Surfing (eBook)

A Beginner's Guide

Alf Alderson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012 | 2. Auflage
168 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-118-31559-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Surfing: A Beginner’s Manual is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning to surf.  Alf Alderson takes you through all the vital steps to becoming a surfer: you will learn where to surf, when to surf and how to surf safely.  You will learn the foundations such as choosing the correct equipment, which is essential to make any progress as a beginner; pre-surf preparation, including getting fit with tips and advice; and your first surfer steps on the beach and in the ocean.  All these stages lead up to you catching your very first wave and catching the surfing bug.

 The sea is renowned for its beauty, but infamous for its dangers. Alf provides you with transferable skills to safely enjoy your new hobby.  Safety features heavily in the book, and you will learn all the basic common-sense aspects of surfing that even the most experienced surfer forgets.

 The revised and updated edition will now feature sequential colour photographs of professional surfers.  Green conscious surfers will love the updated Green Seas section, which will feature updated organizations and discusses potential impact of global warming/rising sea levels on surfing in the future.  A larger Appendix will also be added with more web-based information that is vital for any beginner.

Table of contents:

  1. Equipment.

2. First Steps.

3. Into the Surf.

4. Surf Manoeuvres.

5. Safe Surfing.

6. Waves and Weather.

7. Surfboard Design.

8. Care and Repair.

9. Green Seas.

10. Surfing Associations.

11. Surfspeak.

The easy-to-follow instructions and photo-sequences will have you riding your first wave - in a weekend.

Alf Alderson is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer based in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales. He specialises in adventure sports and travel journalism, and his work has appeared in newspapers and magazines in Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe

Inhalt

Preface.

Equipment.

First Steps.

Into the Surf.

Surf Manoeuvres.

Safe Surfing.

Waves and Weather.

Surfboard Design.

Care and Repair.

Green Seas.

Surf the World.

Appendix - Surfing Associations.

SurfSpeak.

Textauszug

Equipment

‘There’s no sport that I know of that has all the ingredients of pure enjoyment that surfing does.’

Peter Cole, legendary big wave rider

The majority of surfers are still riding shortboards, despite the resurgence of longboards, mini-mals, funboards, and a wide range of ‘hybrid’ designs in recent years.

Choosing the right board is essential if you want to make good progress as a beginner, but it’s not just a case of walking into your friendly local surf shop and sauntering out again 15 minutes later ready to rip.

Surfboard design is an art form in itself, and no two surfers will ride the same board in the same way or get the same out of it. This is not the place to go into detail on the intricacies of board design (see Chapter 7), but we can take a look at the most popular board designs out there.

SHORTBOARDS

The majority of shortboards will be three-fin ‘thrusters’, usually within the size range 5 ft 8 in/1.70 m to 6 ft 8 in/2.0 m. Bigger surfers may go for slightly longer boards; longer shortboards (excuse the oxymoron) are used in bigger surf; and some surfers will opt for shorter, high performance models.

Shortboards are basically for more experienced surfers, being highly manoeuvrable, but at the same time more difficult to control. Various features of the board will be designed to suit a surfer’s riding style. Thickness and width vary from board to board, as do rocker and vee. Rails may be hard or soft, the board may have channels, the fin configuration can differ, and tail shape will also vary. (If all this is as clear as mud, see Chapter 7 to understand the terminology.) As you can see there’s a lot more to a surfboard than meets the eye, and a lot of time and money is spent on board design and development.

You should forget about getting a high performance shortboard if you’re just starting out – it may look cool on the beach, but it will do you no favours in the surf. You’ll find it difficult to paddle, difficult to catch waves with, and difficult to ride. What you should be looking for is a funboard or a mini-mal.

A modern epoxy shortboard.

A modern custom-made fiberglass shortboard.

FUNBOARDS

Funboards sit mid-way between a shortboard and a longboard. They’ll usually be around 7 ft 6 in/2.30 m in length, and be wider and thicker than a shortboard, with a more rounded nose. These boards are basically designed for having fun on, as the name implies. They make it easy to catch waves, but are still manoeuvrable enough to allow you to challenge yourself in the surf, and they’re a great option if you surf in an area where the waves are generally small or lacking in power. They’re especially good for beginners but are often used by experienced older surfers looking for an advantage in catching the waves.

A custom-made fibreglass funboard.

LONGBOARDS AND MINI-MALS

Longboards are the boards that are associated with the halcyon days of the ‘60s, when they were known as Malibu boards after the famous California point break. Everyone who was anyone ‘rode the nose’ at every opportunity and drop-knee turns were the only turns worth doing. They were superseded in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s by shortboards, but made a come-back in the late ‘80s, and now most breaks will have a number of longboards out in the line-up.

A ‘longboard’ is generally considered to be over 9 ft/3 m in length with a much more rounded nose than the previous two categories, and a wider and thicker template. They may have one or more fins.

