Surfing (Narrative)
At a very young age I knew the ocean and surfing would always be a big part of my life. Because of growing up in a house only five minutes from the beach, and having a beach house literally on the beach, I have been able to learn and experience a lot. Most people probably just think of surfing as a simple sport. You just get a surfboard and go ride waves. This is a misconception; surfing is a sport that requires extreme strength, endurance, coordination, and knowledge.
The biggest problem people have with surfing is that it looks so easy to do, but when they try it, it ends up being extremely difficult. Part of the difficultly is the strength it requires. Paddling your own weight on a surfboard doesn’t seem all that hard, but doing it over a long period of time can get pretty tiring. I weigh about 150 pounds, so when I’m paddling on my surfboard I am moving the weight of my body plus the weight of my surfboard with every arm stroke. After giving surf lessons to multiple people, I have witnessed many of them give up after fifteen minutes because they said it felt like their arms were going to fall off. When I go surfing I usually go for about two hours. So even if you have the strength to paddle yourself, you need to have the endurance to do it over period of time. Paddling is a part of surfing that is fairly repetitive the entire time you are in the water, so without strong endurance, surfing can be very difficult.
Even if you are able to paddle your self just fine and have strong endurance, doesn’t mean you are surfing. Standing up on your surfboard after you catch a wave is the most difficult part about learning to surf. When standing up on the board, you want to keep your weight centered on the board so you stay balanced. If you try to get up with either one of your feet off center, there is a great chance that the board will just tip over. I really understood this about two years ago when I tried to teach one of my friends how to surf. I tried to practice with her on the beach on getting up on the surfboard and keeping her weight at the center of the board. She seemed to be able to do it pretty well on the sand but it was a little different when she got in the water. Every time she would try to get up neither of her feet would be centered on the board, so she would fall over before she ever had the chance to stand all the way up. And when she would really focus on getting her feet centered on the board, she would be moving so slowly that the wave would end up knocking her over before she was able to stand. For over an hour I tried to help her stand up on the board, but she never succeeded. She was able to paddle her self around just fine, but couldn’t stand up on the surfboard and ride a wave. After taking her surfing three more times she was finally able to stand up and ride the wave.
Having the strength and endurance to paddle and having the balance and coordination to stand up on the board aren’t the only aspects of surfing. Knowledge about the ocean is key to surfing. If you just go out surfing without any knowledge of the ocean, there is a good chance you will find yourself caught in a few problems. The ocean always has currents, which are the motion and direction of the ocean. Currents are created from different forces such as the earth’s rotation, the wind, temperature, and gravitation of the moon. When the moon is full, the tides are higher a majority of the time, because there is more gravitational pull. When there is hardly any moon, the tides stays pretty low because there is less gravitational pull (Prytherch). This information is helpful because you can use it get idea if the surf is going to be good or bad and because certain surf spots can be dangerous at certain times of the year and during certain tides of a month. One of the most important things about surfing is being able to recognize a rip current and knowing what to do if you get caught in one. A rip current a strong flow of water returning back out to sea. It can occur during any tide of the day, but it is most common in the transition from high tide to low tide. As the tide starts to change from high to low, the water begins to move its way back out to sea. Sometimes when this occurs, the water finds an easier way back out to sea, which starts a small constants flow of water out towards sea. As the tide continues to get lower, more and more water begins to move in the constant outflow, forming a strong current that moves out towards sea (Cralle).
At about nine years old, when I had just started surfing, I experienced getting caught in my first rip current. I was surfing pretty close to shore because the waves were smaller and I was just beginning to surf, but further out there were ten to twelve foot waves breaking.. I didn’t realize I was caught in a rip current until I looked at the shore and I couldn’t tell which family on the beach was mine. I began panic and tried to paddle in but I just kept on getting sucked further and further out. A lifeguard ended having to come out on his paddleboard and helped me get back to shore. That’s when the lifeguards talked to me about what had happened and what to do if I got in that situation again. The worst thing someone can do if they get caught in a rip current is to panic and try to paddle in against the current. Trying to fight the current will only tire you out and most likely cause more problems for you. The best thing to do if caught in a rip current is to paddle to the side of it. As long as you begin to paddle to either side of the rip current, you are guaranteed to get out of it, and then will be able to paddle in safely.
Surfing is a sport that has many different aspects to it, which is what probably makes is such a difficult sport. People don’t understand that surfing requires much more than just a surfboard and waves. In order to be in control of the surfboard, strength, endurance, and coordination is required, and in order to catch waves and for safety reasons while out in the water, knowledge of the ocean is required. I have been surfing for nine years and I continue to surf today, and I still learn more and more about surfing and the ocean every time I go.
