So umm, not much happened today. Just 6 hours of surfing. I woke up, tried to go spearfishing with some friends, there were no fish, so we switched to surfing. The waves were SO good today that I couldn’t come in for anything. I was so tired and hungry, but I was having so much fun I couldn’t pull myself away.
I’ve found this semi-secret spot (ie. a place where only a few locals go and the waves are good.) and met some really cool people there. For a while, there were just three of us. One of whom was getting ready to surf his heat in Surfest, which is like one of Australia’s biggest surf competitions here in Newcastle. It just started. He doesn’t really know it, but he gave me a ton of great pointers, and by the end of the day, my surfing had improved dramatically. Just watching him was ridiculous. It was like watching a movie about surfers. He would get out there, catch a wave with ease, and then do some crazy aerial 360 of the back end and then be back out there again before I had even gotten out once.
Some of the things I learned that they don’t teach you in surf school.
1. Waves are much more fun to catch if you go through the pipe rather than letting it drop on you.
2. It’s much easier to get out if you don’t swim back the way you came in. (ie. where the waves don’t break on your head.)
3. Duck diving is a little freakier, but so much easier to get through the waves once you’ve mastered it.
The other guy out there was this 60 year old recovering drug addict who has been surfing for 41 years and he told me that surfing was the only drug he couldn’t get off of. I understood about 6% of the words he said to me, but the dude was a sick surfer, so I learned a good bit from him too. After lunch, more surfers came out to where we were, probably because they saw how amazing we (they) were, but they were all nice guys, some of whom were also competing in Surfest. So now I’m in tight with all the pros and they invited me to come out to Surfest to watch them compete. Should be awesome. Anyways, that was my day.
5 Comments
Sounds like a great day to me!
i wanna go too.. and you can show me what you picked up : )
cheerz
the bludger: P
A pro golfer said of, I believe it was Ben Hogan, “he plays a game with which I am not familiar.” Sam you are living a life of which I am not familiar. Spear fishing surfing with pros? What? I’m back here telling people how hard your classes are. Love,Dad
Sam!, Reading your blogs is a blast! I have decided to fly out next week to visit you… wait, my wife said I can’t go. My plans have been dashed. Guess I’ll have to live vicariously through you. Be careful and have fun! Oh and next time you see something spectacular, think of me one time … that’s the only way I’ll get there! Take care, have fun and study hard. Cliff
Hey man….sounds awesome. I hope you are having a great time out there. Keep enjoying it man. Peace.