit the bottom of the wave in front of where my board came down. I coasted out of the tube and figured why not try it again? So I stalled again and again I completely stopped but this time I had a plan and as I went up the face I pushed the outer edge of my board down and came out of the tube again this time reaching the bottom at nearly the same time as the lip. So I figure don't fix it if it ain't broke and did the same maneuver again but this time exited before the lip hit the bottom of the wave and the tube was getting much narrower. I could see a walling up section in front and realized I had to speed up so I did a turn under the throwing out lip of the section came down got tubed again and then the wave collapsed blowing me almost off my board. I did like a one leg in the air exit in the middle of foam and whitewater.

One of the guys who used to make fun of me saw me ride that wave and paddled over to tell me he liked it. Those guys all surfed from when they were much younger. Me I was still learning.

[oldmansurfer]

OK so one more story and then I will be at a convention so I will let everyone else post
So Horner's one of my favorite breaks also has a right breaking wave and one little detail I didn't tell you about Horner's is there is a big pile of rocks that stick out of the water inside of the break. On a small day the wave will break left straight toward the rocks. On larger days it breaks well in front but you don't want to wipe out there in front of the rocks. The reason I am mentioning the rock is that on some days there is a right breaking wave that sometimes will break right to the rocks. I was surfing on one of those days and mixing up left and rights.

I caught a right breaking wave and got tubed deeply and perhaps the reason I remember it is two fold. One is it was about a 6 or more foot tube and it was huge. There was so much room in that tube, I was riding standing up fully and I held both my arms out sideways and I wasn't even close to touching water. I was tubed for a good deal of time too and when I came out I knew I had to watch for the rock. So as I exit the tube getting ready to react to where the rock is it was right there in front of me so I turned to the top of the wave and kind of wiped out there and went over the falls fortunately over the rocks too.

I guess it was the sense of peace while in the tube changing to horror as I had to take evasive actions to avoid the rock that makes me remember that one but it also was a beautiful tube ride.

[oldmansurfer]

So one of the breaks near my home is Horner's which has an inside (mostly right sometimes left too), middle (mostly left sometimes right too) and outside break (mostly left and sometimes a right). When the conditions are right all three breaks will be breaking at the same time. Most of the time the wave dies off between the breaks so you have to have a big board or know how to ride the wave when it isn't breaking to go between them but if you do it is possible to get a tube ride in each section. For a long time I had wanted to get tubed in all three sections but never pulled it off. I got really good at riding the wave when it wasn't breaking on my 7 foot single fin board and got tubed in two of the breaks but not the third. The easiest was the outside break mostly because I don't surf unless that part was good. The middle portion was rarely tubing but still I surfed there a lot and there were many times that I got tubed there. The inside part was also fairly easy to get tubed and this would be frontside for me whereas the outside and middle part were most likely backside or left breaking waves. The inside part is where I got tubed for the first time surfing. I was knee boarding mostly and borrowed my brothers surfboard took off and stood up crouched down and got tubed on the first wave I caught.

Anyway one day it happened, I got tubed on the outside which wasn't too unusual then tubed on the middle too and tubed on the inside. It was all so easy. I often struggled to connect all the breaks but on this wave it was no effort. Where I got tubed it was no effort too in fact I would have had to try hard to not get tubed. I thought "Oh boy, that was easy! I am going to do this again." Paddled back out and never did it again even to this day

[oldmansurfer]

This is about a little known break near my home. It is a little reef break on the east side of Kauai that I only surfed about 4 times. It don't know if it breaks well often but it does break well when no where else is breaking. We called it "anchors" because there was a ships anchor sticking out of the reef nearby. It breaks right and I only surfed it when it was about 2 to 3 feet (head high) tubing and extremely fast. You barely had time to stand and you were tubed already but you made almost every tube ride. On some waves you were tubed before you stood up. Maybe you would get clipped by the lip before you could stand but once you set your rail you were ok.
It was apparently a powerful little wave because when I cut out from the wave which at that point was waist high, I could do 3 S turns on the flat over the back of the wave. I really don't know how it breaks when the surf is up because I never went there when the surf was up. I can imagine it would be a bit scary if it were larger.

[oldmansurfer]

Wiping out is a part of surfing and even more if you push your limits more. I imagine I have wiped out thousands of times but can only remember a few times. Other than getting injured or almost killed there isn't usually much else to say about wiping out. You get tossed around by the water and then you come up and have to get out of the impact zone before you get pounded more.



