CherryRipe
Well-Known Member
Is it true you don't have to be a good swimmer to learn to surf? My work is starting a surf club this summer with free lessons, and I'd love to learn. They claim you don't have to swim AT ALL, which I find hard to believe. The beaches down West Cork are meant to be fantastic for surfing, and usually pretty empty - bloody freezing most of the time though.
I thought I might post this for a laugh - its taken from one of the forums on realsurf
http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13176&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
As I mentioned it helps to be able to swin pretty well when the surf gets big. To put things into perspective when this guy talks about 10' waves, the actual wave face is probably 15 to 18 foot.
There wouldn't be many surfers that haven't had this feeling before - that real fear in the pit of your stomach, the why the fuck didn't I just stay on the beach feeling ....
Anyway, here is this guy's post
Just to put this in context , I turned 50 last month. I'm relatively fit without being an ironman. Workout maybe 3-4 times a week. Always loved it when it's bigger. Happy at 8-10, which means that Sydney is almost always in range.
So I'm out at North Steyne this morning and it's gorgeous. Sparkly clean with 8ft+ bombs every 15 minutes or so, and bugger all crowd cause we're at that f*ck off size that clears the flotsam out.
I've caught a couple of nice big lefts and life is good. Longish waits but it doesn't seem to matter when it's solid. I paddle into a nice one, a drop and a few cruisy turns and I pull off and head back out. I scramble over a big one, and I'm faced with a really big one, maybe 10', breaking 30 m outside of me. I take the pussy opton, dive off and head for the bottom, and the wave snaps my leggy like a rubber band.
"This'll be fun" I say to myself. Not really worried, just an interesting challenge. I'm a long way out. I put my head down and start swimming. I back away from bodysurfing a few in (they're unloading on the inside break) and as the sets back away I try to put myself in the impact zone for the next set.
By this stage, though, I'm in the channel between the two peaks, and the rip is getting a little strong. About 10 minutes swimming so far.
I realise that I'm not getting any closer to the shore - still 150 metres out. I'm being pummelled by whitewater, but it's not getting me any closer in. I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. I try to swim across to the right to get out of the rip, but 5 minutes of swimming and the rip is probably stronger now. I'm the same distance from shore.
I try to just motor in. Another 5 minutes and no progress. I'm getting a little scared. I'm treading water, looking at people walking dogs along the wall. I'm thinking about sticking the hand up and getting help. I'm starting to swallow a bit of water. Seriously worried now. I don't know what to do. I've got enough energy to put my head and grind out a couple of laps, but I think I'd still be in the same spot, just totally exhausted.
I look across and see a guy trying to paddle out on the rip that had me skewered. It's Froggy. He sees my face and paddles over, asks me if I'm alright. All pride and delusions of Bradshawness have now evaporated and I jump on his board. It's only then that I understand how close to going under I am. With the floatation under us, we get washed in fairly easily. Looking back, I think if Froggy hadn't appeared, I would been in real trouble.
I've never been rescued before. Been in a few nasty spots but never something I couldn't get myself out of. I always believed that you need to be able swim out of anything you paddle out into. But I'm rattled now at just how close that was, and whether it means my upper limits are contracting rapidly. Still got the shakes a bit.
