Pearling etc
When you take off on a steep breaking wave in beach break aim not perpendicular to the wave but at about 45 degrees pointing away from the breaking shoulder. If you start pearling, turn the boat to the side more before you auger in. If the wave isn’t closing out reach in with your paddle turn on the bottom and shoot down the breaking curl …(it will work on a Kaos if you give it some practice.)
Check out this site for some useful advice on learning how to surf:
http://www.wavemasterusa.com/faq/index.html
Looks Great!
– Last Updated: Mar-04-04 10:34 AM EST –
I'm stoked. You are going to have a blast when you get some good 3 -4 waves ... more fun than you will know what to do with when it's bigger!
(I would also second getting a paddle leash eventually. You can buy the phone cord type leash from Sit-On-Top-Kayaking.com, you want a retractable leash that won't get in your way too much, that is strong, but that will also break away if you need to be rescued from entanglement. Watch catching your fingers in the coils and pay attention to getting it wrapped around you in violent wipe-outs. When you are starting out don't worry about using it if you are surfing beach break. When you have everything under control you will be much safer with the leash especially if you surf offshore points or reefs in big wave conditions.) Have fun, welcome to the surf addict club.
Thanks…
Thanks for all the great advice…I can tell by the enthusiasm that I’m going to love this new facet of paddling. Man…I’m chomping at the bit to get down to the beach now…but I’m on duty for the next 5 days so it looks like I won’t be able to hit the beach until one week from today…argh! And it’s sunny and 75 degrees today here in Charlotte…making it even worse! Last week it was in the low 30’s and we had 14 inches of snow on the ground…nuts…
BeachAV8R
You’ll Learn To Keep An Eye
out on the surf reports each morning. Here’s one going out to you:
http://www.surfline.com/surfline/livecams/getsurfmapsurfbreakreport.cfm?alias=carolinabeach
sing
Ah…
– Last Updated: Mar-04-04 7:46 PM EST –
Carolina Beach..I know it well! I dated a girl there for a few years so I would drive there from Charlotte every week for 3 or 4 days. They can have a really nice clean break..actually Wrightsville Beach is on the north side of Wilmington and it is VERY nice. As a matter of fact this picture of me was on the front page of the Wilmington newspaper a few years ago when I caught an epic day at Wrightsville:
http://home.carolina.rr.com/beachav8r/images/img17.jpg
I'll probably be spending a lot of time in Myrtle Beach since my brother lives there and my parents rent a condo there almost every month. Some of the best waves occur in the summer when the normally south-west wind generates a swell and then a thunder-storm comes along and kills the wind for awhile and the water goes kinda glassy but with the swell intact...should be fun.
Just curious..you goes that surf SOTs..can you roll yours? I'd be interested to learn...
:)
BeachAV8R
SOTs can be rolled
Most folks don’t bother because when you get hit bad enough to go over you usually get blown out of the thigh straps. Some folks use seat-belts and it might be more useful. I rolled my Cobra Strike a couple of times but not very elegantly and I usually fall out before I can try.
Which…
Brings up another question…sorry…you are going to get a ton of them now that I’m into the sport…lol…
How tight do you keep your thigh straps? Do you want them to have any give or do you want to be wedged in there pretty tightly?
Thanks…
BeachAV8R
They should be fairly tight
with your knees bent you keep them tight with pressure inward with your legs but you don’t want them to come off or loosen prematurely. You want to transmitt your leaning and weight shifts directly to the boat like being fit into a tight fitting sink. If you open up your legs or slide way back or forward you will come out of the straps. One of the most disconcerting things to do when you first start surfing is to pearl and huge amount of water comes up into your face and then you flop over and get dragged and or flipped by the wave and you are still surfing upside down in your boat with water jetting up your nose. Sounds awful but its kind of fun actually.
Rolling SOT Con’t
Here is a video clip, but it’s not very instructive.
http://www.pacificfleet.net/moves/kayak_roll.htm
I think on the wavemaster webpage there is a video of doing the extended paddle sweep roll.
http://www.wavemasterusa.com/gallery/index.html
(Scroll down a bit.)
I could not catch on how to do this at all until I took a class, and I’m still not competent under “combat” conditions in my Necky Jive.
Just Playing Around Today…
I purposedly used the reverse sweep in the surf today. I like it. it’s easier in my surf kayak than in my touring boats. Maybe because of the lower volume stern.
sing
Cool vids…
Wow…very neat videos… Thanks for the links…!
I might try a little pool practice this week…
BeachAV8R
Found it
– Last Updated: Mar-07-04 1:38 AM EST –
Here is the roll you want to look at for a boat like the Kaos....
http://members.aol.com/waveskisurfing/putroll.html
also lots of waveskiers reccomend the back-deck roll ... there is another recent thread where sing posted a good section of video and explanation for it.
I noticed a lot of surf yakers
used back deck/sweep method at Ventura contest several weeks ago. It’s really fast to flip back up in rough water. I need to work on setting up my paddle better underwater and not tearing my gut muscles coming up. I’m hoping to get out tomorrow afternoon. Air temps are supposed to be in the upper 70s, that will be a treat.
Kaos outfitting
Just as important as proper thigh strap tension is making sure that your butt can not slide from side to side in your cockpit seat. In my sot I added almost 1 1/2 inches of hard foam to each side of of the seat at hip level. When you move your hips you want the boat to move immediately and not after your butt slides over to the side. Learning to roll will be much easier if your feet and butt are very firmly attached to the kayak by approptiate thigh strap tension.
Lee
And a Good Backband
Looks like you already have a good backband set up with separate backband. They are also important.
When you have to climp really big steep swells, it is the backband that keep you in the boat.
Instructions showing safe arm position?
Seadart sed: …Check out this site for some useful advice on learning how to surf:
http://www.wavemasterusa.com/faq/index.html
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Pane two of the Bottom Turn instructions shows Elmer holding his arms up high. Is there any danger of shoulder dislocation like that. I keep hearing about the danger of shoulder dislocation when getting the elbows up too high.
TomBk