Positions In The Wave Part 1

Positions In The Wave

After a long session, I was in many different positions while trying to catch waves at LB.  I came home and drew them on paper.  Simple diagrams is all that's needed.  I am trying to determine where I was, what was wrong about it and what to do and where to be in the future to get it right.

I have a few more for Part 2.

Rip Cur Pro Search Live On Now

Slater taking off...

Conditions Not Flat For First Time In Weeks

Amazing out there today.  Warm air, warm water, after a tiny shock but only on the feet, blue sky, some swell for a change.  It's been 3 weeks or more of totally flat conditions.  I also got over to Lido Beach for the first time ever.

Time to hit the gym, I haven't been out enough to keep up the arm sprinting ability.  I probably would have done much better without the webbed gloves now that I think about it.  They slow arms down because of the increased resistance, but at my maximum conditioning, I can paddle just as fast with them.  Today I wasn't at that maximum.

Never saw the drawbridge up and today it was up on each direction, weird.

I can't believe it, in the ocean in October, that's a first for me.

Some of the lineup, it got popular today after 3

Not me...yet

Powerful Water and Back Strain

Surf was breaking in shallow water and looking decent for practice just a few yards out from where I was still able to stand.  So to give my arms a break, I waded into them and caught them as I  jumped up or paddled for a second after jumping on the board.  It was a change from the bigger swell that I've been in where they out 10 or 20 more yards.

It was hard to stand and walk forward from the broken foam wave to the next one, where I wanted to be.  The amount of water is amazing, it's a foot or more higher and like a plateau over the water level in front of it.  It passes by with so much force it's a fight to keep my feet on the sand.  I lift my board up over them as they hit, and I can work my way right into the edge of the wave where it's curling into the face.  I was in a good spot and practicing popping up on every one and making good progress each time.  Caught about 20 this way.

The problem was taking the hits to the torso every 6 seconds to work my way to that perfect spot.  I learned that it's not worth doing that since those hits moved my back too much as I took them all on one side.  So I had to rest for 3 weeks.  I didn't miss much, we've had a 3 week lull here.  Doing this 20 times means I took about 20 hits getting back out there each time, 400 torso hits is too many.

It was a lot of fun and that's why I couldn't stop, but I paid for it.

Green is where I was working towards but Red arrow was a massive force

Part 17 - Hooked Summary

Part 17 - Hooked Summary

~Always liked the idea
~Always looked at LI waves here and saw that they looked completely different from any wave I've ever seen anyone surf, and it was never East coast, so I thought it was impossible.
~Won a surfboard
~Tried it and it was impossible
~Got the right board - cheap
~Tried again with a friend
~Caught a wave
~Caught waves, Hooked.

I Love Wave Rain

I don't take the wave, it is tall, the surface starts to rip apart under me as it flies by and large drops become airborne and the offshore wind takes them over me and cools me down.  I love it!

Part 16 - Long Beach

Part 16 - Long Beach, NY.  First weekend after Labor Day, No fees!

Finally went there after living closer than I realized.  Luckily, I met people who go there regularly and it is not as hard to park as I thought.  The waves, however, are totally different from what I had just learned from Tobay.

At Tobay, just the week before, I got totally hooked after consistently catching 3 waves in a row even tho they were belly rides.  So this pretty much brings my story up to the present.

I am now getting used to LB and have been there 9 times this season and shifting my weight forward on the board does not work at LB.  There, the waves are steeper and the weight hast to be aft in order to prevent the front from sinking 3 feet down.

Typical LB wave

Today Was Good

I'm happy to report that:

Caught 20 nice sized beginner waves and started popping up.  I gradually went from totally wrong foot positioning and sliding off and wiping out, to knee boarding with both knees, then one and 2 hands, then 2 feet and both hands on my final and if I had any more energy I know I would've continued the evolution.  But for now, I'm happy with at least the start of the chart. :-)

Started out a clear day in suburbia

Remained clear at Lido water tower

Perfect little beginner waves

Remained nice as I was leaving

Part 15 - Caught A Wave With Soft Top

Part 15 - Caught A Wave With Soft Top - This Summer, 2010.  Significant because it was the first time I consistently caught waves ever.  Also important because it was my new used board, and after a long time of conditioning with paddling.

