February 2013 – Learning to Surf

February 27, 2013March 4, 2015

Shaping Lessons!

😀

Back when Sunset Shapers opened, I recalled reading on their site about shaping lessons. I filed that bit of info away in the “Oh man, I’d love to do that” archives.

Just before Christmas, they had a coupon for lessons via Facebook. I got one, hoping it would finally get me to move shaping lessons from the “I want to do that” column to the “I’m totally doing that” column.

It did!

I had a little chat with James about what I wanted to make. The options came down to a proper noseriding longboard and a fish. Feeling like I’d get more use out of the fish in local waters (or on trips) I went fish.

The classes are divided up into two 3 hour sessions.

The first session is about the blank, the tools, the shaping room, the process of removing the outer “bark” from the blank, using the surform to smooth everything down, deciding on templates, measuring, measuring again, trimming the extra foam off.

Gordon was great. He answered all my questions. He walked through everything and was happy to share info.

We started here

A 6’5 blank. Nice and wide for fish.

We measured here:

Overall board length: 6’4
Width 1ft from the nose: 15 3/4″
Wide point: 21″
Width 1ft from the tail: 16″

We round a combination of templates that made a smooth transition between all the points of measurement.

The act of shaping is all about creating a craft with smooth flowing, lines through smooth, flowing strokes. The template needs to flow so the water can flow, right?

Tim reminded me of this scene:

At the end of the day, we had a square railed, fish shaped block of foam:

Day 2 was all about the finesse. Bottom contours, rail shape, tail details, nose details, basically everything that gives this board it’s character.

We started with lots and lots of passes with the surform to trim the board down to the thickness we wanted (2 3/4″) I got to do a lot of this work (since it was harder to mess up, ha) and was getting the hang of using the surfom correctly.

Here’s Gordon trimming down the stringer so I can do more surform passes on the bottom:

Next we worked on the bottom concave. Single to double concave. This took lots of very small movements, checking and rechecking the depth, and plenty of eyeballing.

So much of this is by feel or by sight that Gordon had me look at things in progress so I could see what it looked like if one side was less concave than the other, then showed me how to fix it. We did this with the stringer too, I’d look to see where the stringer was too flat, then Gordon would get it nicely into a smooth shape again.

It was really interesting to see how everything evolves. The board isn’t ruined if there’s a little more foam here, it is still in progress and can be brought back into check (within reason, you obviously can’t add foam back in.) The point being, every stroke or step doesn’t have to be perfect, but the change has to be slow and symmetrical so that the finished board is perfect.

I had so many questions answered. So many thing I thought maybe were aesthetics, actually had real reasons behind them. Like the swallow tail, there rails on the tail are very square on one side and rounded on the top, allowing the water to release under the board for speed and turns, but hold over the top to keep the board in the face nice and snug for more control.

Rail work was super delicate. Gordon did all of that work. I mostly said “yup, that’s even” or “looks a little rounder on this side”

The finished board:

Next steps: cutting fin boxes, cutting the leash plug, and glassing!

This part’s really exciting. I don’t get to sit in on it, but I’ve done a ton of sketching, holding boards, and talking to James about options. I sketched so many MANY options, dozens at least, before settling on this guy:

Now to wait for James to do his magic.

I highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to know more about what goes in to hand shaping a board or anyone who wants to be able to better read how a board will perform. It’s a great class.

I’d love to shape another board. Gordon said the best way to do it is to find a board I want to copy, bring it in, and book some time with him of James to help. They’d leave me to do more of the work myself and help guide in the hard parts.

Very stoked. 😀

February 26, 2013March 10, 2013

Less fishy

Surf: 10.5 ft at 19.0 s from the NW at 312Â°

Oh sure, I bring the fish expecting bad waves and find fun waves once, but do it twice and nothing cooperates. Sigh.

It was all big closeouts the morning. I got into a few waves, but did a lot of kooky falling all over the place. Not so successful.

I was hoping to get some practice on on a smaller, quadier board before my shaping lesson this week. No luck!