Mini-mals are kind of ‘short’ longboards of between 7 ft 6 in/2.30 m and 8 ft 6 in/2.60 m in length, and they’re another good option for learning on as they offer a lot of flotation and stability and are easier to paddle. However, in big surf they can be bulky for beginners to handle.

A modern epoxy longboard.

Longboards are the least manoeuvrable of the three main categories of surfboard and are ridden in a different way. The style is generally much smoother and more graceful than that of the shortboarder, with an emphasis on ‘walking the board’ (moving up and down on the deck of the board) and nose riding (surfing with five or ten toes over the nose – ‘hang five’ and ‘hang ten’ respectively). Having said that, high performance longboard surfing, featuring shortboard-style moves is becoming increasingly common as well as easier on modern, lighter, performance-oriented models.

POP-OUTS

A pop-out can be any of the above designs produced from a mould, whereas a custom board is shaped and finished by hand. A pop-out makes an excellent first board for a number of reasons. For a start a new pop-out will be about a third of the price of a new custom board, as well as being much sturdier and far less prone to damage. Pop-outs don’t have the same smooth flowing lines as custom boards, being thicker and wider and somewhat more rough and ready due to the moulding process, but at this stage you don’t need the design refinements that custom boards provide.

Cheap n’ cheerful – a ‘pop out’, great for beginners.

SOFT BOARDS

Probably the ideal boards for beginners. Generally around 7 ft 6 in/2.30 m long, soft boards are buoyant and stable, and since they’re made of relatively soft polyurethane foam they don’t hurt as much if they hit you on a wipeout. This can be a real confidence booster for first-timers who are already being knocked all over by the waves without having the additional worry of being hit by a big lump of fibreglass.

Easy to learn on (it’s even got handles!) and safe to use – a soft top board.

BODY BOARDS

Body boarding/boogie boarding is the easy option for anyone who has neither the time, the skill nor the patience to learn stand-up surfing. But it’s not real surfing, so that’s the last you’ll be hearing of it in this book.

CHOOSING YOUR BOARD

Get a board that will help you to improve rather than one that simply looks good. A soft board or pop-out is the best option but if you really want to go for a custom board, a funboard or a mini-mal style is best. What you’re looking for at this stage is flotation and stability in the board, which will make the difficult task of balancing on it that much easier. Ideally you should look for something between 12 in/30 cm and 18 in/45 cm longer than you are tall. Most boards these days have three fins, although for a beginner a single-fin board is perfectly adequate (and is also two less fins to potentially get bashed by when you wipe out).

You’ll find that prices vary from area to area, so shop around. A good surf shop should be able to advise you on what sort of board is most appropriate for your skills. It’s best if you can also take along a friend who already surfs to provide some advice. Unless you have plenty of cash, it’s also well worth considering a second-hand board as at this stage you don’t actually know if you’re going to like surfing (although if you don’t you should seek medical advice as it’s quite possible you’re dead). A good second-hand board can be picked up for around half the price of a new one, and some surf shops may even let you give it a trial run which is never the case with a new board.

Be careful with second-hand boards though. They’ve all had their fair share of knocks, and if the foam is starting to discolour in too many places (where it’s let in water through a damaged surface) it’s usually best to leave it. Also check for soft spots on the deck where the fibreglass may be delaminating from the foam. And if the board doesn’t have changeable fins, ensure there are no cracks around the base of the fins where they join the board.

A shortie – ideal for warm summer conditions when there’s no more than a slight chill.

WETSUITS

A wetsuit keeps you warm by trapping a thin layer of water close to your body, which is then warmed by your body heat. This is often flushed out when you wipeout so the suit needs to be a tight fit.

The kind of wetsuit you need will obviously depend where you surf, and can vary, for example, from something like a 5/4/3 mm full steamer for cold climates (a combination of 5 mm, 4 mm, and 3 mm thick neoprene on different areas of the ‘wettie’), to nothing more than a 2-mm vest or spring suit for warm areas. Developments in wetsuit and neoprene technology in recent years have resulted in design standards, warmth and comfort that were unthinkable when the first edition of this book was written, and with a good wetsuit you should never feel the cold too badly in all but the most miserable climates.

Short-sleeved full suit – a good option for summer in temperate waters.

Full suit – for cooler/cold waters, depending on thickness.

Fit is everything with a wetsuit. Get advice from a surf shop and/or surfie friends, but trying a suit on and stretching and bending in it is the only way to be sure it’s going to fit properly and be comfortable.

Your wetsuit shouldn’t be too tight, but should fit snugly everywhere on your body with the possible exception of your shoulders where you need a bit of room for paddling....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.3.2012
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Segeln / Tauchen / Wassersport
• ISBN-10: 1-118-31559-6 / 1118315596
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-31559-0 / 9781118315590