I was out for the 4th time this Summer at Tobay, next to Gilgo, and there was a nice break at the sand bar.  Sand bar is a long way out at Tobay.  There is a very wide and deep longshore trench there that normally would make for nice rip currents and lateral currents that wash you quickly to one side, but the actual rip out, I've never found, which is odd.  Maybe it's a long way off,  It may even be way down at the end of the barrier island where there is the ocean inlet.

It's a long paddle out crossing the longshore trench before reaching the sand bar.  It's strange to suddenly be standing up and looking 100 yard back at the shore.  I was out there with only two other guys.  One guy was a boogie boarder and the other was on an old longboard and he was wearing a full wetsuit in July, which is odd.  He had to be way too warm.  I had only shorts, it's the middle of Summer and water was really warm.  So I didn't quite know what I was doing out there and the few I paddled for and tried to stand just passed right under me.

I watched the suit guy and every wave he tried he caught and stood and rode for a bit.  After a few tries I just chilled and watched this guy since I was getting nowhere.  Then I learned something.  He would see a swell, then turn right around and start padding way, way in front of it.  Nowhere near the swell, he started around 10 yards away.

Then a total lull and everyone left.  I was just hanging out at the shore and as I looked out, it picked up again and there were nice breakers at the sand bar.  I bolted in there and paddled like hell to get to them and I caught one and was so stoked, I turned right around and with noodle arms, I just ignored them and dug in because that was a nice long belly ride and I had to do it again.  I rode prone because after trying to stand, after knowing that I had caught the wave, I was kicked out of it.  So rather than lose them all by tring to stand, I decided to have fun and go for the rides while making sure I knew how to catch them and I did.

There is one important part of catching these low slope waves.  I had to move forward on my board from where I had been paddling level in the bay.  It was a weird feeling to be that far forward, but it was the only way for me to get on them.  Later on, I realized this is the opposite for steeper waves like those at LB!

I later realized that the low slope of the waves at that break require the long, 10 yard acceleration paddle because there is no drop as there is in steeper, more normal waves, like at LB.  This answered a few of the questions I had earlier.  Yes, I can catch waves with the new board.  No, there is nothing wrong with me for not doing so yet.  Yes, I can figure this out.  Yes, the board is ok and not of a poor design as to prevent surfing.  Final result, stoked and hooked.

Down The Barrel (2008) DVD

Down The Barrel (2008) DVD Breathtaking photography on a large HD screen.  Cool soundtrack and amazing angles, every angle imaginable, I was impressed by the underwater video looking up at surfers and waves above.  I watched this about 15 times before it went back to Netflix.  Also cool that it is so recent for a reason I'll describe.

Opens up with the amazing video and some slow mo.  Narration is very good and it slowly introduces the characters, pro surfers.  Describes their backgrounds a bit, and then we hear from them.  Also gets into a few famous surf spots and why they are good.  Then it all takes a turn and gets deep into the pro tour scene.  Here is where it gets totally different from the first part.  We get deeper into the 2008 pro tour than anyone who isn't totally into surfing walks is done with it.  But still, it is 2 hours, and being that long, any part is good enough for an entire watchable part on it's own.


It does a good job describing the pro tour and right after I saw it for the first time, the Billabong Pro tour in Tahiti was streaming so I knew exactly what was going on and it had the same surfers.  It's a good one and not just about barrels, but plenty of those.  Fast paced, lots of action, great soundtrack.  One time I hit the water after watching it many times and the opening song played in my head!

Shelter (2001) DVD

Shelter (2001) 40 minutes 4:3 image ratio, Super laid back surfing film.  Maybe a little too laid back.  Don't watch this if you're tired at all.  Surfing is high energy, fast, active and Down The Barrel (2007) has that kind of energy, but this has laid back tunes, some quotes, not a constant narration, and a lot of slow motion.  If you put slow mo, laid back music, and no narration, then I get lulled into a little too much relaxation.  Artistic and impressionistic, but the pace never picks up. Great surfing and Rob Machado is def a laid back dude.

One interesting clip was a surfer riding a wide, flat board that looked like a wooden door.  It shows the importance of rocker.  It isn't discussed or described, it's just my own observation.  As the door catches the wave the surfer can't do anything to prevent the board tip from digging in at the bottom of the wave where you would do the first turn and it tumbles over.  Really nice scene of suys helping a surfer surf after losing a leg to cancer.  One thing missing is the content in the film to match the description I read of the film.  That description is not actually in the film anywhere.