February 22, 2013March 10, 2013

Very fishy!

Surf: 7.9 ft at 16.0 s from the NW at 308Â°

After Wednesday’s success, I figured Linda Mar would be junky (it’s almost always junky after I go to Santa Curz) so I brought out the fish.

I managed to get waves! I would up having to swallow my pride and catch a few slightly broken waves on the inside, but I got up, I turned. Success! It’s a pretty fun board once I’m up, but I’m still working on the getting up part.

Also, arms. Oww. So sore after Wednesday.

February 20, 2013March 10, 2013

Low Tide

Surf: 12.8 ft at 11.4 s from the NW at 307Â° Low Tide

After this mornings freezing cold, hard work, face fears-a-thon, mid morning was a fun, waist high longboard session in the warm sun.

Darren and I grabbed lunch and watched a few little longboard lines roll in.

By this time Pleasure Point was looking blown out and crowded, but this little spot was just fine. A little slow, but fine.

Got in plenty of nose riding practice (or face planting practice, whichever is more accurate), some party waves, and sunburn.

Nice afternoon.

February 20, 2013March 10, 2013

High Tide

Surf: 13.1 ft at 11.4 s from NW at 306Â° High tide.

I’ve been working hard over the last few months to overcome all the fear I was left with after last year’s bigger days. I took the breath holding class, I’ve been working on getting my confidence back little by little.

Today was a big leap. It was pretty solid out at Pleasure Point. Probably 6-8 feet, occasionally a little bigger. The tide was high so the waves were a bit gentler, but the cold cold air still packed quite a bite. There was ice and frost everywhere as we suited up.

I’d been reading Jaimal Yogis’ “The Fear Project” over the past few weeks. For me the biggest takeaways were: prepare and slow down.

Prepare for facing the thing you’re afraid of. If it’s an extreme sport: train, plan routes, study the break, work out, take a breath holding class, learn from others who have faced this before.

Slow down. One thing I’d really noticed in dealing with my fear was I kept putting myself in worse positions by either scrambling to get out of the way of a wave (using up all my energy) or being indecisive and choosing though inaction.

For me, taking this on involved a few steps:

Admitting I was scared. Denying I was scared meant paddling out, right to the peak, and just getting clobbered again and again. Tenacity and stubbornness were getting me more of the same clobberings rather than teaching me how to deal with the situation. Admitting I was scared and using my fear to be smarter about my choices proved to be much more valuable.
Preparing for uncomfortable situations by taking Hanli Prinsloo’s class, working out, and practicing on smaller waves helped me learn a lot about what I am capable of. I now know on a good breath I’ve got about two minutes where everything will be just fine, much longer if I can stand the discomfort and the underwater somersaults. Sure I haven’t timed a real breath hold in surf conditions, but it’s a good reminder that hey: I’ve got air.
Slowing down when I see a wave coming and my heart sinks. I’ve tried to be more aware so I see the wave coming from farther off, decide if I can make it out and over easily or if paddling further out will just put me in the impact zone where sitting still would leave me dealing with the wash rather than the lip. If it looks like the latter, I slow down, try to stay calm, get a good breath and take the hit as calmly as I can. Being calm in the water, so far, has lead to less violent tumbling underwater. I’ve also had better luck keeping the board safely with me by being calm. The larger boards especially seem to get torn out of my hands when I’m holding them too tightly.
Being kind to myself when I make a mistake. This one’s been pretty hard. When I first encountered this problem, I didn’t want to back down. I held myself up to this imaginary standard and felt being scared was a sign of weakness. It was a sign of weakness. It was a sign I was making some bad decisions in the water and I needed to spend more time thinking things through. But not all weakness is failure and not all failures areÂ permanent. Going easy on myself has lead to much more improvement than forcing myself to do everything the hard way so as not to feel weak.

I realized through this process that I’d always sort of felt that other people weren’t scared. Jaimal’s book was a reminder that fear is pretty universal, some people simply practice facing it more effectively.

The results of all this?