Sometimes you know you are going to wipe out so you have a chance to take some action although usually you will still take a pounding maybe not as bad. Generally speaking if you have a board cord then you want to kick the board away from you as you wipe out. The board can hit you and that can injure you so usually if I can I kick the board away from me. I have noticed lately that some surfers jump vertically off their board. I haven't done that but I assume it is to get deep in the water and avoid getting sucked back over the falls after wiping out. If it is shallow you really don't want to do that because you may hit the bottom and other than your board the bottom is the thing most likely to injure you in a wipe out. There is one other obstacle and that is other surfers and their boards and there is not much you can do about them but try not to wipe out near other surfers. If I do I try to kick my board away from them if possible.



I haven't ever hit the bottom badly in a wipe out. This may be because of my days as a body surfer where I learned to prepare for the bottom and keep oriented so I know when I am heading that direction. Or it might possibly be due to similar reflexes that develop with years of wave riding experience. When I wipe out I automatically do things to avoid the bottom. I have had a few run ins with my board on wipe outs and I will tell you some stories about some of those. I haven't really had problems with other peoples boards when I wiped out but have been hit by others when they wiped out or got pounded going through the surf.



Once I was surfing Horners on a 6 foot day (wave faces around 10 feet). I got tubed and wiped out and when I came up my board was no where to be seen. I had a surf leash on and was thinking it must have broke. Suddenly I felt something raking across my legs and thought "Shark!" but it was my board which came shooting up between my legs. I wasn't injured much but had red marks on my legs from the fin scratching as the board shot up.



One day at Kealia I wiped out and ended up getting hit by my board in the calf. It didn't hurt much and I didn't notice any injury so I kept on surfing. A couple waves later I was sitting on my board and noticed some green stuff floating by in the water. I didn't know what it was and caught another wave and was once again sitting on my board in the water waiting for a wave and noticed the green stuff floating by my right leg and the right side of my surfboard. I watched closely and it seemed to be coming out of my leg so I pulled my leg out of the water and looked closely and there was a little hole where the board had poked me. I squeezed my calf and blood came squirting out of the hole. Blood looks green filtered through the water, something I didn't know till then. It continued to bleed for 45 minutes after I came in.



Once I was surfing at Waikokos (the far side of Hanalei bay) which is a left making me surf with my backside to the wave. It was a real good day breaking about 4 to 6 feet (8 to 12 foot faces). I had numerous tube rides but this one wave I was in the tube a long time and the wave started to break faster than my board could go so I tried to do a little turn to speed up the board but it resulted in my head touching the lip. This rushing water from the lip just barely pushed my head over but I was unable to pull it back and gradually it kept pushing my head over and further down till I was crouched all the way down then it really grabbed my head and pulled me off my board. I had visions of my head getting slammed into the reef and actually ended up doing a shoulder roll on the reef but emerged unharmed (shoulder roll is a skill I learned in Judo classes).


The absolutely scariest wipeout I had was at Kealia beach. I caught a wave and rode it all the way to the shore where the wave actually broke right on to the dry sand. I planned on jumping off and ending up standing on the sand but unfortunately the wave jumped up a little and flipped my board out from under my feet. I went up in the air and the board landed on the sand with the fin pointing up. I fell right on the fin. I could see that this was going to happen and tried to keep from landing too hard and I did manage not to be seriously injured but an inch one way and I would have been talking in a much higher voice and an inch the other way and I would have lost my virginity.



In the days before I started using a surf leash I had several wipe outs where I fell off the board and continued on the same wave body surfing and once I actually body surfed up to my board grabbed it and stood up finishing off the wave standing again. I had done a similar thing before a couple times when I wiped out and lost my board and caught a later wave in body surfing and body surfed right up to my board and grabbed it finishing the wave board surfing.



Also in the days before surf leashes I had an injury from a collision between me and my board when I was surfing Hanalei on an 8 foot day (12 to 15 foot faces). I saw a huge section breaking in front of me so I turned and went straight up the face of the wave. I think my board hit the lip as it cleared the top of the wave so it went airborne for a couple feet and dropped back down but I was launched 15 or more feet into the air above the top of the wave. As I dropped back down I could see I was going to come down on my board. I tried to turn my body to avoid it but in the air there is not much you can do to change your trajectory. I didn't want to land square on it so I put my feet to the side and they hit the side of the board causing damage to the board and my heel. To make maters worse I saw a friend on the beach and was showing him my ding and the board slipped out of my hands hitting the ground and shattering the base of the fin (glassed in single fin).



