Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

I went out today in the middle sand bar break It was over head to head high and most of the waves jut pitched over then crumbled but there were some walls to carve. I had a lot of late frontside drops and a couple of long walls that allowed me to make a bunch of turns. My best wave was a set wave from way outside. It pitched up and threw over and went crumbly, I got a late drop and made it to the edge of the foam and could see it was going to wall up so I edged over a bit and just before the lip pitched over I did a forward unweighting hop right up to under the lip and jammed a turn back down the wave before it broke. This gave me enough speed to make the walled up section and I did a bunch of top to bottom turns. I wanted to jam a hard cutback on the end and got ready but it just jumped up and closed out before I could react. Probably should have went for a floater but too slow to react. Really stoked to have that wave. It's been a while since I had a long wall to carve . I had one other wave that I did a bunch of turns on but I was slightly off of the right place on my board even though I tried to adjust my feet a couple times when I had a split second to spare. Even though it felt off I did a bunch of turns and rode the wave reasonably well.

[oldmansurfer]

Well I did it. Four days in a row of surfing. Today I didn't catch any long walls to carve but it was fun and even though the forecast was for bigger surf it was slightly smaller but I went out to the outside lineup and had to fight with myself for the waves. LOL I guess since it's only me I have a wide variety of choices. I think if I had more time I would have made better choices but came out feeling good and happy (and stiff)

[drowningbitbybit]

Gorgeous conditions this morning out at Kirra - 4ft and offshore, glassy smooth and warm water, and oddly not too bad in the way of crowds.
As it was the first surf after the christmas gluttony, I took my "mobility scooter shortboard" 6'10 out, which helped get past the strong offshore wind, although it did slow things down once up and running. Fluffed a few at first due to an excess of lard and alcohol over the last few days, but got into it by the end.

[BoMan]

The water was COLD today so naturally there was a long wait between sets. More than usual, sneaker waves also pushed through scattering the lineup and making us miserable. I would have paddled in early except for the unexpected entertainment...

A radio control surfer punched through the breakers and joined us. He was blonde, stoked and absolutely fearless on a 3 foot board. Every wave he took was double overhead and he dropped in on everyone with a stoopid rubber grin. Like Old Man Surfer....he jammed it, slammed it, smacked it, cracked it, hit it, and split it!

[drowningbitbybit]

New Year's Eve... Ugly on the beachies, big and perfect on the points, and so there was the most insane crowd I've ever seen on the Goldie. Not a parking spot to be had on the coast this morning, so gave up and went for a skate instead.
There's plenty of swell forecast for the next week and superb conditions, so no need to fight it out in the crowds for the last surf of the year.

That was more of a non-surf report

[oldmansurfer]

New years eve around waist high waves with very unusual conditions, offshore winds. I had to learn how to read those waves because 99 percent of the time I am surfing onshore winds. I probably should have surfed it more aggressively because the waves were so weak they never knocked me off my board no matter what. But it was fun and uncrowded. New years day was smaller almost flat but waves were breaking here and there very small. I went to the rivermouth and surfed a break there it was maybe waist high. Weak waves, I caught one wave and rode it for 20 yards and it didn't break, I kept going hoping it would (I was on my 7'6" board). Good exercise and I always feel better after surfing.

[drowningbitbybit]

Overhead barrelling perfection at Kirra this morning... and an absolute zoo in the water

No chance of competing with those crowds, so took the leftovers a bit further along (more or less on the beachie), which were still technically quite good waves (3ft+, clean) but not a patch on the point proper.

Roll on the new school term, and looking forward to next week when everyone goes back to work!

[oldmansurfer]

The last 2 days of my 4 days of new years surfing were smaller and bigger than the first two. Yesterday I went back to the rivermouth and only caught a couple of waves due to current from the river because the waves were even smaller so no current from the waves bu the river was flowing out and creating it's own current. I did catch a couple of hollow waves although too small for my shoulder to get covered. Today I went out to Blackrock which is about 600 yards out. It was head high and fun but there were a bunch of SUPers out. I forgot to time my paddle out but at 10 minutes I had caught a wave and paddled back out.

[oldmansurfer]

I forgot to mention I caught a wave today that did not break and rode it for 30 yards on my 7'6" "Imitation Average Joe" funboard. Mostly it involved staying in the sweet spot on my board which is forward from where I usually ride it, but I also ran out on the nose and jumped up and down a couple times to get it to go back down the wave as it was starting to wall up again but it ended up not breaking again. Riding waves that aren't breaking is a skill I learned long ago to connect outside breaks to inside breaks but these days I usually do it while trying to figure out the break (ie which waves to catch or not)

[BoMan]

I decided not to go out today.

2Mile Surf Report...
Sweet mother of Ted Nugent, side saddle, on a white horse riding through space, its going to be a bit bumpy today. All kinds of hilarious hold downs and hypocritical board choices should and shall be experienced today. Its looking like surf for all the strange creatures out there. The current number of organisms in the water is 3'056'374. Counting no humans present. It's not white capping but the sheep may be out to pasture soon. Surf is up and cation is advised. Slamming on the sea wall with the morning high tide today.

http://2milesurfshop.blogspot.com/

[oldmansurfer]

Funny reports from that blog but it sounds like my typical day surfing. Taking on some unruly surf is part of my training regimen.

[drowningbitbybit]

Big swell, average conditions, and several thousand surfers out there this morning
Most of the time was spent trying to not get run over, and there wasn't an awful lot of surfing going on for me.

