Surfing Success?

[BoMan]

What makes a surf session successful? What happens when you keep going back for “one more ride” despite being tired and sore?

* Is it how many waves you catch? Some say the top 10% of the surfers at a break get 50% of the waves, next best 40% get 40%, bottom 50% get 10%. Does this matter to you?

* Is there a crowd factor?

* What conditions do you like? Beach break, point break? Wave size/type? Time of day? Season?

* How important is it to overcome adversity or reach a milestone?

* Anything else?

[oldmansurfer]

There is a lot that i enjoy in surfing, more waves, bigger waves, learning something new, pulling off a maneuver, no crowds, putting together a continuous stream of maneuvers on the same wave. I like steep fast waves between head high to 2 times head high and once in a while bigger surf. I never stay out when I am tired and sore. However to me a successful session is when I walk out of the water feeling like I have surfed. I don't really need to have accomplished anything but I need to feel like I had a chance to accomplish something and that I gave it a good try.

[Tudeo]

It can be just 1 little moment, that I experience something so beautiful that it touches me in such a way it gets ingrained in my mind and stays there for the rest of the day to enjoy. Sometimes the vivid remembrance stays for more than 1 day, and some special moments stay for always in the back of my mind, ready to be remembered.

But success can only happen because you're unsuccessful on other days.. From my last session I only remember frustrating things: a guy dropping in on me on my best wave, how hard it was to deal with the crowd and waves I missed because of hitting the chop with my hand on the last stroke. The worst: committing on the wrong waves that didn't came up, the horror!

[oldmansurfer]

I can still remember the feeling of some waves that I caught 40 years ago. Waves like those are more than success to me. I can clearly recall the time I almost died as well maybe because it created an extreme sense of happiness that I didn't die. It's like the really big waves that I rode, when I cut out, I felt so alive. It was the perceived danger and it was now over. It felt like I was never alive before that moment. But success to me is to have a chance to do something and to try hard to do it.......surfing is about learning. Hopefully you learn from every wave. If I feel I have learned then I feel good.

[Big H]

Just something memorable is enough.....surf a lot and sessions blend into each other.....a surfacing sea turtle in arms reach, a particularly good ride, unusually glassy conditions, the day when the board was mental and did everything you asked, sometimes before you knew it.....

If I was in a program or otherwise taking lessons, there might be other yardsticks, but surfing for me is like a runner's morning run....just being out, being alive and a part of it all is the beginning and the end.

[pmcaero]

surfing for me is like a runner's morning run....just being out, being alive and a part of it all is the beginning and the end.

wish I were like that...
In general I measure success by the length of the ride (if recorded) and / or by the number of turns made during a ride.

[LostAtSea]

I think I feel good about a surf when I get a sense of connection with my self, board, and the wave.

[Millsy82]

If I walk back up the beach with a smile on my face it's a success.

I do set myself targets when I'm out in the water but as long as I enjoy myself I'm happy.

[BoMan]

But success can only happen because you're unsuccessful on other days.

So true. Taking off on bigger waves was/is a roadblock for me. Countless times I popped up only to careen straight into the pit. Then one day I managed to set the rail while flying downward and make a bottom turn. It opened a whole new chapter in my surfing and keeps me stoked to this day.

[Tudeo]

Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved.

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah except in surfing you can preemptively avoid some failure by preparing well. Build your arm and paddle strength before you surf. This can definitely avoid one type of failure and achieve success without failure. Learn to deal with the waves oceans currents before you surf. Learn to popup before you surf , learn to hold your breath etc... There are lots of failures that can be avoided entirely or to a great degree and lead to success without failure or much failure.

[saltydog]

On occasion, something clicks and all of a sudden I can perform a new move that I couldn't before. That totally makes my session. Otherwise, this

surfing for me is like a runner's morning run....just being out, being alive and a part of it all is the beginning and the end.

wish I were like that...
In general I measure success by the length of the ride (if recorded) and / or by the number of turns made during a ride.

