Gulf Coast Woes

Hey man come to St. Pete this Tuesday to surf a local spot or two and paddle out with me an my buddy. Just PM me if your interested and Ill give you directions for your gps. Ill bring drinks, snacks and some medicine of the herbal variety.

 

yo i lived down in charlotte county for a few years and used to surf manasota key and venice inlet when there is surf. if you're surfing manasota it's all about finding sandbars that are getting the swell at at an angle. most of the time the surf there is short period windswell and it's accompanied by ****ty winds too.

sounds like you need to watch the surf for a little while longer before you paddle out.

 

It's the Gulf man, it's always been a bit challenging due to the type of conditions that normally occur, BUT there are definitely going to be days where it goes off, Debbie and Isaac both provided some very fun swell. Sounds to me that you just need more experience and getting use to the breaks. Based on your location I'd suggest going down to the Venice Jetty, largest man-made structure on the Gulf Coast if i'm not mistaken, it works really good on the south Jetty when the swell / wind is out of the N, NW, or NE, if it's out of the South, then jump over to the North Jetty, but it's not as good usually. I've had some EPIC sessions down there, but I also frequent Treasure Island / Sunset Beach area, just depends on the swell. You'll get it, just go out as frequest as there are waves because when it's flat, it's FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! Also, if you plan on surfing at least once per week, you will have to get use to the fact that you'll be driving 2 - 2.5hrs East to catch REAL waves. PM me if I want, grew up on the Gulf, native of 31yrs, but travel East almost every single week without fail.

 

To me, it sounds like you are having trouble timing the wave, rather than positioning. Don't get me wrong, your positioning can be a problem, but if you constantly going over the falls, you are waiting too long to pop up. Surf a little closer to shore and pop up a little earlier. I hope this does the trick - it's hard to gauge issues through text. With this being said, go paddle out with SurfBum and enjoy the ride - wish I was close enough to enjoy the fine western medicine.

 

+1 to this, anytime you are in the area you are more than welcome to hit me up, it's like that stuff grows on trees around here, weird...

 

I want to go tree climbing in Florida.

 

Try to triangulate. Pick a building, palm tree or something that you can refer too in front of you, then to your left or right. Find a buoy, land mark or anything stationary and line yourself up. Definately helps me. Good luck and always have fun

 

just to add to what some others said, it sounds like maybe your not getting enough speed to take off on the wave. The general rule of thumb is to match the speed of the wave, which means identifying that the wave is couming before it gets on top of you, and start paddling hard generating speed, once you feel the wave start to push you, pop up, it also helps to take off on a slight angle. Keep at it, don't get too frustrated and keep having fun!

 

Stand up faster, I use to have the same problem. The truth is, I just had to start telling myself to stop being barney and just charge on the take off. Now any drop in feels better than the last. Don't get me wrong I still eat it when I miss read it, but once you get that stand up quicker you'll be enjpying the GC just like us up here in Pensacola. Surf the best you know how, it's just surfing brah.

waterlogged

 

the bad news is west florida is the worst area in the US for surfing (except maybe the great lakes)

the good news is you get to play in warm water and, if you can learn to "read" and surf that slop, you'll be able to surf anywhere.

dlrouen is right, "pop" is highly underrated. Doing sit-ups and push-ups in your down time will help you be prepared for popping up quickly when waves finally do come. Starting paddling way before the wave gets to you is a good habit, too

I surfed the gulf (bama point) and east coasts for years and still relatively sucked. Took a decade of surfing the consistency and size of the CA west coast for things to really start clicking like instinct for me...and I still have to keep conscious of certain things like popping up, not sloppily dragging my knees and/or other poor form

 

Having grown up here I have to say it isn't ALL bad. As a matter of fact there are days that are very fun / clean waves, can even get overhead some days and barrels aren't out of the question when it's firing. Thing is, it's normally during a cane swell or major storm occurance. I have to say that THIS YEAR the Gulf's tropical storm / hurricane season has been above average and is right there with the E. Coast in terms of major storm swell, now it does go dormant in between a lot more and for extended periods of time, but when there is something out there it can be damn fun. Debbie and Isaac provided swell for an entire week here, that's not the norm here, but it was better than A LOT of places were getting at the time.

 

Id say you got some great answers here dude and to sum it up
1. a lil Barney
2. A lil slow take off
3. Charge and stand quicker

these waves are difficult here and what Mr Brady always sez at West Coast surf Shop
"If you can surf these waves, you can surf anywhere"
Meaning these are radical waves, mind of their own, not much uniformity in them...........

Have fun today........

 

woops jus read this, and to adovocate for the Lakes, Mich and specifically Sheboygan has way better break than my spot here on the gulf.........

So easy to get up there after learning here on this wind chop

 

Here's a few videos and pics of what it can get like when the conditions are good. These are from Debbie / Isaac just recently...

http://vimeo.com/48497578

http://www.gulfster.com/062412b/

http://www.gulfster.com/Daily/2012PictureGallery/082712b/

 

It's cleaning up now, headed out for a sunset sesh! WOOOO, hope you guys got some or are going to soon, it'll probably be gone by this time tomorrow...

 

yeah, looks like you did get waves today...didn't look as junky as usual, either.

I didn't mean it never gets good. I was just referring to the fact that the predominant wind direction on the gulf is basically east to west (trade winds or winter storms pulling air up from the southeast), which would make it offshore/flat on any west facing coast, most of the time. (Sheboygan is also east facing...no trades, but they get the massive northern low pressure wind vacuums)

The most consistent spots on the gulf are east facing beaches like the fla panhandle (west of ft walton), south texas and below. Hell, trade winds (and fetch) combined with a tiny continental shelf managed to put Veracruz onto Surfer mag's map of good Mexico surf spots...something to be said, considering all the world class spots on that map (I'm sure they get plenty of tropical storm swells, too...without the worry).

I'm exactly 2 hours from any beach and the water is always cold, so, sometimes, even west fla seems tempting...but only if I lived a couple blocks from one of the more exposed beaches, max.

 

did not get out at sunset heard it was nice, still looks good now http://www.cedarcoveresort.com/webcam/live.html

but fading quickly waiting on an oldtimer to eat breakfast

SHEBOYGAN ON A TOO COLD DAY

 

Had some fun last night, but it was really crowded at Sunset, my fault for not going further up the beach, but I caught some fun ones

 

Ya that place looks fun, I could see how they could get nice surf there too, the Gulf is fickle, but from time to time it will surprise you