kids kayak surfing

-- Last Updated: Aug-28-05 11:10 AM EST --

I had my 8 year old Gabriel out on lake michigan in his Carolina 12 yesterday. It was his first time surfing. 2-3 foot slow breakers on lake michigan near south haven. I went out in the ww boat with him.

I can't believe how well he did. He paddled hard, and instinctively kept his bow pointed into the oncoming waves. He performed little sweep strokes to keep himself on course and then when he got out beyond the breakers he performed reverse sweep strokes until his bow was pointed away from the waves. He then would start paddling whenever he saw a swell that was big enought to surf.

He even low braced into the waves as they broached his little 12 foot boat. He stayed upright through a few surprising tumbles in nasty closeout, (relative to his size anyway).

He did have some swims. He got backsurfed pretty hard one time, and stayed upright right until the wave closed out on him. He wore his skateboard helmet. [not pink sing :( ].

Each time he swam, we tried a t-rescue, but his carolina 12 has no bulkheads and only two floatbags. So sometimes we had to go in to shore to dump out and start over. I asked him everytime if he was tired and he kept asking to go back out.

Afterwards he said I should tell him whenever the weather report said there would be surf.

I explained the whole wave size vs ability thing to him. I can't wait to get him back out there.


I wish the carolina 12 had bulkheads, so much for kids and saftey huh...

Anyway, it's great to see how quickly kids pick up what took me months to figure out.



Hey kid want to buy a waveski?
Watch out this stuff is really addictive.

If he is that good at 8, just wait until he’s a teenager, he’ll be giving Vince Shay a good run for his money.

Awesome!

Seasock
Can you make or buy him a seasock that will stay put? They really reduce the amount of water taken in by a boat, including boats with bulkheads. I use it on my wife’s glass Impex Mystic at times.

very cool
wait till you see what we’re working on!



:wink:



kids are amazing. they have the natural ability to test experiences without a lot of pre-conceived notions.



steve

Second That…
one of the Island Funski or Wavemaster Roto. Surf, tumble, get back on. Eventually can even learn to roll that.



If not, get a white water boat. I am still big on the Riot Trickster as a good surf boat, especially with someone his size. Put on the fins and that kid will be ripping.



Forget the long boat, if he is going to really get into surfing.



Yeehaw! Tell Gabriel he is joining the fraternity of the Stoke. Nothing but good vibrations. :slight_smile:



sing

I wonder what ej’s
kids kayaks surf like?

Float bags
I’ve had pretty good luck with the t rescue even with rec boats and no float bags or bulkheads. Of course I was in a very big High floating boat at the time. Can you get the boat to hold less water by tieing in large or more float bags?







i’ve always thought that if you had float bags in you didn’t need bulkheads?

River surfing they are supposedly great

– Last Updated: Aug-28-05 11:02 PM EST –

I have not seen them but a friend of mine saw EJs son last year and was commenting how inept he felt.

I saw an old small perception boat, very small volume, good rocker in the nose, little tail rocker, I believe it was meant as a women's boat ( kind of a wierd purple color) I have never heard of the model, the seller only wanted ~ 200 bucks for it. It would be a surf machine for a kid in waves like you have.

It’ll Surf Like A White Water Boat
for better or worse. Keith, after you try a surf boat, you begin to recognize the lines of a decent surfing boat for moving waves. The dynamics of surfing a standing wave and a moving wave are different.



sing