Well, I got a bunch of overhead, fun waves today. I didn’t get clobbered. I didn’t spend the whole morning running away. There was even some spray thrown off a top turn or two.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of heart-in-my-stomach moments and plenty of really unpleasant beatdowns, but here’s to learning to facing it a little more effectively.

February 15, 2013March 9, 2013

Getting somewhere

Surf: 7.6 ft at 16.0 s from WNW at 296Â° Low and incoming tide.

After Wednesday I had pretty low expectations and a pretty high frustration level.

I brought my longboard and I’m glad I did. Fun lefts! Nothing perfect, but fun. Plus it doesn’t hurt to feel competent. Oh and there was a whale. And sunshine.

The whole morning got me thinking. There were plenty of closeouts today. Sure it was a little smaller than wednesday and there was a bigger chance of the wave staying open, but still closed out for sure. This problem I’ve had with closeouts started with me getting clobbered last winter over and over again. It seems to be worse when I’m on a smaller board, probably because I can’t get into waves as early and have to deal with a steeper drop. But it seems like it shouldn’t be THAT much easier on a log. I’d really like to figure this out. As much as I love riding my longboard, I’m getting tired of the frustration on my shorter boards.

February 13, 2013February 16, 2013

Fat lip

Surf: 6.9 ft at 12.9 s from WNW at 289Â°. Low, outgoing tide.

I snuck out early for a sunset surf, hoping conditions had cleaned up since yesterday. They had not.

There were corners here and there, but for the most part the waves closed out. I didn’t get into anything on the shorter board, so I paddled around, ducking here and there. One failed duck dive, my face went right into the rail. Oww. Thankfully it only bled for a few moments, and didn’t puff up too bad. It didn’t help with me feeling competent, but otherwise no harm done.

Stayed out till it was almost dark, rode some whitewater in.

This shorter board stuff is so hit of miss. Some days I’m on, the rest, skunked. So frustrating!

February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

Drop

Surf: 11.2 ft at 16.0 s from the WNW at 297Â°

Last week’s winds seem to have teamed up with this morning’s unfavorable tides to make the surf less than exciting looking from the shore. I’d been out of the water for a week, so I passed on the usual spot and went looking for something working a little better.

That’s not to saw what I found was any better. It was passable and passable seemed worth getting wet for.

For the most part, waves were warbly, reflecting, or closed out, but I managed to sneak in one really nice drop.

I’ve been poking around on my Vaquero lately, picking up mushy beach break waves rather that waves with a little more push. This wave had some push. I forgot my little board could go that fast.

I took a wide bottom turn, way out in front of the wave, leaning super far into the face, just holding on by my toes. The board snapped up into the pocket like those little hulls do. Now this would have been the makings of a _great_ wave (for the day that is), but as I set up to take the line, the whole wave started pitching over and I jumped into the face hoping to avoid get smacked by the lip. Not only did it not work, but I should’ve just gone for it. Ahh well.

Oh, the guy in the photo I took for today’s surf, made the wave, got a nice drop, then claimed it big time. 😀
It made me smile. On days like today you need all the wins you can get.

February 1, 2013February 3, 2013

Midday Surf

Surf: 4.3 ft at 12.9 s from W at 277Â°

Ugh. I woke up feeling like craaaaap. Chris couldn’t surf and I’d overslept so Brien was already at the beach and suiting up. I wasn’t feeling another round of noodle arms at Ocean Beach so I buried myself under the covers and sulked back to sleep.

Around the tide change I decided I needed to get over my grumpiness and go to work or get out and surf before the new swell and winds hit. I drug myself out of the house and down to the beach.

Sun. So much sun. Sun and whales jumping. Sometimes midday surfing just seems too perfect to be real (that’s what the crowds are for, to keep the fantasy in check. Winds too if you’re really unlucky.)

I jumped into my wetsuit superquick and found a spot in the crowd.

Waves were mellow but with some fun long rides. I caught plenty on the 6’10, falling on my face a few times due to lack of wax. But I did manage a few competent swooping ones. Wheee.

Tide came up and headed to work.

Still not feeling 100%, but a little better.