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

[peazz]

Hey om,

Just wondering, Is it a wierd click in your shoulder as you rotate? Ive developed this in my right shoulder for no apparent reason need to go and get it checked out!

- Andy

[oldmansurfer]

No click that I notice just pain if I overdo it but I ice it down after a heavy paddling session and this seems to keep it ok along with me doing weights to strengthen all my shoulder muscles. So far by the time I get in to see the doctor my shoulder has recovered so he hasn't bothered x-raying it. Same with my hip but my knee has been x-rayed but they didn't find anything. It sucks getting older but as long as I can surf I am ok

[peazz]

Im 26, I damaged my hip pretty bad deadlifting around 13 months ago, I have to be super careful when im surfing asit can flare up at anytime and put me out of action for over a month.

it sucks to have injuries that affect you doing what you love.

Maybe next time it flares up u should get down the quacks right away and get it checked out mate

[oldmansurfer]

Ok so I don't advise you go surfing when under the influence but I did on one occasion. I was drinking beer with a friend and we were soused and came up with the bright idea to go surfing. We went out at Kealia beach which was the usual spot for me at the time. It was stormy with waves faces about 10 feet big enough to be fun but not big enough to be scary. This was before the days of board leashes and I was surfing a right that ended in a closeout section. One of the things I did before board surfing was swimming on the swim team and we practiced diving also so I would ride the wave to the closeout then turn to the top of the wave and do a forward one and a half summersault from the top of the wave. Now I did this only when my friend was there to see it so he was in the impact zone and I did this in front of him. After I did a couple of them he begged me to stop because "You have to stop doing that. I am going to drown. I laughed so much when you did it I almost drowned. Please stop." I laughed and said I would try a back flip and he was like "NOOOO! Don't you hear me?? I am going to drown." I was like "Seriously?" He said "Yes Seriously." LOL well so I quit. I have a feeling he was drunker than me.

[peazz]

Legendry! This forum needs some internal like buttons and a sidebar widget showing the most up'd posts!

[jwoz]

^like

[oldmansurfer]

So I told you about the longest tube ride I had at Hanalei but what I didn't tell you is on the same day I took the worst pounding of my life getting hit by repeated sets. One I got tubed lost my board and found it and paddled back out I wanted to get another at least pretty deep tube ride and never did but in trying I got caught inside by a set of eight waves. Normally if I am at a break I would try to paddle around the break however in this spot around is 200 to 300 yards over. So I had to take the waves on the head and try to sneak out between sets, only I got caught by another set of eight waves. Now each wave pushes me back a little and then once they let up I need to pour on the speed to get out only after fighting the first set I am tired and now the second set is hitting me and I remember thinking "Oh no , I am going to drown" and then the set lets up and I paddle like crazy and get hit by the third set and I remember thinking "Maybe it would be better to drown than this." But each time I had gained a little ground and after the third set I made it out. The next time I got caught inside I went in for the day.

[peazz]

*CHANTS* more more more more

[oldmansurfer]

I would love to hear ANY stories you guys have. I guess I will tell one more. I lived on the east side of an island and almost never went to the west side. There is a break called Pakalas (also known as Infinities because the wave breaks for several hundred yards) that I went to but other than that it was rare for me to go surfing out there. I didn't know any of the surfers from that side, they went to a different school and I never saw them surfing or not much. Anyway there were no waves on the east side and I didn't want the crowd from Hanalei on the north side so I went to the west side. The first break that I came to that had waves was a break near the swimming pool. I had surfed it before and it looked fun and no one was out. So I am surfing and having fun all by myself when 2 truckloads of guys pull up. They look like surfers so I am thinking "Oh no , instant crowd" but only one guy paddles out and it turns out I know him. We chat a bit and then he turns around and waves to the guys on the beach yelling "It's ok! It's ok." I ask him what that was about and he said those surfers wanted to flatten the tires on my car and he was telling them not to.

