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Minds in the Water


softbootsurfer

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... Surfing is not just Balance, but Wave Knowledge is the Key to being successful and that comes from practice...also wherever you go, Beach Breaks are the Hardest to learn in,  as opposed to longer Point Breaks...and of course a longer board allows you to get into the waves earlier while the shortest boards are great for late drop ins  :ph34r: actually Waikiki with its endless reefs and longish rides would be perfect, and of course Portugal is closer to you and has some nice breaks...

Thanks.

Aye, I reckon I need more time.

Beach breaks harder to learn: that's good to know and makes me feel better.

I figure long boards must be easier (to get up on) as they rent those. They do feel like logs to ride, mind.

Hawaii: I played on the Big Island, but when the waves got reasonably large they closed the rental shop (don't want beginners getting hurt...).

Portugal: went there windsurfing and had to dodge the turds. Perhaps the water quality is better now, I will look at that.

Costa Rica looks like a laid back place to go and there are some "surf schools" there, although I'm not sure I need instruction so much as time.

Edited by philw
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Phil, if you ended up going to Costa Rica, go to Tamarindo Beach. There are quite a few rental shops and schools. But the best thing is that beach is very long and you'll likely find the type of wave you like - there's huge variety of size and shape, just as you move along the beach.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...

Surfing is not just Balance, but Wave Knowledge is the Key to being successful and that comes from practice...

Bumping an old post, but in the one day of surfing in my life (in Australia), this was my biggest problem. I spent lots of time paddling for little ripples that I thought would be waves but weren't. Then I'd get slammed by what i thought was going to be nothing. I just couldn't tell. The teacher dude just couldn't get why I couldn't tell the difference. He grew up in the water, I grew up in wheat. LOL!

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

Got myself to Nosara in Costa Rica.

It's like New Jersey, where everyone went to school with The Boss. Here, they all smoked weed with Weisbacker. 

Anyway, they have waves and it's a safe place and the bottom is sand and most importantly this is the first place I've surfed where they didn't rent stupid logs out to beginners. Now I have a board which actually turns. Let's see if a week of getting pounded improves my wave catching ability...

--

Snowboard comparisons... actually what they teach here is a lot like hard booting, stance wise and all that. Maybe instead of pushing "hard boots" or "carve", we should market real snowboarding (what I do, of course) as surf style. The Carving Magazine did that in issue 2; I can't take credit for it, but it's not a bad idea.

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Here's what I know about trying to transfer (race) snowboard skils to surfing:

  • My front foot wants to point too far forwards, and my shoulders want to be to square. I have a basic cocky attitude to turning (my brain thinks I can easily do it) which results in a few more falls than I ought to be taking.
  • I'm not sure what to do with my hnds - the instructors what them to be high up, although my training is "gun slinger".

On the plus side:

  • I see lots of people "breaking at the waist", which looks like the same mistake you get with snowboard learners.

Anyone got any "mistakes hard booters make when trying to surf" suggestions? I'm thinking this may be more like no-boarding (more sideways stance, less "crank"-able).

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On 9/11/2016 at 2:30 PM, softbootsailer said:

Hope you had a nice trip Phil...,

 

thanks... I'm embarrassed considering what else is posted here, but I think the whole thing about learning is precisely not to be embarrassed about being crap. Hence I'll suck it up, and get on with the learning. Here's a shot of a typically crowded (and wave-endowed) Nosara beach, plus a very carefully framed and selected day-two photo of a hardboot snowboarder transitioning to a different type of board.

I have a checklist of stuff I need to remember, the trick is running it through my head fast enough to get it all right.

None obvious (to me) stuff I learnt:

  • You want one of those rash vests which you can fasten to your pants or every-time you fall you have to pull the thing down out of your arm pits.
  • I bruised my ribs in the first two days, which were painful for a couple more. I need to either improve technique there or figure something else out.
  • Picking waves is a problem with several dimensions.

It's going to take a while. But I have a while ;-) And I bet it helps with no-boarding.

one.jpg

two.jpg

Edited by philw
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Wonderful Phil !!! :biggthump You Look Great in the Photo :biggthump All parts in Order !

Now it is Wave knowledge that will make the most difference in the future...and that comes only from Time in the Water 

Remember to always Study the break and or currents before you enter the water... 15 or 20 min. minimum, if head high or above

and finally, Surf Safaris to uncrowded Point breaks such as El Salvador or Panama or Cost Rica or Nicaragua will give you the best opportunity to advance...while Hawaii and Indo should perhaps be a ways off as the Crowds and Waves are rather unforgiving...Have a Great Winter :biggthump

Heres a shot from a friend in Calif....uh, don't go there :eek:

 

 

Cali crowd.jpg

Edited by softbootsailer
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;-) yeah, everybody says it takes time - I get that, snowboarding took 10,000 hours or whatever, I have patience.

An analogy: when I first see a pinball machine I see just flashing lights. I can shoot pretty much what I want, but I don't know what to shoot, or when. It's a multi-dimensional problem and it's downright confusing. After a while the lights start to resolve into patterns.... I need to shoot the troll targets 8 times to get the trolls to pop up, then I need to shoot them, then I need to shoot the saucer, then I get the troll multiball. My shot accuracy doesn't increase much, but each shot scores so much more because I can now resolve the sequence.

I hope that's what happens with waves: eventually I hope to identify what those other guys can already see. I'm not stupid, so I just have to watch and learn.

California: been there, done that... I think Costa Rica and similar will do for now. Maybe I can call in again on the way to the snow this winter ;-)

 

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2016/sep/15/britains-silver-surfer-a-photo-essay

Once you start surfing..........

----------------------- 

Link from softbootsailer above, plus second video of Kai Lenny that includes him pumping his hydrofoil surfboard back out to catch the next wave. The up & down pumping motion presumably increases the speed of the foil relative to the water thus generating more lift.

 

 

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11 hours ago, softbootsailer said:

thanks Sunsurfer, I don't know how to copy and paste the links correctly...heres some sweet Malibooo 

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqNP9ApwMg0

Edit your post above by adding https: ahead of the //www.youtube.com/.........., or just copy and paste the link path from the YouTube page Menu line.

Edited by SunSurfer
original post didn't appear as I intended.
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