I hit up Second Beach a lot and I pretty much never see another bodyboarder -- I did see one guy during the Andrea swell but he wasn't able to successfully paddle out much less catch any waves (at least that I could see). <br /><br />Is there some other spot that all the bodyboarders go to? Or are there just not really any bodyboarders?
No we're here dude, can only speak for myself but I'm always on the other side, pretty much from Westerly to the 'Gansett/PJ area...a couple dudes I talk to are in the Newport area more.
Cool, I've never tried any of the spots on that side -- I'm not very good so I am usually more comfortable with big beach break spots where I can have a good amount of room to myself even on a crowded day... Are there specific breaks where bodyboarders tend to hang out or are you just out there at the same spots as the surfers? The only time I've checked out the PJ / gansett breaks was during a sunny-weekend-day-hurricane-swell last year and when I saw the ~500 surfers fighting over the 1 wave I didn't even bother getting in the water, just headed across the bridges back over to Newport...
I've been meaning to take the trip across the bridge and check things out over there, definitely plan on it once the summer's over. But there's no real sponge-specific spots, there are some where there are more of us than usual, and I can always find an empty beachbreak peak(except for the next 2 months)...cool thing about the town beach in 'gansett is you can bodyboard the whole beach, while the surfers have designated areas.
This isn't hawaii bro. There's a huge bodyboarding culture over there that's different than here. Everyone here wants to be kelly slater. I much prefer being inside and part of the wave bodyboarding. And I'd much rather share the water with spongers than surfers. Less chance of getting hit with a hard surfboard and injured, which is common at obscenely crowded spots like matunuck. Oh and good luck trying to get a wave there with 10 longboarders paddling for the same wave. I've been 20 feet from anyone. Staying away from the main peak in between deep hole and tresles and these guys will paddle 20 FEET AROUND me and then claim inside position just as the wave is breaking. Honestly not a very good wave anyway for boogie boarding, but sometimes everywhere is closing out and matunuck is the best that day so you're stuck then. It's slow and hard to paddle into. I wish it was like the short board performance wave that is lower trestles in Cali. The best waves for body boarding are the beach breaks around here most of the time.. Most(but not all) of the rock reefs are slower/mushier longboard type waves Very few performance fast short board type point breaks and they tend to be sketchy with hidden boulders just under the surface of the water. You can have a ton of fun spongin a mushy wave and huge bowl section as long as it's got some speed to. You can of course still ride slow waves like matunuck, but there just not as fun obviously. Matunuck LOOKS awesome for spongin from shore. It's a barreling wave. It's not until you get out there that you realize how slow the wave is and how shallow the wave is to paddle into and also a super tough paddle through lines of waves. If you can catch matunuck uncrowded by some miracle and it's not too big, you can definetly have some fun though. Super long rides 2nd is a really good beach break. Gansett town beach tends to close out too much and the other beach breaks that I'll let you find west of pj are fickle and vary greatly. Got to spot check em.
Yeah the flags are the best thing since sliced bread for spongers. Keeps you safer and all the waves you want! I'd plan on visiting BEFORE summer is over. 2ND beach is one of the most crowded breaks in the whole state. During the summer the flags designating surfing area's are up so spongers got a spot all to themselves
Yes sir, those flags open up a world of possibilites for us...will definitely get over to and and check it out soon...seen pics of it and looks like it goes off in the right conditions.
Are you talking about flags for surf-restricted spots at gansett or at 2nd? Or do both have this? I'm still kinda a beginner so I don't have a ton of control, so I pretty much avoid any crowds or anywhere I could possibly run into anyone... sometimes I just kinda go flying wherever the wave throws me, you know?
Well, Typhoon Lagoon(Disney World) is better, plus Jeb Bush surfs there. Yo, any of you Floridians know Noelle Bush? She's pretty cool, huh? And I reckon Singer Island likes self-inflicted headaches becuase this was cleary a sponging sensitive thread, but he just had to take a look. And boom, he just got knocked the F out by novice sponge questions. Took it right to the dome. But don't worry, luckily, there is a pain management place in every strip mall down there. He'll be ok.
