Best "dryland" preparation for surf noob?

[Tuckerman]

This is how Laird Hamilton works out.

From Outside Online
"A standard day, when he's not surfing, involves hill climbing with 50 pounds strapped to his mountain bike, two hours of circuit training, three miles of surfboard paddling, and a personal favorite: harnessing himself to a log and dragging it for miles down the beach."

[DanKo]

One month? You're not going to learn to surf, you're going to learn how get the shit beat out of you and just how much your nose can run. Not trying to discourage you in any way, that's just how it is. I'm a pretty good athlete and it took me a year of going 2-4 times/week to just barely not completely suck. If you stick to tiny waves on a big ass longboard you'll probably catch some rides though, which is OK because small waves really are fun.


edit: this is DTM

HA! This has been my experience exactly...although it hasn't quite been a month and my frequency of going has not been as high as I'd like. I moved to PR Feb 1st. Bought a board a few weeks ago and the going in ROUGH for this surf JONG. I really suck, but it's still fun to go. On really small waves I can occasionally stand up and ride the whitewater. On anything remotely resembling an actual wave the best I can seem to manage is timing my placement and paddling to get the wave to take me before everything speeds up and I am underwater...good times.

The plus side is that my neighbor surfs and he's been showing me around and introducing me to the folks at my local breaks. They have been super chill to me as a Gremmo and have encouraged me to keep at it...after all...everybody sucked their first few months on a board.

Good luck.

[Big E]

DanKo, I'm curious, what size/type board are you using?

[Ripzalot]

Please pardon my kookness, but I've never understood the "measure the back of the unbroken wave" thing. Hawaiian style, right? I'm sure they must have had some reasoning back in the day, but when you're riding the face of the wave it seems more applicable to measure the face, XXL style.

Everest is only 11,000ish "Nepali style" (from basecamp) but we give it the full 29,035"

Please educate me. Is it just tradition and modesty or is there more?

according to wiki:

The origin of the scale is obscure. The candidates are

Hawaiian life guards calling smaller sizes to keep tourists away.
The measurement is "from the back" of the wave, or from wave buoy readings.
Macho understatement by early surfers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_scale

my understanding was that it equates to the buoy readings. it gives a standard measurement to the swell as opposed to reading each break, which react differently to the same swell. so a 5 foot day at break X might be 12 foot faces, but the same swell at break Y might be 8 foot faces. then it started to follow that surfers just referred to the buoy reading regardless of the actual face size.

that and it's sooo much more core to understate the waves. brah.

[hop]

according to wiki:

The origin of the scale is obscure. The candidates are


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_scale

my understanding was that it equates to the buoy readings. it gives a standard measurement to the swell as opposed to reading each break, which react differently to the same swell. so a 5 foot day at break X might be 12 foot faces, but the same swell at break Y might be 8 foot faces. then it started to follow that surfers just referred to the buoy reading regardless of the actual face size.

that and it's sooo much more core to understate the waves. brah.

I didn't think the ancient Hawaiians had buoys, but that's why I'm asking.

It still seems to me that, given that each beach deals with the same swell differently, you should call it by wave face per beach. But then you wouldn't be all core and shit, brah, so maybe not.

[robnow]

That's what shoulder high, head high, head plus, double overhead, etc., descriptors are for. Makes sense.

[Big E]

That's what shoulder high, head high, head plus, double overhead, etc., descriptors are for. Makes sense.

But what if someone is describing the surf over the interweb, and said someone is either a) 6 yrs old, b) a midget, or c) Andre the Giant ??

We need some sort of standardized nomenclature I think.

[greenroom]

I will offer lessons and escort you on your trip if you will pay my way.

Barring that option throw a heavy weight in the pool/lake, dive down and carry it around till you feel like you are going to drown. The Hawaiians do this to train their lungs for hold downs. Do this as much as you can, and swim, skate, snowboard as much as you can. You could get a Indo board or like. http://www.indoboard.com/

You can do this till you are blue in the face, you will still get pounded repeatedly. You can not learn wave reading any other way than time in the water.

Have fun. Enjoy the rinse cycle.

[Core Shot]

But what if someone is describing the surf over the interweb, and said someone is either a) 6 yrs old, b) a midget, or c) Andre the Giant ??

We need some sort of standardized nomenclature I think.

There is a standard measure (feet or meters) in one of two ways (regular or hawaiian scale).

As for the human measurement, it is not only for the average height surfer (5'8" I think) but it also assumes that surfer is slightly bent at the knees and waist in a normal surfing style.

Do you freak out when someone says the snow was waist deep, or boot deep, or snorkel pow? Do you ask if they are a midget or 6 years old? DOn't you need a standard nomenclature? oh, yeah, there already is one just like surfing. Its called inches, feet, meters, etc.

[Big E]

Do you freak out when someone says the snow was waist deep, or boot deep, or snorkel pow? Do you ask if they are a midget or 6 years old? DOn't you need a standard nomenclature? oh, yeah, there already is one just like surfing. Its called inches, feet, meters, etc.

Might want to take your sarcasm meter in for calibration.

[Brooks]

www.carveboard.com

these things rock it

[NJsurfer30]

dryland popups are a good idea. the one time i actually did them frequently for a few weeks i noticed a huge difference in my quickness on a board. the faster/hollower the wave, the faster you need to pop to your feet to not totally eat shit, so if i were going to indo i'd be doing about 1000 a day.

that said, the hardest part is really learning to read and feel the waves from the lineup, and there's really no way to practice this other than surfing a lot. good luck though. bring a lot of kleenex.....