It seems what defines success is quite different depending on where you are in your journey to learn to surf.

[jaffa1949]

Success was evident today for me. I have had a serious health journey over the last two years with few intermittent surfs. Surgery, radiotherapy and then not being or able to coincide with even small swells. Certainly I have had no match fitness to compete in a busy lineup

Today small fat 3ft surf on the bar two guys out , paddle the 300 metres out, an have enough energy to catch two waves, both rides I would call at the lower middle level of my ability. Just those two waves were the salve, not the performance. Conditions light glass , waves minimum power, but happy endophinscall round. Paddled in exhausted, wind changed, erased the surf for the bar....... done and finished .

[oldmansurfer]

It seems what defines success is quite different depending on where you are in your journey to learn to surf.

. I think it's more about what you want from surfing rather than where you are in the learning process

[Big H]

It seems what defines success is quite different depending on where you are in your journey to learn to surf.

. I think it's more about what you want from surfing rather than where you are in the learning process

For me there was a minimum competency point to pass before I could just enjoy without working towards a goal.....hard not to have specific goals if you're still 50/50 when you pop up you will actually make it to your feet....when I went through that period a day was a success if I managed to make it to my feet and ride most of the times I tried. Hell, it was a success at one point if I managed 3 waves in a two hour sesh. Hard to philosophically enjoy yourself if it takes all your will to sometimes end up with a 5 sec ride so yeah, I agree with Salty that it depends.

[oldmansurfer]

I agree that it depends just not on where you are in the learning process, it depends on what you want out of surfing. For you it seems to be similar to running. For some its about the thrill,for me its about the challenge . There are some who only want to learn a certain amount and then surfing becomes a routine but for others learning is a constant process so there are differences even in the way people learn to surf

[oldmansurfer]

When I was learning to surf most of the group of guys I hung out with were what I would call casual surfers. They had all been surfing since they were kids. They would go to the beach and if they spent 2 hours at the beach only one hour was surfing and the other hanging out. I preferred to spend as much time surfing as possible. I imagine for them success was sharing a few waves and sharing a few beers afterwards with their pals. I could hardly stand to be at the beach and watch waves come in unridden. My skill level silently and secretly unknown to even me passed their skill level somewhere between a year to two years of surfing. But there were some surfers who I knew who pushed their limits and kept improving. My casual surfer friends would start to say "that's too big" or "That's too gnarly" and refuse to go out. That is how I started surfing alone.

[RinkyDink]

There are certain things I want to succeed at in surfing, but none of them feel too urgent. I'm happy to get there when I get there. I ask myself if I would continue surfing if I were condemned to 1-4 foot surf for the rest of my surfing days. I'm not sure about my answer to that question. It seems like I do have some unconscious desire for bigger waves, hollower waves, tube rides, but I haven't really set any kind of timeline for those things. In my case, the actual journey to those things is its own kind of success.

[waikikikichan]

I recently became Facebook friends with an old class mate Erika T. Stanley. She is now a famous tattoo artist. So in a way she is "successful".
But to be successful in surfing, you have to define what surfing is. Basically surfing is riding the wave. So if you ride the wave, you are successful. If the wave rides you, you have failed.
There is the phrase "the best surfer out there, is the one having the most fun" ( most likely attributed to Duke Kahanamoku ). But if a person constantly drops in , blocks people, sits in the pit, throws their board, dings or causes others to crash into each other, YET comes out of the water Smiling and Happy, are they Successful ??

[oldmansurfer]

Ignorance is bliss.......... well ok so what else do they do besides all those bad things? Many of the top end aggressive surfers do many bad things in the lineup in order to get waves or so I hear. I don't surf crowded lineups where these kind of things happen. Who is to say if a surfer is successful other than the surfer themselves? I think like we see here on the internet surfers who are happily kooking along. As long as they are happy I don't see why they can't be considered successful. I don't want to surf like them but they are enjoying it so....? Everyone was a kook at some point.