Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

small waves again oh well all said and done what better way to get in shape and stay in shape? I frequently have hesitation about surfing on small days but never go home thinking I should have stayed home. I surfed both days at the rivermouth break because that is often the only place that has longer walls on smaller days. Yesterday was actually really nice conditions. It had been raining so the river was flowing and a little muddy but the river water was staying to the far side of the bay while the rivermouth area was breaking in clean warmer water, the swell was waist to shoulder high and the initial section crumbled but then there was a bit of smaller wall waist to knee high to ride. No really exciting rides but working on getting a good bottom turn and then a top turn before I race down the line on the small wall. I had some good front side and backside bottom turns and moderately fun top turns and one in a while something else down the line. Today was quite similar but the swell was a little smaller and the water wasn't clean at all and uniformly murky which is just as well since it kept me from seeing any sharks One remarkable thing about today is that my hair did not get completely wet today because of the water conditions I kept my head above water.

[oldmansurfer]

In the longboarder days they used to think a surfer who went out and rode a bunch of waves and kept his hair dry was a really good surfer. Then in my days, shortboarders used to try to go out and get tubed and come out with dry hair. It was a real accomplishment because first of all you needed to get out to the surf without getting your hair wet then manage to keep it dry till you got a clean tube ride. But most of the guys I used to surf with did that at least once and for myself a few times. I had shoulder length hair in those days so you could easily tell my hair was dry but some of the bruddas would ask you to touch their hair so you could document it was dry

[oldmansurfer]

Well I took my new board out........really the waves were too poor to judge it but no complaints so far.The waves were small and inconsistent and mushy. It caught waves well enough and rode them well enough and could keep going on small mushy waves if I got out on the nose and stayed there. If I could manage to get a good bottom turn in I was able to get some down the line speed from it. The only thing that would have helped is a navigation system that keeps track of where I am in the lineup and detects swells coming in and tells me when I am drifting out of the proper place. I put some FCS "big guy fins" (quad setup) that I had purchased previously and intended to try them out in some larger surf which hasn't showed up since I bought them. My wife liked the way they looked enough to comment on it. I think it is because the fins are red and the board has red rails but it does look like they belong there and they seem to work fine so maybe that will be my fins for a while.

[Tudeo]

The only thing that would have helped is a navigation system that keeps track of where I am in the lineup and detects swells coming in and tells me when I am drifting out of the proper place.

No landmarks?

Nice to hear the new board performs good.

[oldmansurfer]

It is a rivermouth area and there is current from the river as well as normal ocean currents. Today the river current was going out mostly so made it hard to be in the right spot in the in or out axis and the waves were inconsistent so by the time one rolled in even if I had just checked I was out of position and to make it worse the waves were doubled up so sometimes you would see what looked like a nice peak coming in to discover that that was the back peak and irrelevant since you had to catch the peak in front and it would break inside after the back peak merged into it or the the two would merge then the top would crumble and then break on the inside. It was not easy ti lineup in addition there were lessons going on in the area so I had to stay away from them which was good because it confined my choices to away from them . Once they left it was like I'll try that one and paddle over there and then see it break to the side of me and paddle over there. It was breaking in several spots but all of them inconsistently so I barely caught any waves after they went in LOL I should have stayed where i was but it was a new board and I wanted to try some other peaks Some other day I will have a better day to try it out.

[Tudeo]

I hate it when there's so much current, the constant paddling for position kills me. Hard to find landmarks for the in-out axis Here sometimes there are buoys, from the fishermans I guess cos they aren't always there.

[oldmansurfer]

It wasn't so much constant paddling as it was crappy waves This was the junkest surf in a while. It's going to be better in the future sometime

[oldmansurfer]

same place and board but slightly better surf this weekend. Yesterday I was at the sandbar by the rivermouth again and there were fun little steep walls maybe waist high. I didn't manage to get any notable turns in but caught a couple waves that were tubing and the lip was hitting me between the knees and the hips but not knocking me off. If I were younger I probably could have contorted myself small enough to get in the tube but then I weighed 50 pounds less at least the extra weight makes it harder for the wave to knock me off There were some boogie boarders out but I went to the side of them. Today there were lessons going on but I went to the reef break outside of the sandbar and it was fun but crumbly waves maybe up to shoulder high at the peak. I managed to get a little cutback in today and a reasonable top turn. So I am not really sure if the new board is any better or worse than my other boards which is a good thing I guess.

