Whats your First Surfing Experience

you love this website way to much

 

july 31 i rode a 6'1 retro fish with a magic box fin setup. it was a single fin its a really fun board to ride and i stood up and rode like 2 waves barely ha just went straight with the whitewash but from that day on i was hooked

 

Labor Day 1980 at 26th street in OCMD on a 6'4" Sundancer twin fin. It was knee high with a sea breeze. I didn't get up once but rode a bunch on my knees.

 

Summer 1979...Bethany. 5'10 red/orange sunburst Haut twin fin that was really beat up and thick. Knee high waves breaking close in...dont remember getting to my feet. Figured out later that summer that getting a ride to 28th st. OCMD was more worth it.

 

knee to waist folly beach, SC in 1999. was riding a used 5"11 Tim Nolte shortboard and went out with my best friends older brother who was from Oahu and was a big wave charger. He was and still is a huge influence on my surfing.

 

1975 Sandy Hook NJ. My friends family owned a thrift shop and they had a round nosed 7 foot single fin for sale. He talked his father into letting us have it. We went to the beach everyday in the summer usually arriving by 7am and would stay until dark. I would have a brown paper grocery bag stuffed with anything I could grab to eat. One day when we were tired of exploring the holly forests we grabbed the board and went out into some knee high waves. I stood on my first wave (knee high whitewater) and thought it was the best thing ever. Eventually graduated to a styrafoam finless surfboard which was the pits but that first day was the best we stayed in the water for 3 hours or so handing the board back and forth.

 

Don't remember what board exactly, but my buddy who is no longer alive bought one from a surf shop the summer prior, and he was given a couple in exchange for a stereo with a cd player. That was back in 1987, and cd players were a big deal, and new at the time. It was Fall of 87 he gave his little brother who to this day is my best friend a board, and me a board just to try out. At the time I had no concept of a good board thats why the board doesn't have an impact on my memory now. I will never forget, because this was during the infamous syringe tide epidemic. My buddy still swears he was poked with an old needle haha. I was 16 at the time, and it was around early November before thanksgiving. It was rainy, and cold, and nasty, and the water may have been 62, 63 degrees, but we were the only ones in the water that day which was great. Had we not we would have been ridiculed to no end, because we were in board shorts. This was in Long Branch New Jersey, and I don't even know the name of the street it was on, but I know how to get there. It was the south end.


I remember the water being really choppy, and sloppy, and it was not the best session, but we didn't know any better. My Uncle lived in Lakewood at the time so we hit up Manasquan Inlet the next weekend. The conditions were better, and there was a lot of guys out that day, and I actually met a guy who became my roommate 15 years later. They were really nice, and welcoming of us, but they had a laugh at our get up or lack thereof. Haha.

 

i learned on a 6'2 rip curl. took me a long time to get up and stuff but the first time i went down the line i made it past the jetty and took the wave to the beach. best feeling ever

 

middle of august after a summer class, my lifeguard buddy told me he would tech me to surf. he gave me no direction whatsoever and he took me out on his 9'0 or 9'2 robert august. it was a really ****ty and foggy day. you could barely see 15 feet in front of you, i got worked as i tried to get out and when i did get out i ended up switching the board with his boss for a foam board. he told me take any wave. so i waited a few waves paddle and got up my first try. he and his boss were in awe that that even happened and i was soooo sooo stoked i threw up a shaka instantly and unconciously. in the middle of the wave i said to myself "holy **** im actually surfing"

 

earliest i can remember was summer of 80' I was 3 my dad would push me into the foam on a soft morey bodyboard (moreyboogy at the time) by time I was 5 he had me standing up on the thing, been on a board ever since.

 

First Surfing Experience

I was five years old
It was summer
My Dad shaped a Board for me

 

4 or 5 years old, a canvas raft rental at Sandy Hook!!

 

Ha, I was 10 and my dad rented me one of those old blue & yellow rafts, but @ Island Beach SP. It was probably only waist high, but it felt like 2OH to me. Ate a ton of sand that day, had a blast, rode all day, hooked ever since. Good memories...

 

lol, i remember the blue and yellow rafts all lined up waiting to be rented. At the time i had no idea what surfing was, but the instinct was clearly there to ride waves. I can remember sitting on the raft waiting for sets to come through too.

 

Tofino, Vancouver Island, July 20th, 2003.

I remember the date clearly, because it was my birthday. We have family outside of Vancouver and we spent a few days camping on Vancouver Island. The place is a rainforest and stunning. The beaches are surrounded by huge dense cedar forests. We rented suits and softboards, probably a 9 footer and went with a group for a lesson. Knowing what I know now (because at the time I had no idea) that day the winds were probably cross/offshore, knee to waist and for summer standards, a good day. After a few nose dives, I learned how to position myself on the board properly when paddling and bam, wave count numero uno! Rode white water all day and was frothing all day.

It was such a special first surfing experience in such a wild surfing environment. Chilly water, around 55. Thanks to my Dad for taking me out. I will go back someday, no doubt.

 

No it was a real board-last person I saw on a raft was eaten by Jaws