Who taught you how to surf?

This guy was probably one of the biggest influences on me when I started:

 

Miki Dora and Greg Noll are the 2 major influences in my surfing

 

i got my hands on a 6'2 shortboard and kooked it at the inlet until where i am now, slightly less of a kook.

 

Got in the water by myself one day and never left.

Jimmycraxasscorn... no words for this doucher he is just too funny!

 

what he said, just different inlet...

 

brother locked my bodyboard in the trunk of his car and gave me is old beat up brown Byrne. Haven't bodyboarded since. Best day ever.

 

The infamous and probably the most hated guy around here - Elliot Zuckerman. But it was a fun lesson and I was out there early may so we didn't get in anybody's way. Heck it was raining that day!

 

In response to jimmeycraxcom, Gregg Noll is still alive and kicking. He and his son recently opened a new surf shop in California. Miki Dora passed away in 2002. Two close friends of mine surfed with both men in California and Hawaii. Who says one or both didn't teach Matt to surf?

 

wtf some guys gotta hate on sombody who honestly writes about his surfing experiences
what kind of charge do you get from tearing a brother down
we are just little fish in a big pond

 

Yea I mean like me he could have had to teach himself to surf and inspiration was all he had.

 

Taught myself in an era of no video and no money for magazines. Surfed a little jetty on Sandy Hook NJ and thought my friends and I were the kings and the best surfers around. We actually thought we were ready to go pro, lol. When we got a car and started traveling a bit we realized very quickly how much we sucked and how many great surfers there really were. In our defence we were riding crap equipment and had never seen another person surf for the first 4 years. The only images we had were from some 1950's book from the library on surfing. I was riding a 6'3" single fin and the big move I was trying to learn was hanging ten and wondering why I couldn't do it. When finally a big swell came and a bunch of real surfers arrived at our break, I was embarresed to say the least, at the skill level they were at and the **** level I was at. The 70's were a great time with light crowds etc but it would have been nice to see better surfers once in a while to learn how to really surf and be pushed a bit.

 

Ha Ha glad you liked it, sad but true . The best part about the big swell when all the real surfers showed up was that we would park on the bayside of the seawall and could see the top of the waves breaking. We had no idea anyone else was around because knowone ever was around. We jumped up on the seawall with our boards hooting and hollering and jumped down to see about 30 surfers and their girls parked right up against the wall. They all looked at us like we were the biggest loosers around. Trying to save face we grabbed our boards and preceded to paddle out. After about 20 minutes of getting pounded I gave up and tried to hide below the cut knowing that everyone who saw us making the big scene was aware that we didn't even get out. My friend managed at the last minute to punch through and was just reaching the lineup when his mother started screaming from the beach for him to come in. She was yelling "thats an angry ocean get your ass in here!". He managed to ignore her for a few minutes then had to come in, he paddled for a set wave, caught it and went head over heels down the face. Eventually he rolled up on the sand humiliated. That is one of my favorite memories .

 

Uncle took me out in 3 to 4 foot glass at Cocoa Beach, FL. when I was 9. Seemed huge at the time! LOL Practically lived at Canaveral Pier after that! Big influence, I would have to say Mark "Occy" Occhilupo!! First board was a 6' Hotline I got at Mandalay Surf Shop in Clearwater Beach.

 

It was 1964 and my buddy's parents bought him a 9'8 Sportflite from Sears. We took that baby to Dewey Beach and surfed all day. Took turns pushing each other into the white water, kept slipping and busting our a$$es all day. Finally some big dude came up to us and took the board and started rubbing "parafin" (that was the only wax you could buy back then, it was used to seal jelly jars) all over the top. We had been surfing without wax all day. That guy was a big influence on my surfing because it was a hell of a lot easier after that!