[oldmansurfer]

I went yesterday to middle Horners using my new egg board. The waves were at least head high and finally got some waves that I could tell this board is going to be different than the other boards. It paddles a little better than my 7'6' board but not as good as the 8 foot board. It seems to turn very well and once I learn how to use it I think it is going to be a fun shredding board. Today I took out my 8 foot board to outisde Horners hoping it was at least as good as it was yesterday but not it wasn't and I only caught a couple waves.

[oldmansurfer]

I got in an extra 30 minute surf session on the fourth of July. I was at middle Horners and there was another surfer out who was riding a shortboard foil. He said it took him about a week to get to where he could catch waves. I had my new board and the waves were well overhead at the peak but short rides I got a nice bottom turn to top turn combo on one wave. Probably on the best wave I fell on the top turn because I was going all out and hit a chop and went too high and got blown off the board by the lip. Happy Fourth of July to you all. Oh yeah I think maybe I saw that shark out side again but it didn't come inside (that I noticed)

[oldmansurfer]

small gutless surf with an extremely narrow take off zone. Lots of practice lining up the surf as well as good practice for quick popups. Nice weather though and good exercise. There is a hurricane forming way to the east possibly it might make some surf in the future.

[oldmansurfer]

small surf today but bigger than last weekend. My new egg surfboard is probably perfect for days like today. It paddles well enough to catch the waves and can ride the mushy sections fine and if there is a wall it can turn well and I can nose ride it on the inside shoredump at a fairly fast pace. Hurricane to the east but waves are blocked by the rest of the islands

[oldmansurfer]

Finally catching some of the swell from the tropical storm nearby that used to be a hurricane. Yesterday I went out at Middle Horners and there were two other surfers out there who went out at the same time I did. There was a nice looking break with about a 10 to 12 foot face at the peak. I spent most of my 30 minutes of allotted surf time trying to line up that infrequent but fun looking peak but failed to do so adequately. I took off on two waves that did not break till the inside and two waves that had broken already and was taken out by the whitewater or lip on the drop on both of those waves. So I moved over to the usual peak and noticed the two other surfers had gone in already. Hardly anyone surfs a shorter session than me Anyway I caught a couple of waves that were fun over there and then went in. The first one I did a cutback and the second one I thought wasn't going to break and I was riding the unbroken wave and saw a peak forming over to the side so scooted over there in time to be right in the pocket and did a couple of top to bottom turns nothing spectacular because it was choppy and the other wave I caught I has some trouble due to hitting a chop on a turn.

Funny thing that happened that day I talked to a guy on the beach and apparently there were some surfers discussing whether or not I caught any quality waves and he said they asked Titus if I caught any quality waves and he asked me if I did. I just answered sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. It never hit me why the hell are they asking if I ever caught any quality waves? what's up with that? How freaking bizarre is that? hahahahaha don't they have anything better to do than wonder if I ever caught any quality waves? I guess if you watch me surf on many of the recent days you might wonder if I ever caught any nice waves hahaha still what's it to them? One thing is I always get exercise, and always get practice reading the waves and practice paddling for waves popping up and riding waves and have fun but quality waves is not a goal of mine however should I get onto one I will be in reasonable shape and ready to ride it.

Today I went to outside Horners and there were two surfers out there too around the same size. I tried to surf one peak over there that looked good and the first two waves I wasn't able to get onto the wave before it went concave and had to abort. Then I was lined up up perfectly and my hand slipped on the popup and I got dragged over the falls. That break requires that you are in the right place and paddle hard and don't hesitate. I think it was because I am not used to surfing with others and one guy was inside of me but out of the way but still in my mind..... Well I moved over to the usual peak and caught a couple waves over there then had to go in because my time was up. And while the waves were much improved from recent weekends I still didn't catch any quality waves but it was exciting (steep drops) and fun to me and I got lots of practice reading waves and worked out my shoulder muscles pretty well.

