Years Surfing + Top Two spots

46 years of surfing and still going strong (girls just want to have fun).........first board a 9'2" 'hang ten' pop out closely followed by a 9'2" surfboards hawaii step down.........current boards all in the 6'2" to 6'4" range.


#1 left point breaks in the state of guerrero, mexico

#2 apple bay in tortola before online surf reports so you had to be there to get the swell

 

23 years. Learned to surf in Stone Harbor, NJ. First board was a 6'3" Nectar Simon Anderson "3 fin thruster" shaped by Gary McNabb. Bought it from a local heavy who had a sign on it "x-world traveler".
Went through a period of 8 years away from the ocean stuck in an office. Woke up in 08 and now back surfing full time in Hatteras. I saw another post that mentioned "phases" in life and that is for real, especially as you get older and face the realities of everyday life.

Wish list spots:
J-Bay
Nias

 

i grew up snowboarding in western PA, i lived about 15 minutes from lake erie though and spent almost every summer day at the beach there. when i was young my family took a trip to OCNJ and i saw surfing for the first time and thought it looked amazing. after that it was always something i wanted to try but never got the opportunity. a few summers ago i was on a work trip down in florida and while driving there from pa i stopped for the night near cocoa beach. i woke up the next morning and since i was ahead of schedule it somehow popped right in my head to go rent a board and try to learn how to surf.

i instantly loved it, but again living in western PA wasnt really making it possible for me to surf. i moved in with my girlfriend near philly last year and bought a used board out in NJ for $75 and would make the 2 hour drive out there about once every 2 weeks or so. then when summer rolled around my girlfriend and i rented a condo in southern NC right at the beach and i surfed at least 1 session (sometimes 2 or 3) a day for 3 months straight. i couldnt get enough of it, everytime i would get out of the water all i could think about was that next wave.

when reality struck and we had to come back to PA last month ive been driving to NJ at least once a week to surf. i never thought it would take over my life so much, theres just nothing like it though. nothing compares to the feeling of riding a wave. everytime i paddle out i learn something new and everyday im stuck inland im itching to get out for more. im constantly thinking about the next time i can make the trip

the 2 hour drive is not the best but i have to deal with it for now (i usually wake up at 4am and drive out for dawn patrol to beat the traffic and the crowded lineups). for the next 8 months im stuck in PA but then, hopefully, come june ill be moving to NJ for good with my girlfriend and i can get dawn patrol sessions in everyday before work.

its weird, i never imagined it this way but the first time i rode down the line on a nice clean wave looking through to the sandy ocean floor i knew this was something i would be doing for the rest of my life. and even though starting at 22 is a little late, ive never been so stoked as i am thinking about all the waves in my future...

wow that turned out much longer than expected...no surf this week due to the flatness and im dying waiting for next weekend when i can get out there whether it be knee high or what

 

started surfing or well i should say i surfed for the first time thanksgiving of 1987 in long branch new jersey. i was 16. and it was during the syringe tide years. a lot of needles on the beach, and in the water. hsven't seen anything like it though since that year fortunately. i didn't start surfing regularly until 89 or so i started doing it weekly or every other weekend by the early 90s. i have to say the last two years have been some of my most frequent in surfing. i remember growing up, and my mom, and dad would take me, and later on the rest of my siblings to the beach on weekends. we lived in bergen county, and i always wished i could move there permanently ''down the shore''. we would go to cape may or wildwood for a week every summer, and every other weekend, and sometimes every weekend from may to late september we would go down the shore. usually long branch, because it was not even an hour from us. went to sandy hook sometimes, bradley beach, belmar, manasquan, brick beach, and seaside heights. it was always a fun time. i hadn't started surfing yet, but i had seen it, and thought it was cool. a few summers i spent in ormond beach florida with my cousin, and grandmother. loved the ocean. when i was 16 or 17, and had surfed a few times already i started telling my mom, and dad, and grandparents that i was gonna move down the shore one day, so i could surf, and go to the beach whenever i could. my grandfather told me i would never be able to do it, because all the jobs down there were seasonal, and it was so expensive, and i could never survive down there. he told me all the people there are either older people who have lived there since before it became real expensive, or people with families who have good careers, and commute to philadelphia, or nyc. they moved to florida after that. in 89 the summer i graduated high school they all packed up. my parents sold the house packed up my younger siblings my grandparents followed them down to st pete florida. i stayed behind, and moved in with my best friend, and his family.

