Surfing tips

From my years of experience, here's some info about surfing, how I feel about it and good tips.

Surfing is much simplier than kitesurfing, on a surfboard and wetsuit needed, and despite my time all being spent kitesurfing, there's a lot to recommend surfing.

There's a certain purity to just having a board, and some waves, you are really carving up a landscape, just watching waves changing, and peeling along a beach holds my interest. For surfing, the location is paramount. I realised a long time ago, that some places just aren't conducive to good surfing. Piha in Auckland often has too much swell, when surf gets over 4 foot, ie just over head high, rips develop, and waves have enough force to make paddling out a difficult and tiring exercise. But is often good in summer, in fact, surfing really works as a summer sport, as we get settled conditions, large high anticyclones stalled over New Zealand, producing light wind and offshores at most beaches in the mornings. The swells are more settled, and equal on both the east and west coast.

For those learning, an east coast beach, is best. I learnt on the west coast, and spent many days at the beach struggling through rips and duckdiving waves. Surfing is more than this!!
My learning curve was slow until I 'graduated' to a point break.

For anyone trying to learn to surf, the difficulty is in staying on a wave long enough to get the feel of surfing. Once you have that sussed, the difficulty is learning to manouvre on a wave, especially when waves at beach breaks last only a few seconds. This is why point breaks rule!

- When a wave always peels along the same path, and just crumbles, and doesn't dump on you, its a million times easier to surf.

- Rips are generally pretty small at point breaks, and mostly close to shore. You only have to paddle through them once and once you are out the back, it's not often you get a rogue set wave which could pound you and push you back into the impact zone.

- They normally break a bit slower, so you have time to get up

- You can get a very long ride!

Tips for the best point break in the North island

Raglan

Going out - All the spots in Raglan have big volcanic rocks forming the shoreline. They are often covered in kelp, making getting out beyond the rocks difficult on lower tides. You can always tell who are the kooks and non locals, as they try to go out not wearing booties or a full wetsuit.
Garanteed you will get your feet and legs and hands cut up trying to go out into the surf, or coming back in. The best technique for going out, is to be out as far as you can into the water, standing steady on a couple of rocks, so that when the set wave comes in, you can just hold your ground without the wave pushing you over. Pick your time just after the last set wave, and paddle out quick as you can, even if it looks calm. The quicker you paddle, the more likely your are to get out before the next set wave. Quite often you will have to duckdive at least one or two sets of waves to get out, but if you paddled hard enough to begin with, then you will be far enough out by the time the set comes in that you don't get pushed back on to the rocks.

Raglan has four point breaks all within 2km drive. Raglan definately suits shortboard riding, you will get hammered by the waves if you don't duckdive them, and a board no longer than 7 ft is the go, the waves suit a manouvrable board. Quite often I can get out the back at most of these points without even getting my hair wet, even get several rides without having to avoid any waves!

Manu bay

For most at Raglan, you start at the beach break 'Ocean beach' then as soon as you can catch waves, try Manu bay. It's like a grommet learning place, all the kids 10 year old or older learn here in the tame waves when it is small.
I got my first real long ride at Manu bay on my 6 foot 5 thruster only six weeks after starting surfing, and the stoke lasted months. Manu bay is quite crowded normally unless you go early in the morning, and the carpark is right in front on the break, not walking required. The best way to get out into the surf is often hard learned by newcomers.
If the swell is over 4ft (if its under 2-3 ft you surf right onto the rocks) there is often a strong rip to battle close to shore. You may feel like you are going backwards for a while, but as long as you paddle out from the beach, instead of just paddling directly against the rip you will get out the back ok.
You will find youself a long way down the point, unless you start almost in front of the carpark. If you are real keen, you can jump of the end of the point and paddle straight out to the start of the point break, but you have to be quick, otherwise the waves will throw you straight back onto the rocks.
Once you are out, you will notice than everyone out there forms a bit of a line, along the peeling path of the wave, or just outside of it. The inside most person has right of way on the wave, but in the case of Manu bay, there is a ledge where he wave starts to break. When the waves are 5 ft and offshore, the ledge makes a barrel for you on takeoff, some people make it some people don't, I have had some evil evil poundings by getting sucked over this ledge, or not making the drop. Quite often, the ledge closes out and only people to the left of the ledge can catch the wave on the shoulder, and this way you score a very long ride all the way to the boat ramp, over a 30 sec ride!! When Manu bay is high tide, the wave is quite slow, and easy to catch, and even at six foot, is bloody fun, and the waves keep peeling and eventually get too fat and fizzle out into deep water again. then you just paddle back again, no duckdiving required!
This break is faster on the low tide, and tends to have a unmakeable section in the middle of the break(unless you are real good).

Boneyards - Not a true break like the others, but on very south swell directions this spot within paddling distance of Manu bay can be ok. Not easy access, and can break right onto the rocks so you have to bail out beforehand.(hence the name)

Whale bay - A break which is very different on low and high tide. High tide Whale bay won't even break unless its 4 ft, and is only good for longboard riding, as it is a real fat mumma wave! even at 6ft high tide, it is fat, and hard to catch a wave on a shortboard (tried it, and got held in the lip and pummelled like you wouldn't believe). On low tide is is very rideable, fast on takeoff, then slows down then a fast section coming up to the biggest rock on the point, then slows the further you go down the point. Paddle out down from the largest rock, in the small bay, or you will get pushed back onto the rocks, and get bounced around.

Indicators - My favourite break, normally bigger than the others, and breaks faster, so you have to be on to it, as even at 6 foot is breaks only 50m from shore, and one wave can easily push you that far. To get out here, the valley is the best entry point, on high tide, and you can paddle over half the distance in flat water with no waves. The waves pack some punch, and is quite rideable even at 2 foot on a small thruster board. Very small rip here, not like Manu bay, but at 6 foot it as taken me 45 minutes to get out the back, and even once you are there, you need to paddle a bit to hold your position, and when you catch a wave, its a long long ride, and I've had a 1/2 hour paddle to get back a few times, especially as you can catch a wave all the way to Whalebay, almost a km away! fast takeoff, followed by a small slow section on the inside then a fast section which can wall up to a barrel, through to the valley, and fast ride and another possible barrel.

Coming in again is another hazard, this applies to all these breaks, as on the lower tide the waves break directly on to the rocks, so it is best to ride the last of a set of waves all the way in, this way as it is one of the biggest waves, the ones after a small, and it gives you time to scarper up the rocks. Never turn your back on the waves, they will catch you out and knock you flying. If you float your way in as far as possible, then get you feet, and float you surfboard as a extra steadying hand. Don't hang around!
The cool thing about surfing, is it's a very elite group of watermen/women that can do this sport, it takes fitness, strength, a lot of determination and perserverance to get to a level where it's real fun. A lot of days of battling rips and falling off, and cold water, but it's worth it.