[oldmansurfer]

Mostly you learn various maneuvers from watching others but for me I often learned to do things by accidentally doing them first then repeating them. Sometimes I would see someone do a surf maneuver that I wanted to do and then I would try it. Once I saw a picture of I think it was Barry Kanaiaupuni (my favorite surfer back then) doing a turn off the lip with his fin popped up above the top of the wave. I thought about doing that and how it would feel and how I would set up for it. This seems to be an important step at least for me, call it mental imaging. I would imagine doing the procedure go through the steps mentally and then go do it. I was able to do this trick on my very first attempt after a few days of thinking about it.



Most of what I did I did by accident first. I used to do a side slipping takeoff. I did this by accident the first time and it became a routine for me. On late critical takeoffs you want your board to go sideways on the wave as soon as possible to avoid getting crushed by the lip. If you drop straight down the face of the wave on a late take off you may just get clobbered by the lip before you have a chance to make a bottom turn. So one time I turned right at the top of the wave but my board slipped down the face of the wave because it was so steep that the fin was out of the water. Once the fin engaged the water then I was propelled sideways away from the lip. On numerous waves at Horners I could feel the lip pushing me down the wave but once the fin caught I shot out ahead and proceeded to get tubed usually. I also did this maneuver at Kalihiwai because the waves were steep and fast and broke right in front of a cliff. Doing this at Kalihiwai meant guaranteed getting tubed. Had I thought about doing this on purpose I would have thought it was too difficult. Now I have a quad which refuses to do this so I have to overcome my natural instincts to try to do it.



When you surf with your back to the wave (backside) things are little more difficult. The shape of your body conforms better to a tube facing the wave than with your back to the wave. If you are in the tube on a big enough wave frontside (facing the wave) You can make little turns to speed up but backside it's difficult and you may contact the lip with your head or shoulder which means you will likely fall unless it is just a quick touch and you have good enough balance to recover. I thought about doing a larger turn so that my feet were higher than my head so that way I wouldn't contact the lip. I imagined it over and over again. One day I was at Kealia beach on a good sized day with fast lefts breaking (backside for me) and I did it. It instantly became part of my backside tube riding bag of tricks. I was able to do it the first time and almost every other time I tried it. I loved to do this turn but only did it under the pitching lip of a fast breaking left. It felt great because for a moment I was upside down, weightless and the water was inches in front of my face.



Another trick I learned was one that I did by accident first was the one I mentioned before where it turned under the lip on a frontside wave and it smacked me in the chest.



I loved to surf fast waves with lots of sections. I guess that is what I learned on so that's what I loved to do. Lots of guys like the perfect wave but for me I like more chaotic waves that make you work at it to stay on the wave. I would do multiple turns to get speed up dropping down the wave then jumping back up to the top and dropping back down again. If you keep sideways motion while doing this you can get going really fast (with the right board). I think of it as weighting on the bottom compressing your weight into the board then unweighting and releasing your weight going back up the wave back to weighting down the wave. This led to me doing a trick we called a re-entry. I was speeding up along a fast wave and made a bottom turn only to see a large section break in front of me. I was going so fast The board kept going along the wave riding over the top of the lip and going basically over the falls landing back down in front of the section since I had been going so fast and I kept on the wave for a several more maneuvers before cutting out. I did this same maneuver often when a section threatened to stop me from getting down the line. It seems like everyone is doing this maneuver or something quite similar called a floater but back when not many guys did this.



One maneuver I never learned to do well is one I saw Booby Jones do in surf footage. I also saw a few other surfers do this same maneuver over the years. This is when you fall backwards off your board you keep your feet on the board and push yourself back up onto the board. I only managed this 2 time out of more than 20 attempts. Something about doing this was beyond my abilities probably related to leg strength.

I did manage to learn to surf switch foot although only did it in smaller surf. Now in my old age I am such a clutz and fall down immediately if I try.