Conditions Good but It Didn't Help Me

Saturday, I was in the wrong place and/or wrong time.  I am still catching waves without realizing it and therefore, not bothering to stand.  I can't read the waves once I'm outside at LB and I don't know where I should be.  I need to make a plan and stick to it rather than unknowingly drifting with the current into the closeout area of the largest break.

So if I want to get up and stop belly riding, I'm going to have to start focusing on positioning for the few ridable breaks, of course, that's where the crowd is.  So now I realize how much nicer Tobay is since the sand bar breaks along a very wide area and they're easier to catch and there are no rock jetties to capture and control sand that also change conditions and group the lineup together.

Weekdays are also better with lighter crowds, even in October!

Unknown surfer at Long Beach, NY Saturday, October 2, 2010

The point, which I just Tweeted, is this, "Beginner fun is nice, but now I have to start to focus to actually improve."

Nice Wave Reports but Overcast Sky

And I can't make it down there today anyway.  Waves look good on the live cams.  I'll be there tomorrow tho.

Day Away and More Subjects and Batteries

I needed a day of rest after yesterday's awesomeness.  I had the pain, but I dealt with it and I'm writing a draft about how that happened, it still blows my mind.  Kinda glad it was overcast and rainy.

More subjects to write and post about later:
-Pain and relief
-Reviews of all of the surf related films I can get from Netflix
-More gear
-More photos

OT:  Will be able to use my AA consuming digital camera to add more pics to this blog.  My rechargeable batteries came from batteryspace and they are good.  AA Ni-Mh 2600's.  They also come in nice reusable plastic holders, really nice, even the retail AA's don't include that.

Awesome Day at Lincoln and I Stood Up

But only for a couple of seconds but I was up there.  What helped was analyzing what I've been thru, even drawing myself in the waves, which I'll post later, and watching and watching and trying and trying.  And one more thing, letting go of fear that I wasn't consciously aware of until today.  Had pain episode but dealt with it very differently, I'll post that later also.  I sat at the shore in the 2 foot breakers and watched my board interact with the small waves and learned a lot, which I'll have to post later also.  Met new people, which is always awesome.

Subjects I want to write about later:
-Analysis drawings of my wave interactions
-Pain episode number 4 but dealing differently with it and successfully!
-Wave awareness is a constant challenge for everyone
-How I caught first Tobay wave vs LB waves
-Bottom contour of Tobay vs LB
-Difference between one block at LB regarding sand bar
-How I really don't wipe out lately even if I don't take off successfully
-Catch up on the parts to get current ones

Conditions Look Good - I'm Going

Surfline condition report for Lincoln looks good and so do the 3 buoys 44025, 44066, and 44065 that I have i my Twitter list:  ny-buoy44025-066-065 It's handy. 


Hope I didn't miss it, I'm getting ready to head out there now.

Part 14 - Ocean Time

Summer 2010 - After staying away from it for a year and working out in flat water, I've developed paddling endurance and even a little muscle, a surprise.

Workout goals were 200 reps in a set and 5 sets with diminishing reps but at least 1500 reps in a session.  And distance goals of 3,000 feet or about a half mile.  At the start of 2009 bay workouts, my first set was 30 reps before needing a rest and 120 reps at end of season.  Starting 2010 was 60 reps and quickly up to 120.  It took about 8 weeks before I reached my goals in August, started using the webbed gloves and working out almost every day to a day or more of rest and I was ready to hit the ocean.

I went to Tobay, right next to Gilgo, the conditions were flat but I was psyched to be in the ocean again, it was beautiful and great weather.  I was so stoked to be back that my first set was 350 reps.  Good day!

Part 13 - Webbed Gloves

While training for paddling in August, I found webbed gloves.  In the video, Learning to Surf, Richard Schmidt said that they can be hard on the shoulders.  They sure are, but at the time I started to use them, I wasn't working out every day.  I couldn't since I was getting sore shoulders and arms from them.

Once I started using them, even the first time, I couldn't go back.  Suddenly I went from feeling like I was going nowhere with just bare hands, to having paddles and moving immediately with each stroke.  It was amazing how much faster and how much more each paddle stroke moved me and my board.  At that time I was still on the bay, but getting psyched to know that I had even more power for the ocean with the gloves.  Just about $20.