Wiping out is inevitable but it didn't used to bother me. Since I quit surfing and started back up again, I found myself starting to panic a little when I get held under by larger waves. It doesn't really happen to me anymore and I am fairly sure it has to do with wind conditioning. I used to be in great shape and then I was in mediocre shape. Really I think it has to do with being used to being out of breath. I have been hiking a couple days a week and lately I have started pushing myself so that I am out of breath and huffing and puffing for a good distance. You don't get a chance to catch your breath before you wipe out. These days I have tried to be careful to not take off on waves if I am still winded from paddling out but still paddling to catch a wave and then doing maneuvers on the wave can get you out of breath again. So when I am out of breath and under the water my mind wants oxygen. I think the hiking helps to keep me from feeling panicked under the water. However I haven't been held under by bigger waves lately so it still remains to be seen. I met a guy who had a bad wipe out. He got caught with another guys surf leash wrapped around his neck choking him. The guy kept pulling him thinking his board was stuck on the reef or something. He almost drowned and was psychologically affected and quit surfing for a while. He told me he started surfing again and feels panic when he gets held under too. He thinks it is related to his accident but I think maybe it is the same as me, he needs to get in better shape. I think being used to functioning without enough oxygen helps to keep you calm and it is important to be calm when you wipe out on bigger waves especially. I'll write a story about my worst wipeout on another day.

[dtc]

Keep up the stories, very interesting. I think that getting older you appreciate much more the potential for injuries - probably having suffered some and so forth - and it makes you more worried about it even though the risk is not necessarily greater. Plus it takes longer to recover and you dont have as much time (at 20 taking 6 months out to recover from an injury is annoying; at 45 (where I am) its a big chunk of my remaining surfing life).

And, as you noted, when young you are usually fit without realising it - lots of sports, running, dancing whatever. At middle age, you need to actually go out and do all of these things as scheduled activities (fitting in around all the other stuff).

Landing on the fin between your legs, did that myself once (was just short of the line up when one surfer snaked another and head straight at me - going the 'wrong way' for the wave (ie toward the shoulder) and I had to just wear the wave). Fortunately a wet suit offers some protection.

[oldmansurfer]

The injuries I am mostly worried about are my shoulder which has some undiagnosed problem but it gets sore when I surf too much and my knee which has been doing well lately but has some undiagnosed problem and my hip which I injured surfing and my neck which became sore after carrying my standup paddle board (which I only do when there is no surf so 3 to 4 times a year). I do daily exercises to strengthen my hip knee and shoulder and back and neck

[oldmansurfer]

This is about my worst wipeout. I was surfing at Hanalei and in real good shape at the age of 20. I could hold my breath for 2 minutes easily and swim 4 laps (100 yards) in the Kapaa pool underwater with one breath. The waves were fairly large and I had my largest surfboard which was a 7 foot 2 inch Progressive Expressions single fin diamond tail board which really was too small for big waves but that I loved that board. Paddling out I couldn't tell how big it was but the current going out was strong so while the paddle was twice as far as the usual long paddle it was similar in effort required because the huge waves pushed water over the reef and it had to go back out , so it did so in a rip current right beside the waves coming in. You could just get into the current and wait and it would take out fairly quickly. I was fairly sure I had never surfed Hanalei at this size before and as I got to the outside it was huge with faces about 25 to 30 feet. It looked like the waves should be make able and there weren't a lot of people out so I was stoked. Only about 6 people out with fantastic looking waves however they were so huge it was scary and exciting. I probably wouldn't have paddled out if I knew it was this big but looking at the waves I just had to surf them.

I caught a few waves and did ok but the takeoffs were hairy. On most of the waves I would paddle and stand up and drop down about 10 or 15 feet only to start coming back up the wave as the bottom dropped of the wave and it pitched up higher and higher and steeper and steeper till I finally either came back over the back of the wave thereby missing it or the water would release it's grip on my board and I would fall with the board barely touching the water down to the bottom. I felt horrible on those waves where I was pulled up and over the back
missing the wave. I got mentally and physically all geared up for the massive drop only to have the wave pass me by, leaving me futilely standing on my board on the back side of the wave. It was such a drastic disappointment. All that fear and excitement for nothing. Taking the drop was incredibly scary. On those waves I could drop down it was almost out of my control. As I dropped I could feel my board flutter back and forth under my feet which meant it wasn't firmly in the water. Everything went into slow motion and the drop seemed to take minutes when in reality it was just a couple seconds. I could see the individual drops of water coming off the tip of my board and floating away in slow motion. When I reached the bottom the board gradually started pushing up into my feet firmly and as I started my turn at the bottom I would look up and see this massive wall of water. Now I had surfed other places this size but at Hanalei it was different. The other places I had surfed the size of the wave tapers off fairly rapidly but at Hanalei it stayed the same size for a long ways. I poured on the speed trying to get well into the wave which resulted in me going well in front of the break. I did these huge almost air drop roller coasters on each wave and it was exhilarating. I think on my first wave by the time I looked back I was 50 yards in front of the breaking portion of the wave. After a while I realized I didn't need so much speed so I tried on the next wave to slow down a bit.


