More surfing stories

I have been eager to share my success stories of surfing, but thus far have kept my failures to myself. Today, that changes. Yesterday was a step backwards in the quest to learn how to surf. IN the morning, I did what every good surfer does, I grabbed a board and stood on the beach for 10-15 minutes doing some light stretches and checking out the waves. I was doing two things (1) deciding if the waves were the small enough for me to paddle out to; there has been a big swell here and the waves have been 8’, which are far too big for me and (2) looking for a channel to paddle out in; a channel is a path between wave’s peaks where the current isn’t as strong and it is easier to paddle out, you want to paddle out between the peaks and surf the peaks. The waves appeared surfable, so I took my giant green table and I paddled out.

Richard, my surf instructor, has taught me a bit about the basics of surfing. Starting at the beach, there are 3 zones:

- The impact zone or the inside where the waves have crashed, this is the white wash area;

- The catch zone or the outside, where the waves are cresting and breaking. This is where you go when you want to paddle into a wave and catch it; and

- The break zone, which is beyond both of these and where you go when you want to sit on your board, relax and take a break.

Paddling out can be a challenge and is very tiring, so I always go straight to he break zone and take a rest. When I reached this zone this morning I was breathing a little heavy from my excursion out and gladly sat up on my board to take a breather and enjoy the scenery. Just then a giant set came in. The waves started breaking in front of me and I was suddenly in the middle of mayhem. The surfers immediately started paddling out, trying to get in position to catch these monstrosities. I started paddling in and made it back to the impact zone quickly enough to prevent tears of panic. I surfed the white wash on the inside for a bit and noticed my giant green table needed some wax so I headed in.

Generally speaking, it is better to surf the inside (the whitewash) in low tide because the whitewash is further out to sea and generally deeper and safer for falls. I grabbed a smaller board and headed back out for round two an hour before low tide. I wouldn’t say I got pummeled, but it didn’t go great. I learned a lot of things: it’s harder to catch a wave on a smaller board, you need to paddle faster to get more speed; I have no idea where to place myself on a smaller board so I ended up dangling my feet off the edge which slowed me down and prevented me from actually popping up when I was actually going fast enough to catch a wave; and it’s easy to break a fin off the bottom of the board, I did it and didn’t even realize it.

I went home, rested up and went out for round three a couple hours after low tide. Third time’s a charm. My green table was almost 9’ long. The shorter board I tried early afternoon was about 7’. On my third round of the day I took out an 8’ fun shaped board and had a blast. I caught all sorts of waves on the inside and can officially ride the whitewash like a champ.

This morning I went out with Richard. The waves were about shoulder high and I caught two amazing waves, popping up, dropping in and surfing them all the way to the beach. It was an incredible feeling.