Latest Surfs...

[dtc]

C'mon Jaffa, as a surf boarder surely you are on the snow board black runs showing them how easy it is...

[jaffa1949]

I am actually running a program / course on behavioural linguistics for intervention strategies!
This is snow on the stickenuppen bergs and in the Haus garden

[oldmansurfer]

Well at least you could SUP there

[jaffa1949]

That's the natural swimming pool

[oldmansurfer]

I went windsurfing in a reservoir in Colorado during the winter (no wetsuit) back when I was in college. I was much younger and had to go to the shore to warm up once I fell in (where there were lots of boulders heating up in the sun and no snow). But you know I hear lots of older big wave guys like Laird soak in icewater to help with all their aching parts.

[oldmansurfer]

It was extremely small once again. but on the other hand I am getting better at riding tiny surf. Yesterday I shared the break with a woman getting lessons. Her very first day surfing. She said my 7'6" board was so small. I hate it when women say my board is so small I thought about telling her it shrunk because of the cold water. Anyway she was a nurse and 40 years old although I would have guessed around 24 from the way she looked in her bikini. She wanted to learn to surf because she was going on a trip to Baja with a couple girlfriends of hers in a couple months. I know she was thinking maybe her instructor was not giving her good instructions since she had trouble paddling to catch a wave. But I reassured her there is a lot more to surfing than just riding a board. She had been at the Eddie contest earlier and it scared her. I told her all those surfers riding those big waves had to learn to surf too. I think she was back out there again today and caught a few waves paddling into them. Today there were a bunch of beginners and other than me and the instructor the only other person who wasn't too thrilled about the waves was a dad who was teaching his son to surf. Anyway I got my exercise and got a stoke by osmosis from all the beginners.

[drowningbitbybit]

Fattish, smallish, weakish this morning... but gorgeously clean conditions and glassy water

It unexpectedly picked up while I was out there and there were a few 3ft+ sets out there. I got the biggest wave of the day... well, it got me and so I rode it anyway

Then I went and played on the smaller waves away from the point to get away from the crowds and scored a few on my own. All in all, a much better session than I was expecting

[Big H]

Been out of the water since Monday, which was a short sesh anyway, skipped Sunday, was small on Saturday so last Friday was the last time out in anything somewhat substantial....shook the rust off, 5-8ft and had a mixed bag of a sesh. Tired from Nyepi which seemed to be working all day and night since Tuesday, didn't have much gas....on the other hand, I'm surfing better than I ever have and continued in my purple patch....I had the best ride of my life so far on a shortboard (using the red rocket today)....caught one of the biggest that I saw today, got in early, got out on the face and got some solid pumps in.....never gone so faaaasssttt!!! Finished with a hard bottom turn and a somewhat mistimed off the lip top turn that I turned too early and didn't get that smack back off the lip but instead made a carving turn off the top to the beach and then got buried..... Had a few other waves that were good, but spent too much time out back just watching the next peak......honestly, could have taken a nap rather than surfed today but the waves were good!

.....I had more bad waves than usual, that is the mixed bag bit....just out of it and lazy, tried to get into waves late rather than paddle out through the set and got pile driven....retrospect would have been less energy to duck the wave and keep going out back......

[oldmansurfer]

FINALLY!!!!!! WAVES!!!!! Well it was stormy and all over the place but it's just how I love it. Some of the peaks were double overhead but it rapidly got smaller around what I would call 4 foot to 5 foot. Steep drops long walls no crowd. I caught a wave that would have earned maybe 3 points on the WSL but definitely the best wave I have had in a couple months. I did a radical cutback on one wave. I just wanted to jam one and it looked like a good place on the wave so I jammed it and came around to see the lip coming down on me LOL got pounded. I had another wave that maybe had an 8 to 10 foot drop and I knew it was steep but I been wave starved so I went for it and the wave got concave below me and I didn't have enough contact with the board to push the edge into the wave and just went straight down pearled and landed on my ear LOL It was great. I got my saltwater massage and chiropractic and eye, ear nose and everything else flush. All is back to normal now. So happy.... so happy I forgot to get a beer...wait.....Ahhhhhh...ok I am all good now..

[oldmansurfer]

Went back out today. There were waves but not quite as predictable as yesterday or as big. The swell was slightly smaller or slightly bigger and breaking outside then reforming and the inside part was smaller (where I spent most of my time) there were double waves frequently. I did manage to get one hard top turn in. I imagine it threw a bit of spray although I didn't look but I kept my center of gravity below the top of the wave and my board was at the top of the wave and I got my full weight into the turn and I weigh about 210 pounds. Anyway it felt really good. I caught a wave that sectioned in front of me and I made a bottom turn and forward hop around the section right into the pocket. Pretty sure that bottom turn threw some spray as well because it not only got my whole weight but multiplied by gravity of falling down the face of the wave, I really carved it. I hope the surf stays, it's been a while. But I guess I am getting better riding tiny surf and it helped me stay in shape for these waves

[IanCaio]

Tried to surf yesterday after riding almost 600km on a motorcycle to sort some things out in college, which so far are working out . I didn't have a good session, more like 20 minutes of me fighting my tireness.

