Tag: teaching

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Surf Class

Surf: Clean Knee-Waist high.

I spent the morning playing surf instructor attempting to teach someone’s teenage daughter to surf. After hiking 14 miles the day before, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to move let alone instruct but I wound up in good enough shape to swim for an hour while pushing her into waves. Not bad.

I’m not the best instructor tho. Oh the poor student. I mostly pushed her into waves and yelled PADDLE!!! She caught a few waves, but didn’t get to her feet. Hopefully she didn’t have a terrible time.

After that I took the stubby out to try to catch a few waves. Did fine getting the waves, but the tricky part today was finding a decent spot where I could pick off a few scraps the longboarders let pass. On such a mellow day, almost everyone had something so I snuck into a group of beginner SUPs. A dangerous strategy, but I did get quite a few waves and they were all friendly folk.

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South Swell, SC BBQ

Surf: 3-5ft, 6+ standouts. Somewhat sectiony in the morning but mostly clean. Glassier on the falling tide.

I had a birthday bbq to his in SC and decided to catch a few waves before dropping by. It’s fairly safe to say there was swell in the water. I stood on the cliff for a long time watching pretty good sized waves roll through. Nothing crazy, but after a whole summer and then some of rocking the knee-waist high wavelets, a solid 5ft wave looks pretty intimidating, especially on a longboard.

Pierce and I paddled out in a calmer spot between the hook and sharks. We waited, watched, and got creamed a few times before shifting even further east to a smaller peak. Since there’s been a bit of a wave drought, we watched folks for a while, taking care to pick up scraps so we wouldn’t drop in on anyone. A few hot tempers in the lineup and some squabbles between old timers kept us on our toes.

After a while, Aaron, Shawn and Tracy paddled out. After a few more larger sets, the crowd focused on Sharks and the Hook leaving this nice little wave for the 5 of us and a friendly SUP.

Aaron got some really great waves. I was pretty happy with a few of mine. After 4 hours my arms were jello. I decided to pick up one more wave at Sharks before paddling in. Man did I get a wave. Nicely shaped, pretty clean, and smooth enough I could drag my hand in the water along side me the whole ride. I had a nice cutback, straightened out for the wash, then paddled in for the day very stoked. I’ve never thought to drag my hand in a wave as I’m zipping on by so I’m not sure exactly how it happened. It’s a dorky thing to be stoked about, but I had a fun day.

After wrapping we met up with our friends for burgers, beer pong, and a pretty fun afternoon. The exhaustion when I got home was just epic. I couldn’t even sleep I was so tired and my arms were too spent to drink water. Whew, what a week!

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Offshores in Bolinas

Bolinas-11-28-09

SURF: 3-4ft mellow waves. Light to VERY strong offshore winds. A little choppy with the wind but mostly clean.

I drove Josh and his friend Andre up to Bolinas. The WNW and NW swells hitting the other breaks made most spots anywhere near SF pretty big and junky but Bolinas was working nicely.

The offshores were blowing so hard that more than once my board caught a good gust and flipped over. Taking off on some waves the spray was so heavy I was taking off completely blind. Luckily (or unluckily depending how you see it) most waves I caught blind rejected me. The wind would push me back so I couldn’t drop down let alone complete a bottom turn. Wow was it blowing. I had to dash to the nose a few times trying to keep the board moving with the wave. I’m very glad I had my hood and my gloves. I was roasty toasty paddling even with the wind.

Even with the crazy gusts, I did manage to get in many many fun rides. Poor Andre though, with the low tide he didn’t have whitewater to practice on. It was his first day out and we didn’t manage to get him on anything. Josh and I can survive on stoke alone, but a good wave really makes the day newbie or not. 🙂

We spent about 3 1/2-4 hours in the water. I usually put in around 2. I think this session was the longest I’ve been in the water straight since my surf class. Maui may have been longer, it’s hard to tell how long you’ve been out without the shivering, ha!

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Warm and Sunny Bay to Breakers weekend

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Conditions:
2-3 ft.+ with occasional 4 ft. and fair conditions. Soft, weak waves on tap this afternoon. Expect inconsistent waist-chest high surf with a few larger sets at the standout spots. Winds are still mostly light, but onshore flow builds later.

This morning’s dawn patrol: Glassy lines staying semi-walled and sectiony with a few workable inside shoulders.

Got a few people together for pre-bay to breakers surfing. The waves were small, but it was a little tough of a paddle to be teaching on today. I got my new surfer out into the lineup and we practiced paddling and turning the board around to face the shore. I only caught one wave for the day, but man, when it’s 85 degrees in San Fran, there’s no better place to be. 😀

Extra beer and pizza afterwards.

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Surfing in Santa Cruz

Surf crew!
Ali, Kevin, Athena, Joyce and I getting ready to hit Santa Cruz. Photos by Ali

Conditions: 2-4 ft. + – knee to shoulder high and fair+ conditions.

Gear: 8’6″ NSP Epoxy.

After a year+ living in San Fran, I still hadn’t managed to get down to Santa Cruz. This weekend a nice, mellow swell and some warm weather came in so I figured it was time to try out a new beach.

Ali, Kevin, Athena and Joyce all came along. SC’s about an hour and a half south of the city on Monterrey Bay. Since I’d never been, I asked Dave at Wise what the good spots for beginners were. He made me a map.

My Map

He pointed out the good places to hit, how to get there, where to park, and what kind of waves to expect. He said he grew up surfing Pleasure Point and sent us off in that direction.

We got there to find a surf competition was going on. Not wanting to screw up the good waves (and look like fools getting smoked by high school kids), we headed to Cowell’s.

It was crowded, but the weather was great, the waves were clean, and we got in some pretty good runs. I was struggling a bit with the shorter board, but got a few solid waves using the 10′ board Ali was on. It definitely made me rethink getting an 8’6″.

I’m still agonzing about boards. 9ft, 9’6? I keep seeing boards go by on craigslist that are close, but not exactly what I want. If I can swing borrowing a friend’s board, I’ll try to do that for a little while, wait till I’m feeling more confident and then look again. I will probably drive everyone I know crazy till I decide on a board and catch a few solid waves.

All and all, a great day. Ali made us snacks and we spent our post-surfing time kicking back with some beers, fresh fruit, snacks, and mexican food. Can’t wait to get back!

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Teaching

Conditions: 3-4 ft. – waist to chest high and fair – conditions. Sloppy, scattered peaks in the waist-head high range with a few bigger sets on occasion. Cleaned up as the day went on.
Gear: 9′ 4″ Sunset Soft top from NorCal Surf Shop

Another beautiful day out in Pacifica. After flying cross country I was beat and not at my best, but with the cold water and stiff onshore flow I got a second wind in no time.

Today I tried my hand at teaching. I showed my friends how to pop up, how to fall, how to paddle and we jumped right in to give it a shot. My timing isn’t good enough for me to be able to teach other people when to paddle and what waves to pick, but everyone seemed to be getting a handle on the basics and having fun out there.

It’s pretty awesome to have good friends out in the lineup!