luckily my grandfather is still alive to see me living down the shore. in 2002 i moved to manasquan, and commuted to my job up home in bergen county. after 17 years with that company and working there right out of high school it went out of business in 06. i had to move back up to bergen county again, and was heartbroken. in 07 i moved to lavallette, and lived there for a year, and then went to cape may for over a year. now i'm in manasquan, and couldn't be more happier.i started my own business, and life is great. i have plenty of time to surf when there is surf. one day i am hoping to retire to hawaii. oahu to be exact. thats way in the future though.


favorite places were costa rica, and puerto escondido. would love to go back. went there last year and surfed a lot of central america. unfortunately a swine flu scare kept me from traveling with my buddies over to africa, australia, and new zealand.

my two favorite breaks though just by atmosphere, and not necessarily wave quality are oahu[anywhere on oahu just love being there] and poverty beach in cape may. had some of the best waves of my life at poverty beach.

i'm turning 40 in march, and figured i was one of the older heads here. seeing guys that are 60 here though is phenomenal. i hope to be in good enough shape to surf when i am 60, and i have to say i idolize you guys.

 

started surfing in 98 on a rusty piranha in OCMD

Just got back from a trip to Pavonnes...solid 9-12ft swell... incredible

Second favorite spot is Assateague on a good day...I love that place

As for my dream trip, I'd like to either get down to Peru or head over to Portugal for a good swell.

 

the pit and trestles

 

I lived in Puerto Rico during most of elementary and high school years (late 60s) and started surfing a 9'4" Hobie in the San Juan and Luquillo areas towards the end of 9th grade - moved to SW PR after 9th and consider my first real post-kookhood wave during Labor Day at Maria's beach on a solid head high day. I remember surfing 2nd Rock at Maria's Point on a McTavish V-bottom while the Finals of the 1968 World Contest was next door at Domes. Needless to say I have way too many favorite waves in PR.

Other favorite places are N. Oregon and Costa Rica. Someday I hope to spend some time surfing in Bretagne and Spain. My least favorite area these days is probably Southern California - it is so crowded and polluted.

 

The pit? Tell us a story!

 

25+ years of dragging my junk in the water around the world. Very hard to choose 2 spots but I suppose I could say Northern Chile and somewhere in Indo.

Top 10 no particular order after 1st 2

Chile - At least 10 world class waves in the north
Indo - Pdang Pdang was a lifelong dream to finally surf
Barbados
Panama
Costa Rica
Mexico
Outerbanks - Cordova to Howard's
Hawaii
DelMarVa/NJ

 

When i was 6 i thought surfing was the cool thing to do, so i did the weekly free surf lessons at the local shop. Got my first board the next year, a 5'9 cannible round nose fish, it was awesome. Went through a phase for a couple years where i boogie boarded instead because the kids who i surfed with were better than me, and i didn't want to show then i wasn't good. By the time i was 11 i was over it, got on my surfboard and surfed 8 hours a day. Now i think i like surfing a little too much. I just started to travel last year where i went to costa, and now that i have money of my own im going to puerto rico this winter and California in the spring.
My favorite two waves: 1. Homebreak when its going off 2. Hermosa, Costa.

 

And to stay on-topic.
Been surfing for 5-years, learned in North Florida (by accident?) I say that because on my very first job out of school, I was under a mentor, and mentor surfed during lunch a lot, and during the few months that I had to tag along with him he introduced me and semi-taught me how to surf. The rest is history. Surfed in Maui and California, but were not dedicated surf trips.