Saturday Was So Good I'm Still High On It

Knee boarding, wave drops, foamies, fast rides, smiles, getting to chill with a friend, perfect weather late in the season, no severe pain, it doesn't get any better than that.  You know a day was good if it can still put a smile on your face just remembering it.

Awesome Beginner Waves Today

I hadn't seen that kind of sand bar at LB until today.  Water depth was waist high, then I climbed up a steep ramp to a wide sand bar that was knee high.  Then just past it was 5 feet high and I was able to walk out a little more right where there were breakers.

Some I caught just jumping off the bottom, others jumping onto my board and paddling just a bit.  It was a really great spot and perfect little waves.

I think I conquered some fear of the 4 foot wave, over the surface, starting to break just behind me and getting ready for that drop.

There were a few different situations at that point.  I've never come down from the peak until today.  On a steeper wave face like these today, being forward on the board is not good.  I am used to mushy, low slope waves that require me to be very far forward so I can enhance gravity going forward down a mild incline.  However, when the wave is a real breaker with a curl, being forward sinks the front of my board down 3 feet.  So I started moving back and these waves took me even without me paddling up to their speed.

I got smacked hard in the back once by the lip coming down hard, ouch.  I got enveloped by the whitewater on a couple.  I think I hit one perfectly and knee boarded, which is progress.

There are a lot of things going on that I have to change and figure out.  I have so many images in my mind of so many situations and board positioning that I am mentally sorting thru.  I can't even list them all, not even sure how to describe them.

At the first spot I easily took 100 body slams by waves from my hips to my head.  I have a headache.  Every 5 seconds was another foamy that just knocked really hard into me.  The outside wasn't even good because those were mostly closeouts and massive sections, there was one really good guy who took extremely short rides on them.  That's why there were "poor" conditions today, but good for beginners.

And luckily, no 2 hour severe pain episode.  I took 4 days off.

I think my eye whites are sunburned.  This may be the first time, anyone ever have that?

Heading Out Anyway

Surfline report for Lincoln says very poor conditions.  Bouy data shows increasing wave heights.  Looks ok for beginners now that I know what s going on there regarding bottom contour and where the foamies form.

Been practicing popups and ready to implement them.

3 buoy chart from Surfline

Part 12 - Simplicity

I have been going to the bay for years.  All that time I would sit there and enjoy, but also be trying to figure out how to get in there.

I was awed by the beauty of the boats, I really wanted to be on them, it would drive me crazy.

I used to get out there a bit with a really small sailboat, about the smallest, cheapest one on the planet, a Snark.  Actually made of styrofoam the original model had bare styrofoam and they would not last long and chunks would be taken out of it.  Luckily I had the version with a nice plastic cover to keep it together.

Eventually I got out on the bay with a small rowboat and motor.  That still required going to the DMV getting registration for boat, trailer and trailer inspection, a hitch, electric connection, trailer maintenance, new light sets every year, new hubs, boat supplies, fuel, oil mixing, hoses, siphons, dual gas tanks, fuel storage and buying premium gas, lifting dirty, heavy motor on and off and flushing it each trip, and on and on.

After the old 2 cycle used outboard died, I was out for years, until I tossed one simple, cheap, used, foam board  in the car and into the water.  Done.  I kicked myself for not considering that over the way too many years.

Loved paddling on the bay for hundreds of yards enjoying it while conditioning.  Summer '09 to '10.

Then I was ready....

Part 11 - Reps and Sets on the Bay

Summer '09, starting out on the bay, I counted my reps.  I did 30 paddle strokes before I had to rest.  That's total of both arms, which is only 15 each.  I ain't going nowhere with that.  I did a few sets.  We had fun floating and resting.  It was still beautiful Summer on the water.

By the end of the summer I was up to 120 reps and 5 sets.

This year, 2020, I started out with 60 reps and worked up to 200 reps and the total in just over an hour was 1500 paddle strokes.

I worked up to that over 8 weeks straight, from 2 times a week up to a stretch of 9 days in a row.

I set goals of markers for channels in the water.  The one I set that I liked because it was a challenge was a 5 miles per hour float out in the bay that looked pretty far away.  That took 600 reps out.

Some days I was fighting tides, currents, white caps, and wind so it was a good workout.

Bay

This Summer, 2010, had an amazing run of clear days and low humidity.  This is never the weather here, or should I say climate.  That's how different it was.  It is still going, btw, and an overcast day gets me down, we had 6 in a row this September and it was really getting to me. But then back to more clear days in long series, it's amazing, but very strange.