[oldmansurfer]

Ok so I have a few more stories and this one is about a particular day that the waves were awesome. One day the surf was up at Kealia beach long ago. There were two breaks that looked interesting this day. By the Landing where I usually went was a large A frame peak pealing off in both directions. By the river mouth was a long right breaking wave. It started way outside with a huge hollow tube reminiscent of Pipeline which collapsed and spit then rolled into a fast breaking freight train right which seemed like it would be a real challenge to make. In addition if I got caught inside in that area it was perhaps a serious risk since the exit in that area was a rocky shoreline which the surf smashed up on. Then it changed into a slow rolling hollow wave that looked like it would be easily makeable which gradually got faster and faster becoming another freight train right only much smaller at his point and then the final section was a nice shore break that wasn't too fast or too slow. These sections fronted a sand beach. I had surfed the A frames by the landing a few times and there was a surfer already shredding them there. I decided to go for the river mouth side and try the third to fifth section of the wave.

When I got out to that part it took me a while (30 minutes) to find a place that I could take off as the wave while slow was steadily pitching over. I have told you that it was easier to take off on a wave in certain areas and this is even more true on big waves. I tired several spots and finally found one that would let me in. It was about 15 to 20 foot faces there about what we would call 8 to 10 feet. On the first wave I caught I dropped down and went into my usual slow motion zone and suddenly realized the lip was really thick. It was at least a yard thick at the edge of the lip and powerful and the noise it made was similar to what I imagine a big mango tree trunk would sound like if it snapped in two. It was a very loud cracking noise. I was so scared I poured the speed on and got well away from the slow breaking lip and had to cut back which was one of the largest cutbacks I had done at the time and led to me getting tubed a little. I found that it was easy to make that portion of the wave but seemed really dangerous and with no one around to pick up the pieces I was careful so did not let the wave completely cover me although I did manage to get tubed just barely a couple times. The next section was my specialty and I pumped the speed on and made it to the shore break and had no trouble riding that section sometimes getting completely tubed there. I think at other times of my life I may have just gone for it all the ways out since the waves were so beautiful but it was a truly remarkable wave even just the part I surfed. I have at times been driven by the thrill of dangerous waves or dangerous anything.

[oldmansurfer]

There is a break I have mentioned called Pakalas. It's a very long left reef break. On the very outside which may be three fourths of a mile out I have heard that break called Tigers (named for tiger sharks) and there is an inside bowl that is maybe a couple hundred yards out. But on good days it's all one continuous break and used to be called Infinities. I have surfed there 2 times when the outside was breaking all the way in. Both times there were surfers who were camped out on the bowl section which is the last one third to one fourth of the wave. So I go all the ways out. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to paddle out so rest a bit and catch a wave with a face of about 10 to 15 feet that goes on and on and on. By the time I get to where the group is camping at the bowl my legs were tired and shaking. I did every maneuver I could do several times and got tubed a couple times too getting there and then these guys drop in on me. Now I am riding the wave and have a good deal of speed so I just go around them and then cut out. Another 20 minute paddle out and another wave repeat a couple times and I am spent and have to go rest. So maybe 4 waves and I have spent 2 hours there and my legs are shot as well as my arms.

I used to go there before I used a surf leash and your board goes in over a huge shallow reef. Fortunately my feet were tough from walking barefoot all my life. One of the guys I met there had his board bitten by a tiger shark. He had it glassed over and was about to go back out for the first time when I met him on the beach and proud to show me his board with the glassed over teeth marks. He told me his story ......He ws sitting aorund waiting for the surf when suddenly he was launched into the air. He was very disoriented because this is not something that happens when you surf but he looked down and saw the shark biting his board. He landed back on the board and slid right up to the shark and the shark shook the board violently. I guess he was in shock or something thinking he had been bitten and just lay there not moving as the shark swam off leaving him unhurt. Anyway he took a month off surfing and then that day was his first time back in the water.

I would often see sharks there outside the break but not tiger sharks these were probably sandbar sharks with brownish looking fins and turtles pop up next to you adding to the excitement of seeing the sharks.

I forgot to mention that one of those days I did a cutback into the tube and came back out by accident just tired legs and too slow to respond.