1. Maui (is my favorite place so far, good/friendly vibes on the water)
2. (Would love to surf) Fiji, Noosa Aus.

 

Been surfing since 1978. Started with a single fin Surfboards Hawaii. Pretty much always on Absecon Island, LBI and Hatteras. Grew up surfing OCSA until I was 17 and spent a load of time suring in AC. Favorite place so far outside of NJ is Playa Negra in Costa Rica. Right now I really want to get to Chicima in Peru. Being a goofy footer this would be an amazing place for a trip for me.

 

I think I got my first board, a used black and white tiger stripe Hotline 6'4" in 1992. Growing up and living 2 hours inland made it really hard to get any kind of waves consistently so I kind of took a 10-12 year break until my mid-20s when I bought a 9'0" longboard and started working my way down to an 8'6", a 7'6", a 7'4", a 7'0", a 6'2". I spent about the next 13 years driving 2 hours to DE/MD in any hint of a swell interspersed with long and short trips to CR, PR, Panama, El Salvador, boat trip to Sumatra, New Zealand, California, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey. Now I live and work in HI and I couldn't be happier.
I've had good sessions all over, some of the best in Delaware and OC.
This last January I had the best waves (glass, 6-7', almond a-frames) at Middles in Kauai that I've had in a long time.
Memorable sessions also at SRs in CR, at 4-6' with just 3 friends out.
I'd love to catch Raglan someday....

 

Started around 1968 in Cocoa Beach- Surfed non-stop until 1980.
23 years US Army- Surfed when I came home (not a lot of surf at Army Units)
Picked it back up when I retired -

Been most places on the East Coast. 1 Trip to the West Coast & 1 Trip to Hawaii.

Great thread- I have enjoyed reading everyones adventures.

 

surfing since 1995 San O's Ca
salt creek
Nj but tore rotator cuff and Bicep out still next year hard to paddle

 

This is an inspiring thread. Best ever.

My parents' met while bodysurfing in Belmar in the 50's, when my dad noticed how good my mom was at catching waves and asked her out. I spent my youth on rubber inflatable mats, then started surfing summer 1985 with an old single fin found in a garage in a Lavallette, NJ rental my buddy's parents were renting. Taught myself over the next few years in Long Branch on a single fin sunset. I count the first real wave I rode at Long Branch up there with the day I met my wife and the birth of my two kids as the most important days of my life.

My most memorable sessions are not necessarily when I caught the best or biggest waves.

1. Watergate Bay, Cornwall, England - slept two nights in a bus stop shelter surfing all day during a study abroad semester in 1990. First time I had surfed overseas and it gave me the travel bug.
2. Some break called The Ranch near Troncones, Mexico. Myself, my buddy and two other dudes from NJ we met, and overhead rights screaming on and on forever.
3. Playa Siboney, Santiago, Cuba. I created a spectacle at this non tourist locals only beach when I found a piece of foam and managed to catch a few tiny peelers with it.

two places I've always wanted to surf
1. Ireland (I've surfed there, but it was crappy. I want to get it good)
2 Chile

 

I've been by the ocean since the day coming home from the hospital in my Mom's arms. The first time I touched the sand was in Squan' I've been stand up surfing since 89'.

Favorite wave by far PMPA Bundoran Donegal Ireland. (lived there 9 years)
Two other life long memories will be my last wave at Padang Padang and another secret spot session East Coast PR.

Goals
Pipe.
Surf until my body stops.

 

wow... THIS THREAD HAS BEEN GIVEN AN EXTRA LIFE

 

I'll take that life... got 20 years or so and I'll be doing this till they pull the crusty board from my cold, dead, 5mm gloved hands.

Started late so the the first "real" wave was caught in Wakiki on the honeymoon. After that I was in the water all day. I had to make up for it at night.

Would love to go back to Oahu now!

Camping in OBX right on the beach was awesome, a couple of wild hurricane swells. Surf Florida every winter. Had great trips to Cali.

A boat trip before 50 and Malibu or Rincon, just because they're classic.