Part - 10 Decision to Condition - Bay

Summer '09

After three ocean sessions of getting nowhere and being exhausted out there, dragging myself in over the wet sand out of the shore break out of breath with jelly legs, I was done with the ocean for a while.  I decided that I really needed to be stronger and have more stamina and endurance out there.

So I said that we should work out in the bay, just paddling.  We did.  I am really lucky here to have access to the bay just a few miles away.

No Pics on Posts Lately Because of Batteries

OT - off topic.  My rechargeable batteries all wore out after a few years.  I started using alkaline but they only lasted one or 2 days.  Such a waste.  I couldn't continue.  Ordered some online at batteryspace.  Rather than $4 each AA retail they were $1.50 including shipping costs, but I have to wait a week.

Everyone at Lincoln Had a Surfboard

And those without boards were surfers too.  I never saw so many boards in one place.  Yesterday was good conditions there.  First time I ever saw Surfline report good conditions at Lincoln or Tobay/Gilgo.

Not much time spent in the water.  Had to exit when the pain started in.  Third day in a row.  Starting to research it.  Not going today.  No pics, camera eats batts, ordering rechargeables today from batteryspace.

Igor Saturday Boogie Boarding and Sunday Soft Top

Saturday
At LB I thought I could get out in the middle of the jetties but it took forever.  Even with the swim fins and small boogie board, it was just as hard as with the surfboard.

My legs weren't propelling me as I remember from a long time ago, or it didn't seem that way in the heavy surf.

Then I had a new problem, severe pain in my arms.  I had to sit on the beach and do yoga for an hour for any relief.  I've never felt that before, it was very distressing.

Sunday
I returned with the soft top surfboard thinking I had enough shoulder rest.  I made it outside really smoothly with careful timing next to the jetty.  Saw a guy who recognized me from Friday.  There were closeouts of good sized waves.  I had spotted an area while on shore that looked like a good left and where the larger breaker started a sweep after the larger part closed out.  That's where I wanted to be but it was really hard to get there because of the strong westward current.  People getting out would go ten feet out and 20 feet west.

Then I started feeling the same pain from the day before.  I took a fast and bumpy foamy ride all the way in and suffered for 2 hours in severe pain.  I did yoga and tai chi and finally the pain decreased but there is a little remaining.

Monday
Long Beach looks like the best since I've been observing it so far.  Worried about the pain returning, but I have to try it again.  I plan on taking the left after the breaker closes out a section in the middle.  I studied this from shore for a half hour yesterday and got stoked that I figured out the best place for me to be and it isn't where anyone else thinks is good.  They are all headed for the largest peaking area that is too challenging for my level.

Time to gear up.

Igor Saturday Morning and New Fins

Resting shoulders for one day.  Boogie boarding trying out new swim fins.  Heading out now.

I just realized these things are called, "Aqua Lung!"  Do you think they ever heard of Jethro Tull?  Do I really want to touch these things now?

Should be good out there today and tomorrow, cloudy here tho.

Friday Before Hurricane Igor and Video

I've never been in waves that big.

Really nice weather this morning, summer clear, dry, north wind.  Great parking, brought camera this time.

Spent 20 minutes caught inside.  I was in thee wrong place to get out.  I also was spending too much time walking out instead of paddling.  I got hit and ducked every 5 seconds, I'm beat.

But outside was insane.  People were just chillin out there watching the swell.  It was like nothing I've ever seen.  If I didn't have as much experience as I just very recently got, I would have been scared out of my mind.  But after watching a lot of waves and being in many of them recently, I knew where to be and where was safe.  I have no idea how to measure them, but they were like houses going by.  I couldn't see any horizon in the trough, and then I could see all the way down to Lido and over the boardwalk at the peak.

I just looked at the buoy data but it's only once per hour so those crazy few swells weren't registered,I think, because they had to be bigger than 5 feet.  Then again, maybe from the trough to the peak is not part of that measurement.

I chilled there for a bit, got the sand out of the gloves, it was a blender and to have sand in the fingers of the web gloves is a lot of turbulence.  Floated on my back, drifted.

Did you ever get out there and be so blown away that you start talking to yourself because of being so awed?

I do, I smile, and swear a lot and sound stoked.

After 3 hours, it got really heavily clouded and overcast and even cool.  People were bundling up, I'm all sore anyway and beat and chilled for the first time this season, so I loaded up the car and took some more pictures.