[oldmansurfer]

There were waves again this weekend. Yesterday I went to middle Horners and surfed with two other older guys. It was fun but nothing special overhead day. One guy I see out there from time to time and the other guy was on a wavestorm. Today I went out the same place and Titus was out there with his paddle foil (lay down paddle) board. Turns out he is the uncle of the guy I saw there with a foil board a month ago. I Funny last week someone was talking about asking him if I ever caught any good waves and then there he was. I see him maybe 2 or 3 days a year. I got a couple of steep drops and actually maybe could have done more on the waves but on the first one I just really wasn't expecting the wall to hold up and took speed off on my bottom turn so I just rode the wall out like an old man which I guess I am . On the other steep wave I tried to takeoff at and angle because the wave was breaking already and the board lost the edge and the nose dropped down making a big squiggle and although I managed to stay on the board I wasn't able to get back up the face of the wave while there was a lip to hit. Happy to have some waves.

[IanCaio]

Really happy today, completed my first tube, on the most unexpected place. Waves there aren't really hollow, but this left I went in formed a triangle in front of me, and I tucked in. Felt the lip hitting my back as I kind of broke my way out of it right into the shoulder, just realized what happened when a dude that was paddling back screamed to me! xxxxx, I had a smile on my face for several minutes, felt like the Cheshire Cat on the water

A little later I almost nailed a lay back (kind of accidentally). I tried for a big carve on the closing section, and then dragged my board right bellow me, but parallel to the wave, so I felt like I was literally laying down on the face (I even put my hand on it). I was pointing it back to the shore when I spotted a guy sitting a little further inside. I rode to the bottom of the wave and lost a bit of balance, but also didn't make a big effort to keep myself up to avoid getting to close to the guy.

I didn't even get sad that I made a big ding on the tail of my board: after being thrown on it so many times, not even sure when exactly I made that ding. Going to fix it this week!

[oldmansurfer]

I didn't surf yesterday because I have had a virus (not ebola) and was still dragging tired. Today I went to middle Horners once again and it was head high and fun. Nothing special today some steep drops none that added to the grayness of my hair. I had a nice right over there today but wasn't able to do much due to hitting a chop on my bottom turn causing me to hold it a bit longer and having to just go down the line. There are some rights there from time to time but mostly I am hunting lefts because where I usually surf I never get any lefts. Lately though I go for the reform rights but this one was from the main peak at middle Horners

[oldmansurfer]

I surfed both yesterday and today at both outside and middle Horners. Yesterday was good sized but the better waves were infrequent and I wasn't able to lineup any of them. Today was a little smaller and more inconsistent. I didn't manage to catch any of the better waves that came in either day. I got some practice going around sections on my backside bottom turn. The only thing that might be interesting to you all that I did was a takeoff where my board pearled but I kept paddling and it came back out and I caught the wave

[IanCaio]

We had the biggest swell of the year last week, I surfed for 6 or 7 days straight. I think I'm slowly building my tolerance to bigger waves. There was only one day I couldn't paddle out, which had waves around 6ft plus hawaiian, breaking very far out, so I had to go for a more shadowed spot where the swell was hitting more mercifully. On the other days waves were reaching around 5ft, and I could reach out.

Had some uncomfortable wipe outs, even though the hold downs weren't that long I had maybe a couple that made me emerge a little out of breath, so maybe I should get back to working on my apnea. Had some nice waves, specially on the last 3 days of the swell when it was easing out and the formation was starting to improve.

On one of the last days of the swell, when it had about 2ft waves, I was recorded surfing a left by a forecasting camera. The quality of the footage isn't the best, but I'm trying to figure things to improve on it.