That was the one that caught me off guard and broke in a section in front of me. I had to straighten out and try to ride it out. The powerful whitewater from the breaking wave came up behind me and blasted me off my board and then after a little bouncing around under water I began to be towed by my surf leash under water. The wave caught my board and pulled it dragging me by the cord under water. The board was doing what surfers call tomb stoning. It was upright and being pushed by the whitewater and thereby towing me. If you were on the shore you would see the board upright going along in front of the wave and know a surfer was on the other end. I had had this happen several times before but this time it went on for a long time. It reminded me of when I used to hang on to the handle on the towline of a ski boat in Wailua river and have it tow me behind under the water. It actually was exciting with all the water rushing past you. There was nothing I could do but wait since the force of the water did not allow me to reach down and release the ankle wrap. It must have been about 30 seconds that I was towed until the Velcro gave up it's hold on my ankle. Then I got bounced around a bit more for maybe another 30 seconds.



Finally I was able to swim the surface only to find the surface was covered with about 2 to 3 feet of foam (like a head of foam on a beer). Now I had been catching waves in the ocean for along time and never seen this situation before. My first thought was this foam would dissipate and then I would be able to breath so I waited and got hit by a couple more waves and bounced around and held under for another 20 or 30 seconds each wave. Then I realized it wasn't going away and I needed to do something. I tried to swish the foam away and could make a cone shaped temporary opening in the foam but I got hit by another wave so while I was under the water once the wave had quit bouncing me around and I could come up to the surface I let out all the air in my lungs came up to the surface swished the foam away and breathed in only to suck in foam which made me want to cough. Now I had coughed in the water before and you automatically suck in water after the cough and this is how you can drown. So I mentally fought the urge to cough and got hit by another wave.



I was concentrating so hard on not coughing that I lost track of anything else. I have no idea how long it was but I was brought back to reality when I felt something rubbing on my back. I opened my eyes and realized I was laying on my back on the bottom of the ocean in about 15 feet of water. Because my lungs were empty I had no buoyancy and had sunk to the bottom and it was the reef rubbing my back. Everything looked brown and I was surprisingly calm. I thought to myself "So this is what it's like to drown. It's not so bad." I always thought drowning would be some horrible thing with your lungs burning as you breathed in water. But this was peaceful and quiet and calm and relaxed. I just lay there looking up at the surface almost like I was drifting off to sleep. Suddenly I realized there was a dark spot on the surface of the water which represented an absence of foam. I pulled myself together and swam for that spot. My consciousness was fading fast. The ocean disappeared and all I could see was a black tunnel full of water with the dark spot of water at the end. I used every bit of remaining energy that my faltering brain could force out of my faltering tired weak body. I wanted to just stop and go to sleep. But I made it to the dark spot and got a breath of air only to be hit by another wave. But as I bounced around under the water the darkness that had overcome me lifted and I knew I wasn't going to die that day. I smiled as I was bashed around. After the wave let up I took another breath. I remember thinking "should I try to take another breath" and was hit by another wave. I resisted the urge to laugh. I was so elated and felt like a million bucks. I was visited by my old friend death once again and he had decided to let me live. I have had a number of similar nearly dying experiences in the past.

[oldmansurfer]

So I knew that was a big day because the current going out was stronger than I had ever seen it. Hanalei on a small day the current is not too noticeable but once it gets to 15 or so foot faces (8 feet) the current gets noticeable and the distance to paddle gets increased but the current makes up for it. Back before I used a surf leash I lost my board out there on about an 8 foot day. I bodysurfed and swam in looking for my board. I got to within 100 yards of the shore and I couldn't see my board but it was white and there was a bunch of whitewater. I saw a surfer paddling out and asked him if he saw a white board and he said "You mean the one out there?" and he pointed out to the middle of the bay where my board was floating taken out by the current. I turned around and swam back out and my board had at least a 100 yard head start on me. As I got about half the way out I started hearing the spooky music from the movie Jaws which I had just seen a day or two earlier . I told myself "STOP IT!!!" and for a while it stopped but then it came back. I managed to get my board but by that time I was all the ways back out to the lineup and I was so tired so I rested a bit and caught a wave in. I promised myself I would never own a white board again