As far as rides, those huge monsters that I went for were closeouts and you had to pick them really carefully for any face rather than all whitewater.  But on the way in, I caught so many foamies, it reinforced to me how powerful I found them when trying to get out past them earlier.  I played for a lot more on the inside near a smaller section where there was no lineup.  Really easy riding those surprisingly.  But still very hard to get back out at all.  I noticed later when I was taking pics, that everyone was having that problem.

Many surfers there today, I saw at least 50.  Great morning.

Clear Start

Lincoln still clear

Getting cloudy

And then the massive front passed us by and now it's hot again.  I'm sure it's nice down there again.  More tomorrow. :-)

Find the hidden message.  Hint: It's a rule.

Conditions Improving Going Now

Have to check out Lincoln, only been there once.  Looks better this time on Surfline Lincoln surfcam, buoy tweets have higher waves.
http://www.buoyalarm.com/buoy.php?id=44065 NY Harbor Buoy

Part 9 - Exhaustion

Summer 2009

I know that it takes a lot of physical effort to paddle thru the inside, get out past many breakers to sit and have the chance to pick a wave to go for, but there's this other thing, exhaustion.

We have to:
1. Move the board around a lot, rack them up, take em down, carry them around, walk a while in the sand to the spot and
2. Work our way thru the shore break, then
3. Paddle out butts off thru the breakers and
4. Dive thru the bigger ones, more paddling and
5. Then get out past them and
6. Paddle inward to catch them, but then
7. Miss a few and then work our way back out of the surf zone and the breakers to get back out to set up for next set and repeat a bunch of times but also
8. Make sure there is enough reserve energy to work our way back in if taken by rip currents out, or if taken a lot farther out by wind or current, basically, enough energy left for survival paddling to get back in...and also be able to swim a long way if separated from board, even more survival energy required in that case.

Well, 1 through 8 has mostly paddling.  Forget about catching waves, or standing, we're talking here about paddling most of the time or constantly.

So I thought about this and realized I need to condition to be able to have about 50 times more paddling endurance than I had at that time.

Coming soon, a year later and I'm back in the ocean.

Part 8 - Questions Why Only One Wave With New Board

Summer 2009

Confused and frustrated.  So I finally get what I thought was a board that was right for me, and I still can't catch any waves.

Is it conditions?
Is it the board?
Is it my misreading of the waves?
Am I in the wrong place or right place/wrong time?
Or some other unknown factors?
Maybe I'm not on the right place on my board?

Am I just weak and unable to paddle fast enough?
Will I ever get it?
Am I too heavy even for this bigger board?
Do I need a 10 or 12 foot board?
Is this soft top a real board or does it have lower performance characteristics?
Are the fins wrong?
Will I ever be strong enough in my arms to paddle all of my weight fast enough?

This questions plague me as I fail and fail and fail.

In time, however, I will have answered all of them.

Part 7 - We Don't Surf but We Wipe Out

Summer '09, we have new used boards.

This is embarrassing, but I was sure it was common for beginners like us.  We hit my old spot, which up until Saturday, was my current spot, and we did nothing that resembled surfing.

But still stoked on new gear and our belief at that time that it was all we needed to start surfing!

I like to always include a picture or two for a blog post, but luckily, for this one, there are none. ;*-/

But this might be close enuf.

Buoy Tweets - This Is Awesome

This just totally impresses me.  My local buoy, off coast of Long Island, is Tweeting me updates to my Twitter account and it also has a really good graph on it's page.  Wow....
http://twitter.com/buoy44025

The chart from the page of this specific buoy

I used the Google map to find mine, then clicked on it and then followed it; super simple.

The site is called buoyalarm.com >> Click here for the map.

Part 6 - This Board Floats Me

Summer '09
So we took the boards right down to Tobay.  Huge difference from my little 7 footer.  I was able to paddle faster and much more of the board was out of the water.  We were still beginners, but we went out after those breakers and attacked them.  It was ok that we didn't stand up and ride any.

Live Pro Surfing is Cool

I think it is also supposed to be on Fuel TV, I don't get it so I'm streaming and it's smooth.  Great waves and awesome surfing.  http://www.hurley.com/hurleypro/live.cfm

Part 4 - Learn to Surf with Richard Schmidt

After not catching waves consistently or standing, I decided to find some how-to info.

