Latest Surfs...

[Big H]

Small today....felt like writing this one up because of the notable amount of tourists on shortboards compared to Indonesians and me on mini mals, fun boards and foamies.....head high at best, shoulder high the peak of most sets, and somewhere below that for all but one of each set.....I caught 30+ waves for the nearly 2 hours out.....short rides but fun....notable bit was the lack of waves the short boards were getting and the huge amount the bigger boards were....those guys wouldn't even paddle for the biggest wave of every set; wave had to be perfect, and then they would ALL paddle for the one that would come through and usually all miss.....they didn't care if they had position or not....they were MAKING that wave they'd been waiting on for 15min.....after the first couple of times I would sit inside of them and catch after they all missed because they set up to far outside and were hell bent on getting in early which doesn't really work at this jacking break; you get in here when the wave stands up and you have to be on the spot and quick......................made me think about all the beginners who routinely ask for advice but are insisting on "riding" shortboards.....the group of them looked dejected and worn out....go pros strapped to their noses, some really nice boards, but no waves for them. I had my own 6'2" firewire in the car; chose the epoxy mini mal and had a blast. The only people actually making shortboards work today were the grommies....they weight about the same as dry toast so they can ride their shortys on anything.....

[dtc]

Interesting Easter - there was no swell and the waves were coming in pretty straight all along where I surf and the primary and secondary swell were from different directions so the water was very choppy. 20+ guys (and a couple of women) all jostling for position at the one spot that there were waves to catch the shifty chest high face bomb sets that would probably close out anyway...

Still, had some fun times and some annoying times, requiring a few glares to get people into line and having to pull off waves (people would take off planning to go left and I would be planning to go right - we both had priority....shows that the wave was basically breaking straight). Even surfed with a guy who had the nickname 'snakey' (I didnt know him, but thats what all his mates were calling him). Although he was actually pretty good, wave sharing wise.

Had an embarrassing paddle out one day - went to a different beach to try and find some waves and they werent any bigger but decided to go out anyway. This beach has a massive sandbar - about 50m wide (distance from the beach to the open water measurement, not 50m across the beach). The waves didnt look that big so I decided to paddle out through the channel along the beach (massive sidways rip) to the sand bar and then walk across it to the open water. However, when I got to the sandbar (about waist deep) I discovered that while the waves were not big they had a bit of a punch and had about a 6 second period. So struggling through the sand ducking every 6 seconds (board is too big to duckdive and it was too shallow anyway), got almost to the back edge and stood there for about 30 waves just waiting for a break to paddle out through the place where the waves were breaking onto the waist deep water and nothing... just stood there, ducking, ducking, ducking. Looked like it would never change so had to turn tail and ride the whitewater right back to the beach, walk 60m up the beach and paddle out through a rip (couldnt paddle to the outgoing rip due to the sideways rip). By which time I was slightly exhausted and again reminded why I dont like surfing this beach. Wasnt worth it even once I got out. By which time I was so annoyed I surfed about 5 waves and came back in and went back to one of my 'usual' beaches (3 min down the road).

As Oldman always says, you can always get out if you identify the best spot! Trying to do it the 'easy way' by walking along a sandbar isnt always easier...

[oldmansurfer]

That is interesting. you need to know your own skill set and the conditions. I forgot to mention there was a long sandbar about ankle to knee deep most of the ways out on Sunday at the rivermouth one of the easiest entries ever well it was a pretty long walk though like 50 yards. I walked out to where the surf lessons were happening then surfed the break out side of them.

[drowningbitbybit]

Forecast for today: 3ft! Light offshore winds! Ultra-clean perfection!

Actual surf today: 6 inches of gutless ripple and the occasional 1ft set to keep the longboarders happy

To be fair, it was nice and clean.

[drowningbitbybit]

...and even smaller today

It would have been just about surfable but the "big" (we're talking a foot and a half here) sets would just close straight out onto the low tide sandbank in 4 inches of water

Still, the water was crystal clear and 27ºC, so although the surf was rubbish, you can't beat being in the water

[drowningbitbybit]

Still small today... but a slight onshore was knocking the top off them, so - counterintuitively - it was a better shape than the last couple of offshore days.

Anyway, tiny waves, but caught a few small ones and a couple of the sets too. Did a cracking final turn on my last wave - big turn on a tiny wave, me 4 ft into the air, the board 2 ft into the air doing the 360 without me, and then me landing in a tangle half on the board and half in six inches of water... a graceful moment to leave the water

[oldmansurfer]

small surf today kind of crumbly....or basically really crumbly It was difficult to ride due to the crumbly top breaking nature of the waves, even the 2 SUP guys there were having trouble but I got some exercise and the water was warm and the sky was blue and when I came into shore I was surrounded by beautiful bikini clad women offering me back rubs and Mai Tais.....ok I made up the part about the women and the Mai Tais.

[oldmansurfer]

The surf was still small but more rideable today. My wife said I caught "some cute little waves" meaning that the waves were dwarfed by me and I rode them for a long distance. I kept seeing some waves that were nicer than what I caught but didn't have the patience to wait for another like that since there were nice little waves breaking all over the place.