The biggest problem people have with surfing is that it looks so easy to do, but when they try it, it ends up being extremely difficult. Part of the difficultly is the strength it requires. Paddling your own weight on a surfboard doesn’t seem all that hard, but doing it over a long period of time can get pretty tiring. I weigh about 150 pounds, so when I’m paddling on my surfboard I am moving the weight of my body plus the weight of my surfboard with every arm stroke. After giving surf lessons to multiple people, I have witnessed many of them give up after fifteen minutes because they said it felt like their arms were going to fall off. When I go surfing I usually go for about two hours. So even if you have the strength to paddle yourself, you need to have the endurance to do it over period of time. Paddling is a part of surfing that is fairly repetitive the entire time you are in the water, so without strong endurance, surfing can be very difficult.
Even if you are able to paddle your self just fine and have strong endurance, doesn’t mean you are surfing. Standing up on your surfboard after you catch a wave is the most difficult part about learning to surf. When standing up on the board, you want to keep your weight centered on the board so you stay balanced. If you try to get up with either one of your feet off center, there is a great chance that the board will just tip over. I really understood this about two years ago when I tried to teach one of my friends how to surf. I tried to practice with her on the beach on getting up on the surfboard and keeping her weight at the center of the board. She seemed to be able to do it pretty well on the sand but it was a little different when she got in the water. Every time she would try to get up neither of her feet would be centered on the board, so she would fall over before she ever had the chance to stand all the way up. And when she would really focus on getting her feet centered on the board, she would be moving so slowly that the wave would end up knocking her over before she was able to stand. For over an hour I tried to help her stand up on the board, but she never succeeded. She was able to paddle her self around just fine, but couldn’t stand up on the surfboard and ride a wave. After taking her surfing three more times she was finally able to stand up and ride the wave.
Having the strength and endurance to paddle and having the balance and coordination to stand up on the board aren’t the only aspects of surfing. Knowledge about the ocean is key to surfing. If you just go out surfing without any knowledge of the ocean, there is a good chance you will find yourself caught in a few problems. The ocean always has currents, which are the motion and direction of the ocean. Currents are created from different forces such as the earth’s rotation, the wind, temperature, and gravitation of the moon. When the moon is full, the tides are higher a majority of the time, because there is more gravitational pull. When there is hardly any moon, the tides stays pretty low because there is less gravitational pull (Prytherch). This information is helpful because you can use it get idea if the surf is going to be good or bad and because certain surf spots can be dangerous at certain times of the year and during certain tides of a month. One of the most important things about surfing is being able to recognize a rip current and knowing what to do if you get caught in one. A rip current a strong flow of water returning back out to sea. It can occur during any tide of the day, but it is most common in the transition from high tide to low tide. As the tide starts to change from high to low, the water begins to move its way back out to sea. Sometimes when this occurs, the water finds an easier way back out to sea, which starts a small constants flow of water out towards sea. As the tide continues to get lower, more and more water begins to move in the constant outflow, forming a strong current that moves out towards sea (Cralle).
At about nine years old, when I had just started surfing, I experienced getting caught in my first rip current. I was surfing pretty close to shore because the waves were smaller and I was just beginning to surf, but further out there were ten to twelve foot waves breaking.. I didn’t realize I was caught in a rip current until I looked at the shore and I couldn’t tell which family on the beach was mine. I began panic and tried to paddle in but I just kept on getting sucked further and further out. A lifeguard ended having to come out on his paddleboard and helped me get back to shore. That’s when the lifeguards talked to me about what had happened and what to do if I got in that situation again. The worst thing someone can do if they get caught in a rip current is to panic and try to paddle in against the current. Trying to fight the current will only tire you out and most likely cause more problems for you. The best thing to do if caught in a rip current is to paddle to the side of it. As long as you begin to paddle to either side of the rip current, you are guaranteed to get out of it, and then will be able to paddle in safely.
Surfing is a sport that has many different aspects to it, which is what probably makes is such a difficult sport. People don’t understand that surfing requires much more than just a surfboard and waves. In order to be in control of the surfboard, strength, endurance, and coordination is required, and in order to catch waves and for safety reasons while out in the water, knowledge of the ocean is required. I have been surfing for nine years and I continue to surf today, and I still learn more and more about surfing and the ocean every time I go.
posted by John Weber at
4:09 PM
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