Oh, there was one interesting wipe-out... I paddled for a fairly large wave with a crumbly lip that was just beginning to re-form and throw. Just as I caught it and was looking down the line for the best, cleanest wave of the day, the lip spat out my board from underneath me
A bit more power there than I was anticipating...

[Big H]

Went out today, 5-7ft faces was the report....got to the beach and saw a two mile long closeout....somehow the wave managed to closeout at the exact same moment one mile in either direction......hah.

So, with OMS words ringing in my ears of how he goes out regardless of the conditions and since I came to surf I paddled out. There was NO ONE out back....several surf schools were in full swing on the inside as the whitewater was plentiful, but there was not one person out back.......hah again, stubbornly I insisted and made it out back. I let two sets go thru and got some paddling in repositioning....didn't look great but I tucked into one that looked like it had some sweep to it...got the drop, bottom turn, a couple seconds on the face and turned down hard to the beach, laid down and rode the whitewater to the beach. I went down the beach 500m an did the same thing. And that was enough. I need to stop insisting on west coast beaches and get east, but all the nearby east coast spots are mid tide or better only, was low this afternoon. Hah.

[dtc]

You should try popping up and trying to get down the face of the wave before it closes on your head...it really makes you pop up very very quickly Short but exciting rides! And if you are lucky, you can bury the nose when you hit the flats straight on...

[oldmansurfer]

Just to be absolutely clear here. I pick a break that I feel would be the best for me out of the numerous breaks within the small area of my beach. If I am going to surf closeouts I will try to find one that I can do a turn or two or go to the end of the closeout and take off so I can do a bottom turn and cutout or a bottom turn and a floater, I often ride waves that end in a closeout and will try to get covered up then stand and come out the back of the wave. What mostly I go out in is stormy wind swell that breaks all over the place but I pick a peak or two that looks promising

[oldmansurfer]

Today was so flat I almost went SUPing instead of surfing. There was a break on the north side of the beach which I am sure was fairly shallow reef that was breaking ok but there was no parking anywhere near there so I went to the rivermouth sandbar and surfed a knee high break. It was a sunny day and the water was warm except for the river water coming out which was about 60 degrees. I got exercise and practice popping up and caught a few waves.

[oldmansurfer]

Another beautiful day but not much surf. I went out to Blackrock which is a 600 yard paddle out. There were some waves but I didn't catch any out there due to it being extremely inconsistent. On my way back in I caught a few on inside breaks.
Let me explain to you all my situation. I am on call 24/7 unless I am working. This means I can't go far away or spend much time away from my cell phone. I work 5 and a half days a week generally I go to work around 7 am and stay till 5 pm except on Saturday I get off at 12 but then I have to work for another 30 to 90 minutes after closing to get things ready for the next week. When I go surf I am looking for a few things and I am listing them in order of priority for you all to see.
1) Safety. I don't want to die or be injured. This is my number one concern but back when I was a youngster it would have been significantly more down the list.
2) I want to stay in shape or get into better shape for surfing. This means I need to paddle and popup and hopefully ride a few waves but at may age I need to get regular exercise and practice surfing or I will suck the next time.
3) I want to enjoy myself, have fun, get thrilled. This is not a difficult thing as long as I am in shape. If there are good waves then I am ready. If not then I enjoy working on my skills and learning to read waves. If not I remind myself that I need to be in shape for when there are good waves. Also the more fit I am the more conditions I can have fun in and that is why getting into shape is number 2 because having fun follows more often. I have probably spent more time actually riding waves than most of you and then I quit surfing and restarted and let me tell you.... not surfing for 12 years makes you appreciate every wave you catch a lot more but surfing has it's own reward.
4) I want to progress my surfing skills which I am working on as much as I can given the conditions

[IanCaio]

OMS, so how are you liking your GoPro? I was thinking a while ago about getting a cheap chinese type action camera, not looking for much video quality, and if I wait until I have the spare money to buy a better one I'll probably going to wait a good while

Didn't surf in a few weeks, been on my parents house those last days.
The docks have called me to present myself for admission tomorrow and I'll be heading to the coast, but with no surfboard, so I don't think I'll be able to have a session before the process. Now starts the admission clinic exams and stuff. The "moving to the coast" plan is becoming a real thing. Guess I'm just feeling the anxiety of jumping heads first now. Not stepping back though.
Going to look for a place or room to rent while I'm there, probably going to start working february.

Wish me luck!

[oldmansurfer]

I wear a helmet cam and it bothers me a little so I am not wearing it till there is some surf worth recording. The helmet seems to work but it restricts my movement a little. My advice for anyone wanting to learn to surf "don't use a gopro" . (Unless there is some specific problem you are having and want to post it here). It will hamper your learning. But if you don't care about learning go for it. It's kind of fun to go review waves and see if you can put the memory of how it felt with the image on the gopro

[oldmansurfer]

The waves were really small like knee high but I had fun riding my 7'6" Average Joe knockoff. It has almost no rocker so gets speed even in small gutless waves. The waves were so slow they were easy to catch, I could almost paddle as fast as they were going and they were so weak it didn't matter what they did, they could break on me when I was popping up or riding the wave and I guess I am a good surfer because I didn't fall once I didn't really expect to enjoy it so much but maybe the kids who were there boogie boarding and surfing next to me and screaming and yelling at each other "SET WAVE" or "PADDLE HARD, GO FOR IT" made me remember all the time I spent at that beach with my pals doing the same thing.