I ordered this video, it was a while back, it's actually VHS.

Learn to Surf & Ocean Safety with Richard Schmidt.  I watched it a lot.  I studied it, I took notes.  But I was always trying to surf at a beach with very poor conditions.  Which is what I only just found out yesterday!

Part 5 - Soft Top Purchase

Summer '09, I was talking to my friend about the board I have and how it doesn't work for me. He was interested in water and surfing.  So one summer day we went over to Sundown just to look at different boards.  I've been there a few times as well as Bunger surf shop and all the larger boards were always $650 to $1500.  And not really having any idea what I might actually be able to use, especially coming from having a useless board, I was never willing to spend much at all considering how easily I could imagine myself not being able to surf another board!

But then there was a used soft top, $174, that I could do.   And it was 8' 7" so I was willing to go from my short board to the biggest, cheapest board I had ever seen.  Also remember that I knew no surfers and never even talked to any down at my unsurfable surf spot....

Also, the board was nicely dinged up and hard to damage and meant for beginners and I could strap it up on the racks without much additional gear.  Done.

This one doesn't sink as much w me on it - important for beginning.

Long Beach - Wow First Time

Years ago I tried parking over at Long Beach, NY, and it was impossible.  Areas were restricted and residents only.  So I never returned, until yesterday.

I always heard LB was the place for surfing.  I also heard $26 parking, and fees just to walk on the boardwalk, etc.  It was also not near me, but it turns out that it's not even as far as I thought.  Free after Labor Day, perfect timing to try it.

Met really nice people there thru meetups and it blew my mind.  It wasn't just a little better than Robert Moses, Jones, and Tobay, it was completely different.  Now I see that I'be been trying to surf in violent, dangerous, deep water, overhead chop.  That's why I've only seen one or two surfers there.

This is interesting because it made me condition for a year to be physically able to survive there, not just surf it, and also really appreciate the conditions at LB, which was like a different planet.

I still used my web gloves and caught 6 waves, still trying to determine what is going on with my board and the wave, while riding prone and starting to arch up for first part of the pop up.

Part 3 - Why Can't I Catch Waves?

It's a 7 foot board.  Craig Hollingsworth.  Small tail, 3 fins.  Some very cool graphics on it, and one really ugly graphic on it.  Very lightweight.  Sharp point on front.  I think I am too heavy for it.

I did catch a wave one time with it.  It was the first time I caught a wave with a surfboard.  It was a pretty cool feeling, I didn't stand, I didn't realize I had the wave until I was moving already and I just figured it was too late since rides over at Tobay are really short.

I decided to sell this board after having it for ten years after getting a 8' 7" soft top, which is in the next part.

Conditions Actual Compared With Buoy Data

So I made note of the buoy data before going to the beach.  Buoy said 7 to 9 foot swells.  Waves at beach were flat.  Data said 11 and 9 seconds that was true.  It was much better conditions and not chop.  That stat, so far, really looks like a good one.

Wind was definitely less than last night, no way was it 20+ kts.  It did start to pick up later on in the afternoon.  Not sure on wind stat yet.

No I Refuse To Stay Away Tomorrow

I was just telling someone how I need to rest my shoulders tomorrow and won't go out.  No! I am going to go pick up swim fins and my old Boogie board and use the legs!

It was small today, but not that small.  Definitely worth hitting that sandbar.  I just exhausted my shoulders, but certainly not my legs.  Been walking 15 miles a week for a year and a half, time to use some of that reserve ability.

If I can walk 6 miles no problem, I can kick 500 yards with fins and I am really fast with fins.

Re-stoked.

I want to be in that water, it was beautiful today. VIDEO:

Lesson - Don't Waste Energy on the Chop

Fighting those conditions last night was a waste of energy.  I didn't plan on getting out the next day, but I did today and I tired out and was stuck inside and couldn't get past the breakers.  No rides :-(

whitewater is a lot farther away than it looks here

This also answers my question from earlier post if the chop from that day was junk or should I have tried it.  Answer is definitely, "Yes," it was poor, and, "No, don't try it," because I want to be ready for conditions that are worth it.

I want fun, not higher risk, survival tests.  That's for lifeguards.

Conditions Were Flat With Sandbar - Low Tide

Much better than last night.  Seemed flat but the sandbar was looking good.  There were times I thought were low tide, but seeing this, they sure weren't.  This is low tide.

low tide

sandbar