Joe DiMaggio of Surfing

Last weekend was my 5th year 9th month surfing @ least once during the calendar month. (69 months in a row.) had to put it in year month form so you perves would take the post seriously. My goal is to surf at least once a calendar month as long as I can paddle out. My primary residence is 220 miles from the beach, but I got a tiny condo 50 meters from a great break, so I can get there on weekend @ least once a month.

I once surfed with the flu to keep my streak alive...

 

I was probably at about 25 years of at least monthly, mostly weekly, until January 2014 when i had my right ear drilled out, and then January of 2015 when i had my left ear drilled out.

****ty or non-existent hoods in the early years probably caught up.

 

Every week past two or three years except two months from sickness.

 

All I can say is I'm at about once a month this winter and consider that pretty much retired from surfing at least in the dead of winter. For the last 30 + years it was 2 or 3 times a week other than a short inland stint of 7 years where 2 or 3 times a month was the norm. I give you credit for pushing yourself to do it with so many obstacles. Even living so close, hearing the waves in the distance over the bay lately I find it too easy to pass for the slightest reason, too crowded, too small, too big, wrong wind etc. I need to break out of this, lol.

 

been going almost once a week for about 4 years now....sometimes it's more, sometimes less...mostly depends on swell but sometimes work and travel gets in the way.

 

I've got a 12 month streak going. At least once a week, usually 2-3 sessions a week and more if it's worth it to me or I'm on vaca. This is actually my first year of going all through the winter. As long as I am well and able, I imagine I won't be taking a month off for a very long time to come.

Hardest time of year to get out during the week is the winter. Short days are tough. Sometimes it's only 30 minutes to an hour at first light before work. Not ideal by any standard, but it's been working and I'm improving.

 

19 months for me, prior to which I was living in Colorado for several years and Maryland (not coastal) for a few before that. Probably 4-6 weeks in that time that I haven't surfed (depending which days you define as start or end of week I guess), I won't paddle out in complete garbage just to keep a streak going but I'm lucky enough to live close enough that I don't have to (at least for a monthly streak).

Feels like there were some stretches last summer of nearly a month where I checked it daily and just didn't see anything worth riding, but I think (hope?) that's exaggerated in my mind. I am 100% sure I got out at least once in June, July, and August, but I don't remember a whole lot of decent days in that time.

 

damn this is depressing. i literally surf almost everyday most of the time having multiple sessions before work and during lunch breaks from work. if you truly love surfing quit your *****ing and make it happen. you wont get what you want in life whining about it. life sure isnt easy for me but i wouldnt trade more money for any of it. You can always make more money, you cant make more time are the words i live by.

 

It's all relative. Five years ago I would've done anything to have the exact setup I have now. So I took the steps to make it happen. I do truly love surfing, but I truly love a lot of other things as well. Current situation is the closest to a perfect balance of passions and priorities and people as I've ever been able to strike, so I am fvcking chillin right now. If I wake up one day and feel that's no longer the case, I will take the necessary steps to change the situation.

I could absolutely surf more, but not without compromising my ability to regularly ski and mountain bike and work not that hard at a job that I don't particularly dislike in return for enough income to allow my family and I to live comfortably a mile and a half from the beach and hang out with a number of my closest friends multiple times per week.

 

Glad you like it that much; I did once too. But no matter how much you like something, too much of it and it becomes old. It will for you as well; it is human nature.
I like other things too. I really liked my job as well, working in pharmaceutical and clinical sciences, but after 35 years, I had to let it go. Times were a'changing......
Now, I spend time doing several things, well balanced, and for the few months or years I have to live, family takes precedence. They always did anyway, so it is no change.
Enjoy what you do today; tomorrow may never come.

 

I guess I am at the balance stage like NJ30. I do reflect on the dayz I was like 252. These days, I surf when the surf is good. I miss some due to said balance. I get plenty and get to travel a bit for quality experiences too. I have had a lame winter though...first in some time. I don't get sick often and had a head cold turn nasty sinus infection and it lingered for weeks. Saturday is looking to be fun and I am going to be all over it!!!! have not surfed in 4-5 weeks!

My typical flow follows the swells and seasons and my travels. Not sure I have any sort of consistent trend b/c waves are so random. I may go a couple of weeks without even then surf a few days in a row.

I am definitely ready to get wet after this latest sickness!!!

 

it all depends on the swells.like those people who get surf every single day of the year with no days off,it just doesn't work like that where I live.

it gets flat,like a lake lol.even on a 2' swell,other spots further south will have little peelers u can longboard,but its not like that near me,when the swell is around 3' it actually starts to break.im getting older with more responsibilities and other nonsense I cant just drive down south for an hour til I find some waves like the good old days of my teenage years.

now I just work with what I got.if its onshore it works for me,offshore works for me,little big whatever,as long as theres something coming in.

 

This winter had been pretty bleak for me. Still been getting wet a few times a month though. When conditions aren't cooperating it doesn't hurt as bad. It's when there's waves that it sucks. Yet when there's waves, i'm always there or find a way so i dont actually know how that feels. I can count on one hand the GOOD days that iv missed in the past 5 years.

My longest steak....it was a good one. Two summers ago i belive. I surfed everyday for at least a month. I forgot the exact number but if I'm remembering correctly it was like a month and a half, everyday. That whole summer, outside of that everyday streak, i was still getting out multiple times (3-4 days) a week. Of course it wasn't pumping everyday. But all my spots were at there best and i had them all dialed in. On the smallest days, i'd be able to find a wave worth surfing. And of course I'm cool with surfing onshore or side shore conditions as long as its not super heavy winds. Best part was that two of those spots were dead for years. They just came back that year. No one knew. It was always empty or just a handful of guys at the most. The next summer everyone caught on...but the spots weren't as good and i moved on to the next spots that were working. Bunch of suckers. Gotta know your area and keep tabs on every spot. Never know when one will spark back up or die out

 

must be nice assuming anyone can just live that dream! That's unrealistic so I appreciated every session! I'm a good hour from the beach! Unless I leave my family like some irresponsible P.O.S

 

I live 5 min from a break that barrels all day! Surf 7-8 hrs a day! Then the weed wears off and I realize I was just mind surfing! I need a genie in a bottle or maybe just another packed bowl!

 

okay now i feel like a ****... sorry guys. im young and just love to surf. only thing that keeps me sane

 

Then surf away as long as you can. It is perfectly okay to be passionate about something.

 

+1...definitely do it now. I have no regrets surfing as much as possible the last 30+ years (and still have the stoke) and ole'barry probably feels the same (nearly 1/2 century). I know guys that stopped surfing beyond teenage years...They say things like, "wow, you still surf"? I'm like hell yea and they seem blown away by it.