Today I went out at afternoon. There was a dead dolphin at sand, not sure what caused its death but he was dead for a while .
2ft hawaiian waves, used the rip current out for the first time (I didn't like the idea of paddling close to the rocks, but it was a pretty calm paddle out). Could catch about 3 good waves. I'm liking the fact I can catch some long rides here, maybe it's a slower wave than the ones I used to surf before or it just open lines more often. There was one I really liked:
I dropped turning already and getting my rail set in the wall, did some pumping working rail to rail, got across a chubby section and then I saw it getting steep, so I went down for a small bottom turn and went back up and just crouched to get covered. I just got covered in white wash and got swallowed by the foam, but I really enjoyed the ride.
Hopefully soon I'll nail a small tube

[drowningbitbybit]

Good grief... if ever you want to feel small, go and surf with the pros

The Quiksilver Pro is on at Snapper today, but an awful lot of them were at the Alley (two points along from Snapper) this morning. Didn't recognise anyone in particular, but there were a lot of sponsored boards out there today and a whole 'nother level of surfing. The conditions weren't even that great - fairly big (overhead +), but there was a strong cross/offshore breeze making things very bumpy, but these guys... oh wow... just wow...

Just leftovers for me today

[Big H]

Good conditions in the report so I was up early to surf a spot I don't often go to but works in the conditions forecasted....there was a disappointing amount of wind / chop that was there from before dawn....spot got invaded 15min after I got out by a surf camp of 6 instructor/sheperds and more than 10 campers. Two older (40s ) women riding short boards really well; catching deep and connecting though the dead section....hot and cold for me; funny as this seems to keep happening but I had the best ride of my life again....guess it works that way when you are improving.....most of the sesh was tepid; working with 3.5h sleep and it just wasn't happening.

[drowningbitbybit]

So today I reverted to kook and fell into a common trap...

I went out yesterday afternoon in messy conditions and my paddling was just shocking. Wasn't getting anywhere. My shoulder injury is currently killing my surfing and I came out the water very unhappy

So today I thought "maybe if I could paddle in more of a swimming motion, that'd hurt less and I'd've more stamina. And if I could really get into them late, I could let the wave do some of the work for me" and so this morning (a bit disorganised but big and barrelling at kirra), I thought "Aha! I know! I'll take out my really small board that's ultra high performance!"

I was right in one sense - yes, the board did sink beneath me and it was more of a swim than a surf, but other than that... yup, I learnt what every other kook does... a smaller board almost never helps

[IanCaio]

I noticed I tend to try snaps more often on backside waves than on frontside ones, guess it feels more natural. On frontside waves I've been tending to cruise and try to get a small barrel on the inside more hollow sections (no sucess so far, and I guess I look like a kook sometimes crouching on "non barreling" sections ).

Tried a snap on a F/S wave yesterday, but I hitted the lip while it was breaking and somehow I hitted my knee hard on the board, and got another small cut on my leg. I got another small cut hitting my leg on the board when my feet slipped on it while pumping up and down to generate speed in a chubby section.

On B/S waves sometimes I manage to do the snap, which doesn't really feel like a snap, but a really sharp top turn. I lose lots of speed on it, so I gotta nail it on a section that will get hollow once I finish the move, and I think I gotta use more upper body on it, doesn't feel really powerful yet. But well, you have to start somewhere right?

I'll repeat it 100 times, it'd be great to record myself surfing and get to know what I'm doing right and wrong

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday was awesome looking but I couldn't get away. I had to work late and missed this double overhead to bigger swell but I did get out today and it was overhead maybe 3 to 5 feet and I was riding my 7'6" funboard with quad set fins. It was breaking kind of crumbly fast waves not real steep but crumbling along at a fast pace. I caught one wave that I rode for a long distance and did maybe 10 or so speed turns just trying to keep up with it. I had one wave that was overhead and broke under me as I paddled to takeoff and I popped up and rode the whitewater down and almost got back in front of the wave, after several turns and hops to get in front it broke in a larger section and I didn't have the speed to get around it. Bummed the swell wasn't the same as the day before but still glad to have some overhead waves.

[oldmansurfer]

I went out today and it was a little smaller but still head high to overhead. Forgot to mention that yesterday I had a lot of practice duck dipping like probably 30 to 40 waves during my 30 minutes out LOL. Today was much less of that and I caught more waves but about the only thing to mention was on one of the waves I was moving along and it started to section in front of me just a little crumbly section so I kind of did a lazy turn that lifted the rail facing the wave and let the whitewater flow under the board doing a kind of sideways foam climb and it worked and I was sliding sideways for a bit before the fins re-engaged and propelled the board forward.

[drowningbitbybit]

Absolutely gorgeous conditions this morning... crisp autumn sunshine, 28ºC water, and perfect glassy 3ft waves

It being good friday, there was a huge crowd at the point and not a parking spot to be found, but a little local knowledge put us somewhere relatively quiet with a decent wave.

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday was a muddy water day so I went out ot Blackrock which is about 600 to 700 yards out from shore and took me 15 minutes of paddling to get there on my 7'6" board. I only caught a couple waves and nothing worth mentioning but I got some decent paddling exercise. Today the water was a little cleaner and the conditions were perfect, sunny clear skies and no wind but small swell. I went out at the rivermouth sandbar break. I did manage a nice backside bottom turn to vertical off the lip snap on a wave that was perhaps a little more than waist high. There were some steep sections today and I got to do some turns

[drowningbitbybit]

Surfed at Cabarita (northern NSW) today - a new spot for me that has been on my local list for a while.

Hideously crowded on a holiday monday, but gorgeous waves and a fantastic spot to surf. Couldn't really make the most of it because of crowd carnage, but got a few, and will be going back soon when everyone else is at work!