[oldmansurfer]

Still small about waist to shoulder high. I went out to the rivermouth sandbar. There were tons of waves that seemed fun to ride. When I got out I tried to get a lineup for a wave that looked steep and long enough for a couple turns. I sat there and waited while lots of waves came in, there waves to the left and to the right and outside of my lineup and I was like a kid in a candy store going "Oh look at that one. Or that one over there looks good. Oh that one is awesome." I paddled around and caught a bunch of waves but none very good. I made another lineup for another peak and sat there then got pounded by the sets. Finally my 30 minutes was up and I didn't catch a single wave worth talking about so I went back to the original lineup and decided instead of sticking absolutely to that lineup just get in the area and watch what the waves look like as they came in and paddle to the ones that looked good. I caught a shoulder high wave nice steep drop cranked a bottom turn and then did a tail sliding top turn where two of my 4 fins were out of the water over the top of the wave, then straight back down the wave then a cutback and I rode that one in. My small wave riding skills are definitely improving

[scsurfboards]

I had to share this new longboard that was done for me. Check it out on Instagram and give the shaper some love.

https://instagram.com/p/BD-5iLcPNi2/

[IanCaio]

Weak waves last 2 days, sometimes I find those much more challenging. I'd think I wouldn't tire myself that much because the impact zone is almost walkable, but all the repositioning, all the wave hunting and all the explosive paddling to get in a wave makes up for it!

I didn't feel like my surfing was productive, I'd lose speed quicker than I wanted on most waves. I can't blame the waves completely, because there were some few guys schreding, making snaps and cutbacks on such weak waves. Guess it will just take time for me to be able to get all the power I can even from a small wave. I tried to work on my nose to tail balance today, felt I was weighting a bit much on the tail and could be stalling a bit. Kind of helped to lean forward, but not much. Best I got today was a frontside wave ending on a small snap on the closing section.

Hopefully my body is improving its resistance, because I've been asking quite a lot from it by surfing everyday I can, specially when the closest spot takes 8km on a bicycle with a board under my arms. The other one takes me 14km..
I still need to get it ready for the bigger days, don't want to tire myself on a paddle out. You guys know any body weight workouts for shoulders?

[oldmansurfer]

I do dumbbells for my arms but there is one exercise i do just for my shoulders but I do it while I am doing squats. I do 10 to 20 half squats so I go down to where my upper leg is parallel to the floor but not lower because I am an old man and it messes up my knees if I go lower. I carry 15 pound dumbbells and the go straight at my sides as I go down and nearly touch the floor then as I come up I lift the weights up under my arm pits and my shoulders up as high as they will go. This weight helps my squats but also just the muscles of the shoulder.

[mjames]

Haven't been out in a few weeks - pulled some muscles in my back... finally went out this morning in 4' surf and wow I can't believe I got out of shape so quickly, I felt like there were mountains of water slamming me on my head, looking forward to the weekend so I can get back out, it seems like I'm going to need a few sessions to get back on my game

[IanCaio]

2 days ago, hollow spot, 2' hawaiian, 3' on some rare series. The waves were closing quite fast, so it was a little hard to find some good rides. Maybe once I get my pumping really nailed I'll be able to get across those fast sections before they close on me. Had about 2 or 3 cool rides, tried to pull a barrel again, no luck yet . Just saw this hollow section coming, didn't think I'd manage to cross it so I just crouched and pulled up, but it kind of just pounded me

Today, I wasn't willing to pedal 14km to the hollow spot again, so I took my chances on a closer spot. 1'-2' hawaiian on series, small waves, but I could find some rides. It was nice to keep my pumping practice, no snaps, no cutbacks, I just rode the line and pumped through sections.

I noticed that I'm having difficulties on backside waves when they are too fast to do a "base to lip" approach. Usually when backside riding I'm mostly bottom turning and snaping, and so on. This doesn't seem to work on a fast closing section. Maybe that's something I should start working on: Backside pumping. At least I'm seeing some improvements on my surfing

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah I think I was surfing for 4 years (30 minutes a week) before I managed to do good backside speed turns

[oldmansurfer]

Today was really small waves and I probably picked the wrong break to go to. It was so shallow my fins were digging into the sand on 80 percent of my waves

[dtc]

If your fins are hitting sand then it does sound a trifle shallow....I did break a side fin once doing that - and they were the kind that only comes in sets of three

[IanCaio]

OMS, that sounds like one of those shorebreaks that sucks sand all up the wave

Back to the hollow spot yesterday, 2' hawaiian, big crowd..
It was the recipe for disaster: Lots of people, not many waves and lots of kooks (am I allowed to call someone a kook? ). I got there and there was a guy with a fin cut on his head, a little later I found this nice left and had to kick out (barely made it) because a guy was paddling on the way, dude didn't even apologize.
I usually can't make much out of a day where I need to worry more about the people than about the waves.. But I could catch a few lefts. Guess I'm in that transition between being a burden in the line up and just handling fine in there.

[oldmansurfer]

Funny thing is I moved to another part of the beach and same thing happened. It's just too small. It sucks because the waves have been up earlier in the week but I had to work

[IanCaio]

I've noticed on this hollow spot I surf there's a shallower sandbar on the right side of the beach. First time I surfed that area I was struggling with some hard drops (was proud I at least nailed some!) and a really fast wave sometimes. I had to drop closer to the shoulder or find a wave that would give me time to pump before closing out. Only yesterday I realized it was because the sandbar was more shallow, I should have known when I saw some barreling waves there the other day!
It was cool to get a feel of what is being pounded again, even on smaller surf!

Where in Hawaii do you usually surf OMS? I gotta say, after I get really confident on my surfing I wish I could get to know Hawaii. I wouldn't go now, because I know crowds can be intense there (and aggressive), waves can be dangerous and to really get to surf there I'd have to be much more skilled. But one day, who knows?