[oldmansurfer]

Yesterday I wanted to surf the rivermouth area because Wailua was flat and the rivermouth always has waves but the parking lot was full so I went to may backup parking which is Lygate beach park but it was also full. So I went to the parking lot by Horners and it had lots of room. While at Horners which was flat I saw some small waves to far left of the bay at a break I call Kauai Sands (shallow reef). It was a far paddle maybe 450 yards or so but no one was out. I caught 3 waves but only one that was decent (about shoulder high). The break had a sharky feel to it and I thought I saw a small fin, maybe 4 inches slicing through the water maybe 10 yards away from me and not where the waves were breaking which was shallow reef. I kept my eyes even more open and thought I saw something around 3 foot long swim under my board at one point but I never saw it again.
Today I went to the rivermouth and there was lots of parking. It looked like there was a long breaking left at the rivermouth but when I got down near it there were two fishing poles thrown out right there. The opening to the river had shifted down and was pushing sand out into a new area. Fortunately I think I was there near high tide so the river wasn't flowing heavily so there was less current. In the first 5 minutes I caught twice as many waves as I did the whole session yesterday. I did a floater on the shore dump landing into shallow water even though I had been trying to not do this because it is wearing down my fins I figured the timing was right and it would probably be the most fun I had today. It was fun and then I tried to do another and it wasn't timed right and I fell hitting the bottom landing on my left elbow. Hit pretty hard and might have tweaked something but it feels ok so far. Very unusual for me. I was going for it on any wave that I thought I had a chance since it was too small to be scary. I caught one other wave that was maybe more fun than the floater. It was just a little runner. I bottom turned and just trimmed down the line making small adjustments and got my back shoulder tubed. My head was higher than the lip but I was crouched all the ways down and the lip pitched over my board and my back arm but landed on my shoulder. I kept going and cut out in the shallows trying to not jump off my board in shallow water.

[oldmansurfer]

So an update on my injury. I was surfing last weekend and hit the bottom hard which is rare for me. I was trying to do a floater in shallow water on the closeout shoredump about waist to chest high wave and the timing was off and I still sort of went through the motions instead of cutting out because the waves were small and I wasn't too worried about getting hurt . So I was kind of horizontal in position for the turn off the top but never even tried to get up over the board and just lunched it and I guess I thought I was closer to the bottom so I put my elbow out thinking I could touch the bottom and slow down the rest of my body but I still had a couple feet to fall including the 6 inches of water in front of the wave. So I hit on my elbow and felt a torquing of my body as the force transferred through my elbow up my arm to my shoulder then my back and neck. I didn't really notice anything for a day or two but definitely there is some minor aches and discomfort in my shoulder and neck and back. It feels like I slept wrong but because I know I went through this trauma I think it is likely from that. So I have been doing some extra stretching to work on those areas but it hasn't hampered me from doing my daily day to day stuff.
I love doing floaters. Not too sure why but partly it's the idea of going over the falls and riding it out. and I guess it just seems like a crazy maneuver. Long ago I did my first one my accident. I was surfing on a wave with about an 8 to 10 foot face and it was a major runner, breaking really fast and I was generating a lot of speed. I had made it pretty far on the wave and got to the really fast part and a big section started to pitch over in front of me so I went to cut out but I guess as I hit the lip at the top it kind of pushed me back toward the beach and I was going so fast I just kept going over the falls but still with a lot of speed down the line. I probably traveled at least 10 yards on the back side of the is wave and came down with the edge of the lip on the front side of the section that had pitched over. It looked like I was temporarily airborne as I surfed off the edge off the lip and somehow landed in front of the breaking part of the wave and I may have gotten a little tube ride at that point but I was still in a state of shock that I actually was still on the board after doing what seemed like something impossible to do. I didn't know what it was called or how to explain it to anyone and asked other surfers what the heck was that which I just did? No one seemed to have an answer. But I have enjoyed doing them ever since then. Back then I probably did that maybe 5 times in my entire time surfing and all on waves about the 4 to 5 foot range at the same break. For a while after quitting surfing and restarting I decided to do them as an end of the wave maneuver because the waves I was riding ended in closeout shoredump. But then I quit because I was wearing my fins down landing these in inches of water. But I miss doing them.