Tag Archives: beginner

Outer Banks Beginner Surf Covered in New York Times

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Great Outer Banks Surf

Great Outer Banks Surf

The New York Times recently covered an article by Ethan Todras-Whitehill that discusses a June bachelor party Ethan enjoyed on the Outer Banks learning how to surf.

Ethan and a close group of friends were looking for a “nontraditional bachelor party involving the outdoors,” and they landed on surf at the OBX…great choice.

The article does a great job of portraying the effort it takes to learn to surf and describes the Outer Banks surfing experience and why it is so conducive to learning.

Highlights:

  • Ethan noticed that at other popular East Coast surf locals, Long Island or New Jersey for instance, beginner surfers may irritate more experienced surfers in a crowded lineup and the crowded shoreline would definitely be amused by the lack of coordination a beginner surfer displays on the wobbly board.  “But on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, on a Friday morning in June, [his] surfing class was all alone.”  Pointing out that the Outer Banks “has enough room for every group of beachgoers, including surfers, to claim their sovereign territory.”  No worries about other surfers or an audience.
  • The article points out that in July 2009 Kill Devil Hills came in at #6 on Surfer magazine’s list of Top 10 Surf Towns.
  • Ethan points out how affordable the trip was; $1200 for a six bedroom house for the week.  Split between the group of friends, this was a fraction of what they would spend at a hotel and they got to enjoy the experience together in one house.  Vacation rentals are a great alternative.
  • The group was too tired from surfing to do much, but Ethan points out the OBX has a wide variety of attractions (in addition to the world-class beach); “The islands are dotted with wildlife refuges, national park land and historical landmarks like the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, and Roanoke Island, site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s mysterious Lost Colony.”
  • Ethan explained why the Outer Banks has such great surfing conditions, especially for beginners:  “Essentially, waves break when they encounter water that is shallower than they are tall — a three-foot wave will not break in four feet of water, for instance. The Outer Banks has what’s known as a beach or sandbar break, where a lip of sand provides the necessary lack of depth, allowing great surfing waves to break.  The foot-friendly floor of a beach break also means that first-time surfers can often walk their boards past the breakers instead of wasting time and energy paddling.”

Thanks for choosing the OBX for your nontraditional bachelor party, and thanks for the great write-up about the surfing conditions we love.  Please come back soon.

All Seaside Vacations guests have the opportunity to enjoy surfing lessons with some of the best instructors on the Outer Banks through Club Seaside.  Here’s a video of one of our lessons…

A Beginner’s Guide to Surfing

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A Beginner’s Guide to Surfing

By Britt Boughey

 

            If you want to start surfing, you must first ask yourself if you satisfy some prerequisites.  Your swimming ability is of primary importance.  You don’t need to hold the pool record at your local Y in the 500m freestyle, but you do need to be able to hold your breath underwater for short periods and be able to swim ashore should you lose your surfboard.  If you can’t do this, or your health doesn’t allow steady, moderate activity (such as paddling a surfboard), you’re better off watching from the beach.

 

            The first thing to do is to select your equipment.  Generally speaking, the longer the board, the easier it will be to paddle and catch waves.  Soft, foam boards can make a great starter board.  However, if you stick with the sport, your abilities will quickly outpace the ability of a foamie and you’ll be stuck buying a second board or being frustrated at your lack of progression.  If you buy, buy used for your first board to limit your losses if you don’t enjoy or stick with the sport.  Also, a good beginner’s board is not a good intermediate or advanced board.  For starters, get something at least 6 inches taller than you.  If you start with a longboard (8 ft or over) and really want to ride a shortboard (usually your height to about a foot taller), you will basically have to learn to stand all over again when you switch boards.  If you just want to ride waves, cruise, and be able to surf right away, then buy a longboard.  If your goal is to be able to maneuver all around the wave and ride in larger conditions, stick with something shorter.   

 

            Get a leash and tie it to the board.  That way, when you lose it, you won’t have to swim for it and it won’t get damaged by washing into a pier, shallow shorebreak, or rocks.  The leash will go on your back foot.  Get some surf wax also and rub it on the board in a circular fashion until it beads up.  Your goal at the start is to cover everything but about the 2 feet near the top until you figure out where you stand (and if you’re going to ride the nose as a longboarder). 

 

            Now find a surfbreak.  The Outer Banks has beachbreaks up and down the coast.  Chances are if there’s a swell in the water, something is surfable near by.  You’re looking for a place where the waves don’t break all at once, rather they break gradually down the line left or right leaving an open face to ride.  The longer the better.  At this point, a couple seconds is just fine.

 

            Carry your board under your arm and always be aware of where it is.  You don’t want to hit something and ding it.  Before you go out, lay your board on the sand.  Figure out which is your back foot.  If you’re right-handed, it’ll be your right foot, and vice versa.  Now lay flat on the board, with your feet right about at the tail end.  Don’t worry about exact position.  You’ll figure this out in the water.  What you’re going to do is practice getting to your feet.  From a flat, laying down position, bring your hands back under your chest and push up while swing your front foot/knee under your chest and putting your back foot up about 6-12 inches from the tail end.  Stand up quickly, with your back foot perpendicular to the length of the board and your front foot at about a 20-30 degree angle forward from the perpendicular.  You want a wide, comfortable stance with your feet wider than shoulder-width and your knees and waist bent.  Your weight should be able to be easily shifted to either foot.  Once comfortable with this, it’s time to head to the water.

