Wave selection and timing

Patience. There is nothing worse than paddling back out and having to duck dive the wave of the day. The goal is to be in position for the best possible wave of that session. Stay in position, get right back into the lineup and hold your ground. When it’s time to go. Go. Be decisive. Always.

 

Board choice wont help you get the right wave ... it will just help you you ride it the way you want. Inside vs outside, wave speed development....that's all spot dependent.

Pop up timing....the biggest mistake i see is people trying to get to their feet WAY too early.

Quality waves....let a few go by just to see whats behind. So many times the second or third wave of a set is the one you really want. Don't burn your arms out paddling for the first decent looking wave that pops up after you paddle back out. You'll end up on a treadmill of taking mediocre waves/paddling back out through a set/blowing waves due to arm fatigue.

I spend a decent amount of time with a camera after a sesh watching. I hate seeing people ride a shit wave because I want a decent picture of them. 9/10 times they don't get the gems because they are:

Sitting too far inside impatiently chasing down inside "tweeners"
Taking the first wave they can catch, when its painfully obvious 1-2 better ones are stacking outside.

 

Good points Mitch. I do feel that going to more volume has helped my timing on the take off. I am guilty of the impatient tweener theory (although it is more about strategy than patience for me I guess). Primarily EC surfing though. I find that 1. a lot of times the tweeners get the good double up form to push through with more power...I am constantly studying the line up and which waves are breaking best. 2. sometimes sitting outside waiting for the sets, so many good waves go underneath you that you miss. Also, sitting in gives you a better feel for the set up (I especially do this when I first paddle out to really get the vibe of the ocean/sandbar etc.).

But, nothing worse than taking a mediocre wave and kicking out to see the guy that was beside you getting the set of the day...

 

My rule of thumb, when I'm surfing with friends & it's kinda lully, is simple: 'I'm going further inside & as soon as I move that means that you'll get the set wave, you can thank me later.'

 

haha i do it too. definately riding a smaller board there are times when sitting inside just makes more sense. then its a strategy, and yeah if there's an inner bar they are hitting, i see that. My point was just that i see people sitting inside missing better waves and they dont look like they are getting any payoffs....just taking off on a lot of dribblers, or worse just having to sprint outside and duck under the wave they really wanted all along.

There's one spot i surf a lot where the people sitting inside are constantly right underneath you when you finally get a set wave. right. under. you. Takeoff area is like 20 feet across and doesn't move. 5 guys sitting inside will result in mayhem...and mayhem results. But that's another topic.

 

I'll find myself getting frustrated at high tide with weak swell, the wave will look solid as it rolls in, will sometimes start to crest as it hits some deeper rock or reef, but will hit deep water again and back off, only to jack back up on the inside. Those are the days it pays off to be on a log because if you do catch it on the outside you can sometimes cruise or noseride the mush till it gets steep again, but anything 8ft or less you might as well wait for the "tweeners", lol, the inside. Time is usually the remedy, I've seen people get frustrated and quit only to have it firing an hour later with the tide change.
And patience. I don't paddle battle any more, I just wait for the right waves. I may not have as big of a wave count as others but I always get some get good ones.

 

I've shared this experience also, way more times than I would have liked

 

Well, it all depends on the day. In small to medium waves, I'll take the wave the lines up in front of me, cause why not? Bigger days, I'll be more choosy, and will usually skip the first couple waves of the set to avoid the clean-up, and save my strength for the ones that matter. If it's crowded, then I'll slip into opportunist mode, and take anything that comes my way, and I look for gaps and weak spots in the crowd.

During a session I often bounce around between outside and inside to see where the sweet spot is on the given day. As i get tired late in my session, I'll usually sit outside waiting for a few choices waves before calling it a day.

Wave choice, crowd management, trying to outsmart and out maneuver the guys next to you is the game within the game. But of course nothing beats having a session all to yourself.

 

There are too many variables to account for, but generally I try to line up with the sets. This results in higher quality rides, easier paddle outs, and longer sessions.

However: if the sets are closing out it can be better to sit inside and go for the perfect peaks rather than the close out walls.

It can take 30 minutes to really dial in where to sit. Once you crack the pattern of where the best waves are breaking I pick some landmarks on the beach to line up with the peak. Counting pilings on a pier or lining up with unique features on a jetty can help too.

A heavy crowd can make me change my strategy. Sometimes I'll sit further out than everyone and patiently wait for the bombs, or sit inside and go for late takeoffs on the waves that slip through the pack.

Bringing different boards for different conditions can help maximize the amount of fun had surfing. The other day my buddy was determined to ride his short board in chest high mush and struggled for an hour to catch 1 decent wave. Where as I took out a longboard and had a blast catching a ton of waves...

Different conditions, different strategies. Good threade

 

It's the 2 P's: patience and position. However, nothing gets me angrier than being in a lull, seeing a decent wave roll through and you hold up thinking it's the first in a set and end up back to where you started...

 

You have to have a really good poop before you go. Dont get out of bed, grab the coffee, and jump right in. If you get that feeling 20 minutes into your session, you are pooping with a wet wetsuit around your calves. And that, my friend, is a crappy (see what I did there?) way to get a fall session going. The benefits of the fall session is that only locals will be there to see you crapping in 2-foot beach weed, and not some jeep wrangler driving tourist with stickers all over their car posting you up on their insta.

 

Watching from the beach and having a game plan and trying to stick to it helps from getting caught up chasing fools gold. Mind surf it for a bit, figure out where you want to be on the sets, outside or mid break, and try to triangulate a tad before you paddle out.

Then wait for a set to go thru, let the shredders shred, and re triangulate for precision and next set baddda boom bada bing you're in the sweet spot. Wait for the second or third wave. And find a corner, don't get closed out. Patience.

 

There's a lot to think about... especially on bigger days...

One thing that I recall from early on is over thinking it- like thinking and planning too much. It seemed like the less I think about it, the better I surf. Hope that makes sense. I find myself hardly ever thinking about it much now unless it's super crowded and hard to get a wave to yourself

Second thing- at least for me - is to skip the coffee, especially if it's big. My buddy victor told me that he learned that while living in Hawaii... it kinda stuck with me and it helps. Even dawn patrol, I surf much better cause the caffeine causes your adrenaline to go much higher then normal then you start messing up. Plus it raises your heart rate and you can't hold your breath as long

Third- if it looks like the wave is closing out- then, simply, you just arnt surfing fast enough