[surf patrol]

Just a link to a surf video from the island I live on

[dtc]

Just a link to a surf video from the island I live on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPew-dpQCGE

Whats the tribalism like? I watched some of the video, it seems like they are pushing the 'crew' line a bit; although obviously that is probably done partly for the video.

Some really nice waves there; and some that look stupid to surf.

[oldmansurfer]

I am not sure these days. Those guys are all a bit younger than me but we shared some surf together, they never gave me any problems. In the past though I have heard some of them were antinewbies. I think pretty much if you follow the rules and don't bother anyone they won't bother you. Lots of surf on the island. That huge wedgey thick wave was Kalihiwai mostly on one particular day I think. It doesn't usually break like that, usually it has a nice tube and thinner lip no double wave appearance. I have never seen it like that. here is a picture of a more typical day

[oldmansurfer]

Come to think of it if one surf break would be restricted it to locals would be this one. But there are lots of breaks around.

[surf patrol]

Here is some other surf breaks on the north side starts with Tunnels then Hanalei then Waikoko (left) then Anahola which very likely is a locals only spot too. I never surfed these spots after the advent of SUP and heard things have changed due to that and some of those Kauai Boys are now SUPers. I only surf my home break now so I am the local there

here is a video of Pakala on a not so great day

[oldmansurfer]

Ok not about surfing but once I did make a surfboard. I had some ideas about how to make rails and bottoms and was poor so making a board seemed like a good option. I made my board orange on the bottom and white on the top because I absolutely didn't want a white board. It was a 7 foot swallow tail with 18 inch wide and pretty thick in the middle but thin in the tail and back one third and nose. It was completely flat in the last one third of the board (no rocker) with a slight V bottom with slight concaves on each side of the V and the V started about where it got flat and became more pronounced at the tail. I liked the way it looked although it was a little odd looking. It didn't turn very well but it was ok and went really fast and could hang really high on a wall so really good for tube riding. There was no leash . When I just finished it got it all buffed and shiny looking and just about to go try it out a friend of mine came over and was amazed I made a board myself and he picked it up and was looking at it all over then dropped it on the cement putting a big ding in the rail even before I used it. It became my board to use at Kalihiwai and shipwrecks and other rocky spots where it tubed and if you lost your board it would get damaged. I broke the nose off it twice and the tips of the swallows a few times before I retired it. My friend......beside chewing him out initially, I made him pay for that repeatedly over the years. I kept reminding him about that over and over

[oldmansurfer]

Years later my friend would say something like "You can trust me." I would say "You mean trust you to damage my surfboard before I get a chance to use it?" Unfortunately he has had a stroke and I am not able to remind him of that incident anymore. I learned how to make a new nose for a board. You cut off the old nose get a bigger than needed piece of foam, drill holes and place a couple of dowels in the foam then drill into the board at the appropriate place glue the piece of foam and dowels all together then trim it down and glass it with multiple layers of glass overlapping the old board by at least a couple inches. You can make a solid nose that is less likely to be damaged than the original.

[oldmansurfer]

So this is about the biggest wave I have ever surfed. I was surfing Horners my usual home break and it was pretty good breaking with about 15 foot faces what we would call 8 feet. I looked outside at the break called Makaiwas and it looked like a picture. Big perfect tubes and they seemed to be stopped in motion like a picture and there were rows of perfect tubes just one after another. It was about a half mile for where I was but I was in really good shape so I figured I would paddle out and check it out. Now I had never been to this break before because it was so far outside and usually if it was breaking Horners was breaking too but these waves were too beautiful. I had to go out.

When I got out there the waves were so huge it was like I was in another world. They were so huge I just couldn't fathom it. The closer I got the bigger the waves got. These massive walls of water were rolling in and breaking beautifully and they were so massive and so beautiful and no one was out. I was alone in the middle of this incredible force and it was such a beautiful sight I had goose bumps. It was noisy and loud and yet silent at the same time. Incredibly fast and yet in slow motion. Massively powerful yet just water. Between waves was like a valley in the mountains of water. I screamed out of pure excitement and heard echos (probably in my head) in the canyon between the mountainous waves. I just watched for a while thinking I needed to be careful or this would be my last day surfing. I observed the massive waves for a while and they seemed to slow down right as they started to loose size. From my previous experience with waves I knew that if I went over a bit into the steeper portion of the wave from that area then I could probably take off. I knew if I did that I needed to make a bottom turn right away or I might get hit by the massive lip.