 

            Pick a spot to paddle out near where people are surfing, but not so that you would paddle through the actual surfing and get in the way.  You’d also like to not be going out where all the waves are breaking to make it easier.  Go 50 yards down the beach where it’s smoother and paddle out, then over to where they start to break.  Walk out until you’re in a least waist deep water, holding the nose and trailing the board behind you.  Then start paddling.  For a paddling position, you want to be situated so that the nose of the board is only an inch or two inches above the water.  Too low, and the nose will dig in.  Too high, and it’ll be like pushing a plow through the water.  When a wave breaks in front of you, you have five options.  Option one: let go of the board, dive for the bottom, depend on the leash, and upset everyone near you.  Not a good option.  Option two: shift your weight backwards as it approaches, get the nose up high, then surge forward as the wave hits and essentially go over the top.  This takes lots of practice, good timing, and small waves.  Option three: if it’s just small slop, you can power through it by pushing yourself up off your board and letting the small whitewater go in between you and your board.  Option four: roll over, holding onto your board, pull the nose down with you as you remain prone, and pass underneath the wave.  This is called turtling.  The last is the most difficult and can only be done on shortboard or on a longboard by someone really strong.  Right before the whitewater approaches, move forward, grab the rails of the board up by your elbows, rise up on a knee, and push the nose down as hard as you can.  As the wave passes over you, shift back, using your knee as a fulcrum, and pop out the back side.  This is called duck-diving.

 

            Once you make it outside where the waves are breaking, position yourself just outside of where the start to break.  Sit up on your board, and use your legs in an eggbeater motion to turn the nose around towards the beach to paddle for waves.  Do not turn your back on the ocean until you decide to paddle for a wave.  Paddle for a wave as it starts to form up, with your weight back a little further than your normal paddling position.  You’re trying to get into as early as possible, but at least before it breaks.  The perfect position and timing will vary widely by wave condition and the board you’re riding.  You’re going to have to learn this by trial and error. 

 

            For the first few waves, just try to ride while laying prone to get the hang of catching waves.  Pay close attention to the nose of your board.  You’ll have to shift your weight to keep it from digging in and sending you end over end.  When you feel ready to try, use the stand that you practiced on the beach out in the water.  Stand up as soon as you feel the board dropping, and taking off by itself.  If you just fall back behind the wave, you stopped paddling too soon.  Having a slight angle to the beach as you drop in will make it easier to get you going down the line and make your drop not as straight-in, so that you have less of a chance of digging the nose in and purling.  When you stand up, you can turn by leaning one way or another.  Shifting your weight forward and aft will help you either power through mushy sections or make steep, choppy ones.  Anything beyond this is a whole other book altogether.  Enjoy going down the line and flowing with the wave. 

 

            Should you fall off, you won’t have to worry about rocky bottoms or coral reefs in the Outer Banks.  Shallow water and your board are your biggest concern.  If you think you’re falling in shallow water, then try to fall flat so you don’t penetrate too far.  That way you won’t get hurt on the bottom.  If your in deep water, penetrating is better because then you won’t get rolled around as much by the wave.  Your board can also hurt you.  If you can, try to fall away from or behind the board.  If you can’t avoid falling in front of it, try to penetrate the water and cover your face.  A fin or the nose of the board to the face could do some damage.  Once you surface, get control of your board (hold onto it and don’t let the leash do all the work while you dive below the incoming waves).  Paddle back out and do it again.  Surfing is not easy, but it is really rewarding.

 

            In closing, there are some general points of etiquette to mind.  I’ll repeat- don’t paddle out in the way of people who are surfing.  Surfing has the right of way over paddling.  If you’re paddling and have to choose between getting mowed over by whitewater or cutting close to someone riding, you should choose the whitewater.  Right of way is given to the first person standing.  If it isn’t clear, then it’s the person closest to where the wave is breaking (the deepest, or closest to the whitewater).  If you want to split a wave with someone, you should say so, such as,”Hey, if you go right I’ll go left.”  Cutting people off or snaking them is a big no-no.  In many places, this can get you into trouble.  This is when you take off in front of someone who is already riding and had a reasonable chance of continuing.  If you do snake someone, apologize and don’t do it again.  Apologies go a long way.  Don’t hog all the waves either.  If you are riding a longboard and can get into the waves before the guys on the shortboards, you should let a few through every so often to prevent bad blood.  Expect to get snaked if you try to take all the good set waves.  If you’re paddling out and someone is paddling behind you, never let your board go, no matter how big the wave is.  If you can avoid, also do not get directly in the way of someone paddling for a wave.  Relax, there a plenty of waves to go around.  Good luck.