Surf: 3.9 ft at 13.8 s from the S at 174° with a mix of 3.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 312°. Low tide.
Yay! Today’s surf was SO much better than yesterday’s.
The sun was out, some smooth mellow waves were rolling through, and it was warm. I wish I’d brought my Seea zippy and shorts. Today would have been perfect to try them out. I was cooking in my hoody 4/3/4.
I suppose it’s a fitting day to surf with Blam, back from Hawaii for a week.
While it was rather crowded, there was a nice spot just inside the crowd that was perfect for long rides. I got up the confidence to sneak in a few cross steps. They weren’t totally graceful (I kept having to watch for drop ins and wayward soft tops), but I got several steps in, many without faceplants. I totally shuffled back, I’ve got to work on breaking that habit next.
Esther also pointed out a bad popup habit I need to work on. Basically I pop up twice, once about half way up, then the rest of the way when I’m more sure about the wave. I know that comes from surfing closeouts and getting pitched over and over again. But it’s an extra step I don’t really need.
Got some great comments from friends on my positioning and wave spotting. That was really great to hear. Always glad to know I’m doing something right.
It was really nice to see everyone again. It’s been so long since we all surfed together. It’s great to see how much better everyone is.
All around, lovely Saturday. Capped it off with some hot tub time and a milkshake. 😀
My Vaquero survived the trip to Mexico. It survived a cobblestone point break. It survived boats and cars and falling coconuts. It unfortunately wasn’t able to stand up to me whacking it against the wall at the house like an idiot. Maaaaaan.
If I hadn’t just picked up a board from an Alex, I would have had him to the repair.
I also needed to do several repairs on my other longboard, so I figured I’d give it a go. I practiced first on the longboard, sanding, patching, sanding, patching.
When it came time to do the Vaquero, I took plenty of time. I cut off the lose chips of fiberglass with a razor. I sanded and sanded with tape to keep from going overboard. I filled, I cured, I sanded, I filled again, I sanded. It was hours of work, but I’m pretty happy with the result.
Just knowing I can do a repair that doesn’t look like a glop bomb is a big step forward. It’s not perfect, but I’m still proud.
Now to watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t leak. :S
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.
This article got me thinking. I’ve spent the last year struggling with my surfing, mostly struggling with fear. I took a few pretty good beatings last winter. One where my ears ached, where all I could see was dark water. One where I gasped at the surface only to suck in foam. More than one where I felt lucky to be all right.
I’m not sure if it was the size of the wave, the character of the break, or the fact that I was being drug through the wash by my longboard, but it felt like an eternity under water.
I don’t have the most confidence in my lungs. I’ve had asthma on and off. I get barking coughs with the slightest colds. Having my lungs tested by brute force was a bit terrifying. Sure, I made it through the hold downs from last winter, but part of me wonders if I could make it through the next. That part of me pulls out of waves I should have made. That part of me sits too far outside for my little board. That part of me is frustrating the heck out of the rest of me.
This class seemed like exactly what I needed.
There are much better articles about what you’ll learn from Hanli’s class, including this one by Cynthia. I’ll spare you the lecture (it’s better first hand anyway) and summarize what I learned instead.
Hanli teaches you an amazing amount about what your body does to survive under water. She focuses on yoga, relaxation, the mechanics of the dive reflect, and some swimming intervals. I highly recommend reading up on it and catching her class if you can.
From this class I learned I have a much greater capacity to hold my breath under water than I thought. I managed to go two minutes before I started having diaphragm contractions (the first hurdle one much get over in holding their breath.)
My first attempt was cut short by my typical roadblock: the mind game. I went through the breathing exercises. I waited fro Hanli’s go ahead, then took a big breath, belly, chest, and shoulders. I flipped over and waited. Maybe a minute or less, I started feeling like I had to swallow. Crap. There’s no good way to swallow in a dive mask. Now I’m thinking about swallowing. I’m thinking about how I’m laying face down in a pool. I’m wondering how long it’s been. I’m distracted and I’ve already started to fret. I gave up. I didn’t even get the time from Hanli. Shoot.
My second attempt I worked much harder on the mental aspect of it. I watched the seabirds fly overhead while doing my breathing exercises and tried to keep that image in mind while floating face down. This attempt went much better. Again, I didn’t get a time, Hanli said later it was about 2 and a half. Wile it may have been closer to 2:20 and certainly the shortest out of the whole class, it’s sill much longer than I’ve been able to hold my breath (while counting, who knows how long I was down on some of those waves.)
The interval training kicked my butt, I should probably start lap swimming, but overall I left the course with greater confidence. I now know that if I can stay calm I can last about two minutes. Hopefully I won’t have to.
Even with the class, I’m still struggling with fear. Even telling myself it’s going to be okay, I’m still feeling like there’s a big bubble of air in my gut and I can’t breathe. I’ll take some work. Hanli sent us homework to do to keep in breath-holding shape and I’m hoping to keep practicing the yoga exercises.
The greatest challenge will be the head game. Still, it’s nice to know I’ve got a little lung power on my side.
