The Tao of Windchop

The wind chop that can be surfed is n2ot the eternal windchop...

 

Good stuff, there are empty waves up and down most our beaches on days like that

 

^--This. The next time out in clean conditions after a wind chop sesh you will be locked in.

 

Onshore bowls are like a sore d!ck..... Ya cant BEAT IT!!!! The two car drift is soooooo fun!!!

 

Can't beat the power of a groundswell... We live with windchop but we dream and wait for groundswells

 

Those who wind chop do not know. Those who know n
do not wind chop.

 

Windchop is an entirely different kind of surfing, it's like comparing the NFL to arena football. In the NFL you have incredibly fast, clean, awesome touchdowns but not too many. Still they make the highlights. In arena football, nobody cares about arena football, so anything that happens goes totally unnoticed, even if there were 200 touchdowns.

Same goes for windswell days, you pick out a million waves and get whatever you want, yet it all blends together into one daze of a session that ends up in sub-par satisfaction. Groundswells are where it's at... Everythings clean and your mind can discern one wave from another...Giving each wave it's own identity. That's why groundswells on the east coast are the best, they're distinguishable.

 

Um, Nope, put a kid in clean 2-3' offshores for a month and a kid in dumpy onshore garbage for a month. I bet Obama's left nut, the 1st kid is going to come away with more skills. Pressure doesn't always make diamonds sometimes just hard dehydrated turds.

 

I like inside double up sloppy bowl gems that happen from time to time on days of choppe.

 

Choppe.

 

I don't think anyone would argue this or that we all prefer the clean ground swell days. I think the OP's point is that there is something to be gained by "getting wet" on those days when conditions are sub-par.

 

^absolutely, surf when you can, every chance you get!

 

I think if you live somewhere where conditions are good often enough that you don't HAVE to surf sloppy conditions if you want to surf all the time, I could see how that could hinder progress if you only surf good waves all the time. On the other hand, surfing bad closeout/dumpy waves all the time, you just don't get enough time up on a wave to really progress that fast. I think surfing all types of waves is important.

 

Yea. Debating on whether to paddle out today. But it's PRETTTTTY bad, and only gonna get worse. And tomorrow will be better (that's what I always tell myself).

 

You gotta put it into a context...

Is it August or February?
Is it thigh high or chest high?
Is it 25mph onshore or 5mph onshore?
Have you been surfing for the past 3 days, or not surfed for three weeks?

It's all relative... Don't hate the choppe.

 

True. Also, don't forget, how bad is the drift and the paddle out? Not gonna lie, at times I've thought "WTF am I even doing out here" before I even made it outside. And rarely have I been rewarded for the effort.

 

One other thing....there is quite a bit of difference between 10 mph of sideshore vs. 10 mph of onshore coming from roughly the same direction as the swell...the latter can actually have some reasonably clean faces on the set waves. for me 10 mph of sideshore (especially if your surfing into the wind - i.e. rights into a north wind) is a pass 99% of the time.

 

Sideshore is the worst. No doubt. Side-offshore can open up some tubes, but straight sideshore, or side-onshore is junk.