The waves were all exactly the same and the current was taking me deeper into the lineup so I tried taking off on one wave in the slow area and wasn't able to so I drifted deeper into the lineup and tried again and got onto the wave. I dropped down about 15 feet just like I did on that big day at Hanalei I wrote about earlier but this time instead of going back up the wave I just stalled right in that position as the wave got steeper and steeper. Eventually I started moving down the face but it wasn't so scary as Hanalei. My board was clearly in the water at all times. But it was a massive drop and I was backside at Makaiwas whereas Hanalei I was frontside. I got to the bottom and started my bottom turn but my legs couldn't handle the pressure and buckled. I ended up nearly sitting on my board but I rode out into the flats and stood up then turned. I could feel the spray from the whitewater splattering on my back letting me know it was dangerously close to me. But what a ride I had no idea what to do there was so much room. I did a few roller coasters. I was definitely in unfamiliar territory. I tried a cutback and half way through decided to turn back because I didn't want to get too close to the breaking portion of the wave but then changed my mind and went back into cutting back and I was only half the way down the face of the wave so I ended up doing a S shaped cutback.

The next wave I caught I dropped down and tried to make a bottom turn and fell backwards off the board because my legs were too weak. I was going so fast I hit the wave on my back and skipped back up in the air landing perfectly right back on my board. I was so sure I was going to die but was given another chance. I decided it was time to go in so I rode that wave all the ways into shore. When I got to the section where I was surfing before I wanted to cut out because it looked so small.

I drove home and thought about things a bit and decided to work on my leg strength. I started by climbing up the mango tree in the back yard and jumping out from a height of about four feet. I kept that up daily till I could easily land in a crouched position as I would do surfing. Then I went a little higher in the tree. Eventually I was jumping from a height of about twelve feet and landing in a crouched position. I kept this training up and kept my eyes open for another break like the one I experienced. About a year later I went out at Horners and again it was breaking about 8 feet and the outside was breaking in huge tubes. The waves looked so odd like they were a photograph due to the size and near perfection of the break. My second time out in those conditions I was a little more ready to measure the waves. I am sure they were probably 40 feet faces where I was taking off which dropped down to 35 foot faces shortly after and then slowly tapered down to 15 feet at Horners.

Again it was very consistent and again I decided to take off just over form the spot where the wave slowed down. This time I was able to handle the force at the bottom of the wave and make the turn without my knees buckling. I developed a maneuver where I would do a bottom turn and shoot to the top of the wave in front of the breaking portion of the lip and turn hard which resulted in my fin popping out of the water and my board sliding sideways along the top of the wave then I would dig my hand into the wave and pull the board to face back toward the break which would make the fin catch and I would drop down the massive wall again. It's quite a different maneuver from popping your fins out on a smaller wave because on the lip where I am turning it's 6 feet wide and flat and I am going a hundred miles an hour (not a hundred but really fast). I did it at first by accident but found it was easy to repeat. I caught maybe 10 waves and didn't wipe out on any of them but didn't want to get too greedy and pay for it so I went in. Once again when I reached Horners and the 15 foot face which would normally thrill me I wanted to cut out because the trill was gone.

There just aren't words to describe the feeling of being in waves that huge. I can only imagine what the tow in surfers feel with the even bigger waves they surf. What can you say? Massive? Huge? Monsters? Majestic? Magical? Power? Force? Beauty? Nature? Wondrous? None of it seems to do justice. I'm afraid my upbringing on Kauai did not equip me to describe such things. But when you cut out from a huge wave like that it's like so exciting. You concentrate so hard and then it all releases and you are free and alive like you have never been alive before in your life.