Snuck out for some mid-day waves. Pretty small and mellow. Spent the session goofing off on the board, practicing some walking up and standing tall. Got a few long little ones. Stayed out a bit too long and didn’t have time to grab a pic before I had to race back to the city. Ahh well.
Seems it’s time for a haircut. Got my hair wrapped around my arm on a wipeout. Ouch.
Conditions: 3-5 ft. – waist to head high and fair-good conditions. Things are staying clean this afternoon with fun, workable waves in the shoulder-head high+ zone. Top spots see sets running a couple feet overhead. Winds are offshore and the tide drops to a 2′ low @ 12:20PM.
Gear: 9’2″ Sunset Soft Top.
Today was a pretty clean, mellow day. Lots of folks were out, lost of patient waiting for waves. I saw another seal hanging out in the line up. Mostly I watched other folks snagging waves and tried to figure out how to work on my timing.
What do I mean by timing? Timing is your sense of when to turn around, start paddling, how fast to paddle, and when to pop up. Good timing gets you up on a wave easily. When you’re learning, timing trouble can cause you to miss waves and wear yourself out paddling like crazy.
From what I’ve been told, timing is pretty much the hardest thing for a beginner to learn. Every surf spot is different, every wave headed to that spot is different, every day has variations in wind, swell, crowd, vibe no to mention the differences in style and ability from surfer to surfer. Unless someone is right there beside you saying “paddle! pop up!”, there’s not a lot of advice someone can give you.
It just takes time to learn.
I sit, I wait, I watch other people for when it’s time to paddle, but then when I’m paddling I haven’t been able to truly size up a wave and I’ve been early on my pop up leaving me sliding out the back of the wave as it rolls by.
I’ve been getting a little frustrated. Missing waves over and over eventually starts to wear down the “I’m just happy to be here” spirit. To try and help myself stay focused on fun, rather than performance, I decided to look up a little about timing hoping if I can kick it around in my head maybe thinking about timing on land will help me out when I get in the water.
Here’s what surfline had to say:
A common question asked by beginners is, How do I know when to turn around to paddle for a wave? Unfortunately, there’s no correct answer. For one, the surfer closest to the curl has the right of way, so if there are other surfers paddling for a wave and you’re on the outside of them, let it pass. When a wave does approach that has your name on it, you want it to come underneath you just as it’s about to break. If you’re in perfect position to catch the wave, you may only have to take a couple of strokes just before the wave reaches you. If it looks like the wave is going to break well inside from where you’re positioned, you may have to start paddling well before the wave approaches.
The shape of the wave should determine your angle. If it’s a slopey, slow-rolling break, you should paddle into the wave straight-on and still find the curl. If it’s steeper, you might have to approach it at an angle to help avoid pearling. When you feel the momentum of the wave and pop up, be sure to arch your back and compensate for the downward motion so your nose won’t pearl. On the other end of the spectrum, be sure that you don’t stand up too soon, or you’ll go out the back and lose the wave. Whatever the case, you want to stand up at the top of the wave and enter into it in one smooth, gliding motion. You want to tap into the speed of the wave right off the bat.
I know I stand up way too soon. I’ll start to pearl and figure “better get up while I can” and then the wave rolls on by. I’m thinking next time out I might goof off in the whitewater a bit, remember what it was like to successfully catch a wave, then head back to the lineup to keep trying to get my timing right.
Conditions: 3-4 ft. + – waist to shoulder high and poor+ conditions.
Gear: 8 ft Sunset Soft top, 9’4″ Sunset soft top from NorCal Surf Shop
and Freestyle Tide 3.0 watch. I now know what time it is AND what the tide is doing. Awesome.
I got off to a wobbly start on a board that was too short for me. After trading it in IÂ caught a lot more waves, got in a few nice clean pop ups, plus a few really messy pop ups.
What I did was zip down the wave face, dip the righthand rail in the water, and slingshot back up the wave going WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOÂ before falling off. You’re supposed to use the momentum to turn back down and continue along the wave. I was so stoked to just turn that I didn’t even think about following through. It was awesome, I can’t wait to try it again.
Injury report: Somehow on one wave I managed to go flying in the air and to board flipped over on it’s deck. I came crashing down, my knee landing on the center fin, skidding into another forward fin. My hip and elbow hit the bottom of the board. I’m gonna have some wicked bruises when everything stops being swollen. Plus side is everything moves around just fine and doesn’t hurt unless I poke it.
In gear news, the new watch was a success. The buttons are easy to press with cold wet hands and it says put pretty well. I’m trying to figure out a good way to fit it on my wrist above my wetsuit without bumping around when I paddle. All and all, it’s great. I can now see what time it is and what the surf is doing. 🙂
Why is the tide important to surfing? Depending on the beach, some beaches have the best waves at high tide, some at low, and some in the middle. It also effects where the waves break at some beaches and what kind of wave you’ll have. For someone like me who’s just learning to surf a wave that’s spilling, rather than breaking will be an easy wave to ride for a long time. For someone who’s really got things down, a plunging wave is best. For more information, check out this great write up from Surfline.
