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Minds in the Water


softbootsurfer

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I'm not sure watching any of these is helping  me to learn anything ?  It looks straightforward, I recognise the moves. But I've got to paddle out through that stuff somehow. Maybe I need one of those boards with an engine on it, just for the "getting out" bit. Costa Rica for 3 weeks coming up in a few days... maybe that'll help.

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2 hours ago, philw said:

I'm not sure watching any of these is helping  me to learn anything ?  It looks straightforward, I recognise the moves. But I've got to paddle out through that stuff somehow. Maybe I need one of those boards with an engine on it, just for the "getting out" bit. Costa Rica for 3 weeks coming up in a few days... maybe that'll help.

Check it again Philw...39 and 55 sec. you do that all the time on your snowboard...the difference is Wave judgement...you only get that from practice...have a good time in Costa Rica ?‍♂️ ?

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SBS I'm trying to decide if your post of Koa Smith's mile long ride at the Skelly Coast is as good as this, but it's like 20 or 25 inches of Utah blower.....

10 minutes ago, softbootsurfer said:

Longest Ride ever at Uluwatu ??‍♂️??

 

 

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On 7/21/2018 at 5:50 PM, softbootsurfer said:

Check it again Philw...39 and 55 sec. you do that all the time on your snowboard...the difference is Wave judgement...you only get that from practice...have a good time in Costa Rica ?‍♂️ ?

Yeah, I suspect that most skills are transferable, but "wave judgement" plus paddling are what I probably need to learn most.

However... I just discovered something so obvious that they don't really spell it out. Where I've surfed in CR to date have both been pretty serious big-wave places. I just picked places which 
looked like they always had surf, didn't realise they were "Chamonix" and "Revelstoke".

I don't mind big waves (it's only water), but it gives the beginner that problem where the board which is long enough for you to catch waves with is too long to paddle through that stuff (at beginner skill level). I worked that out by starting this trip somewhere different... Tamarindo. It's a beach break which reminds me of some of those Californian places. You can actually simply walk out if you want. I rented a monster old-bloke board (9 feet [odd these are all imperial units]). So all of a sudden I'm catching way more waves than the kids on the cool little boards. Ha ha ha.

Even so, I'm surprised at how getting the board to plane is still something I'm not consistent at. I can place my self consistently fore-aft to paddle, but sometimes that's the right place, sometimes too far forward, sometimes too far back. Now and then I can "fix" being in the wrong place because it's a big log and I can move about on it quickly enough. I'm thinking then that the variable must be the wave... for some waves I need to be more forward, others I need to be further back. That seems awfully complicated, and I wonder if I missed something.

 

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Tamarrindo....yep some nice Rights and Lefts up the beach as well...had a wonderful session there, late afternoon sun going down with only a few out :eplus2: so you are on course it sounds like, the more you go, the more you learn...note however, a Pointbreak is preferable for getting out as well as length of ride...there are some boat rides out of Tammarindo to your north that have point breaks if you ask...Enjoy Phil ??‍♂️

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I just left Tamarindo, where the beach break was easy.... I went from being surprised when I caught a wave to being surprised when I didn't in the space of 4 days. I think that's mostly because I was using a huge board and the waves were tame, but even so, it feels like progress. A couple of the waves were big enough to look up and down at the face and pick a height and direction (which seems easy, which I suspect is because it's a huge board and snowboarding tells you how to stand pretty much).

I'm now in Nosara waiting for the tide. I expect this to be much tougher, but if I can make the paddle-out then I reckon I'll be ok. 

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Nosara... much tougher than Tamarindo. Waves about 4 times as big. It took me three days to figure out how to paddle out  through this stuff, but then I caught my first (none-instructor-aided) green wave, and although on these I'm missing more than I'm catching, I'm catching quite a few and it seems pretty easy when it works. I think the ones I don't catch... aren't in the right state, but perhaps everyone says that. Time for a few days off, then back here for more wave-pounding (that's me, being pounded by them, not the other way around). So far so good ?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I spent the last two days introducing a friend to surfing in Santa Cruz. It was a bit on the flat side at the hook but steamer lane was working. Looking forward to a week in Ecuador at the end of November. It seems like this past summer was a particularly crappy one for surf, but now that winter is beginning to take shape things seem to be on the mend. Snapped some photos off the cliff at Steamer Lane and I think they came out well, film is still drying but will post here once they are scanned in ?

 

Also : I have seen quite a few of those hydrofoil boards on the water. Watching people get accustomed to them is *really* funny but when employed effectively ... gotta admit that looks fun.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

My mind is almost in the snow, but there's still this little window of 47 days. However... the last time I went surfing my near vision went to poo after a few days, and remained poor until I came home. That's not a huge problem as I can crank the font-size up on my screen, but it's not ideal.

After it happened a second time, I took a trip to an eye surgeon. He explained immediately that UV fries my lenses a bit, and it recovers after a little while. If I keep doing it, the result is likely to be cataracts. That's fixable, but there's also potential for retinal damage which isn't so easy to address.

I've never seen anyone use eye protection in the surf, but for me I don't really have a choice. The protection I can google all looks a bit naff - has anyone here used anything for this? I may be able to use swimming goggles and a bit of string (for when I inevitably go through the rinse cycle, which is actually quite fun).

 

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Phil,

Swimming goggles can work, need to wear a hat with brim as well, make sure both can come off and still be attached to you somehow...

Here is Hacienda Iguana in Nicaragua...had this contest there last week...heading down to speed 3 weeks and surf with son and family that live there...a wonderful spot with 3 different breaks...Adios 

https://www.surfer.com/features/2018-oakley-surf-shop-challenge-highlights/

 

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Thanks - I ordered a range of "open water" swimming goggles, as my standard pool ones are a bit racy for that use. I'll get a boot lace to fasten it to the rash vest and see how that works. Hacienda Iguana looks good - I was going to head back to Tamarindo (now I have the eye-thing sorted), because those waves don't eat me => I get more practice that way, but if I can't get in there then Nicaragua looks good... ?
 

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