Surfing (ocean) is such a drag

It's been a couple years, but went to Huntington this morning. Small shorebreak, high tide, low crowd. Water's a little cleaner and warmer than I remember. The beach is covered with trash, the water smells. If the surf is good, it's covered with peoples, and crowds are a drag, right?

In the boat, we've got coffee and juice and music and towels and sunglasses and break time and long rides. Surfing is something you do with friends, whereas wakeboarding inludes the family.

Yes, of course it could be that my board skills have gone to pot, and that's got to fixed, but I can't help but wondering if surfing and skateboarding is for people who can't afford boating. Or maybe it's that boating is for people without surf?

I dont live by the beach, but whenever I go I surf. People always joke around with me cause I'm obsessed with surfing, and there like....yeah nice surf here in TN...Anyway, I like wakeboarding more than surfing, but I think theyre both equally excellent....Everything I just said was irrelevant made no sense..haha

elisabeth

Man you make it sound like everyone who does other boardsports are just settling with those sports because they can't afford wakeboarding...believe it or not wakeboarding does not stoke everyone. I know plenty of people who just never really got that excited about it and thought of it more as just something to do when the waves are flat...some things I hear often:
hitting the exact same size ramp of water every single time gets to be pretty mundane....kind of
like going snowboarding and just spending all day hitting the same jump over and over and over and over.

But from your profile pic I see you have kids and family....so I can see where you are coming from with boating, you can bring everyone out and everyone gets involved...can't do that with surfing....the whole boating activity
is definitely more social.

"The beach is covered with trash, the water smells. If the surf is good, it's covered with peoples, and crowds are a drag, right?"

Except for the word 'surf', you could be talking about any lake within driving distance of SoCal.

Wow that is quite and assumption you make...money equates to the type of board sport you do. Surfing and skateboarding cost money...custom surfboards are not cheap, skateboarding includes deck, wheels, trucks, helmet, pads, shoes, membership to multiple skateparks, new boards constantly. I know families who surf together, as well. Not saying one sport is better than the other, because I enjoy them all, but its not so cool to put a monetary assumption on a couple of sports that you don't necessarily like.

You obviously haven't been barreled

(Message edited by blabel on March 19, 2004)

John, you're right. Why does it seem different to me? Maybe the two years in Guam surfing over some really clean water showed me what surfing is supposed to be done in. But you're right nonetheless. Especially in the summer.

Marcq, really I've always respected surfing more than any sport I've tried because it was hardest to learn - by the end of the first day on a snowboard, you're cruising with a decent amount of control. Same thing with a wakeboard. At the beach, it might be several years for you to be able to get up, drop in, bottom turn and head down the line in a decent variety of conditions. Likr you mentioned, no two waves are the same, and most of the time, they're really short. Much easier to get better quicker when your ramps are consistent.

Not really trying to say anything more than wakeboarding is a lot of fun for a lot of reasons, and wondering if maybe more surfers/skaters/snowboarders would get into boating if they had the opportunity. Snowboarding and boating are quite a bit more expensive than surfing and skating.

Been barreled, but it was way too long ago. There are just too many days I can look back on where the trip down to the beach left me wanting, whereas every single time I jump on the mtn. bike or put the boat in, it's a good day.

It seems as if you are referring to wakeboarding and boating as one in the same. They are not. I wakeboard and don't have a boat. I know several people who both wakeboard and surf and of those people most would prefer to surf. I also know a few who wakeboard, surf, snowboard and skate and enjoy each one equally. It is all about preference, not money. There are just some people that don't share your passion for spending the day on the boat especially if they deal with less than desirable conditions as we do here in San Diego. Their passion for the other sports has nothing to do with the money or opportunity just pure love of their preferred sport.

surfing is cheap, get a board and a suit and go have fun.
Pull into a big barrel, its as fun if not funner than booting double ups all day.

1 thing, BOATS cost a lot of money. much more than any other board sport around. Appreciate the friends that give you pulls, lots of work and time went into enjoying a boat.

Blabelmooch is 100% correct. i dont think this guy has been barreled. I grew up in malibu surfing and skating. When i lived there i did not have a boat and had never wakeboarded. But when i got a boat, yes i did fall in love with wakeboarding but when the surf is good i am going surfing not wakeboarding. Because there are a lot more glassy days at the lake than good surf days at the beach.

Hey I've been barreled I think. Sh#t I forgot its spring/summer and everyone is fighting for small sh#tty waves. I can't wait for winter and so its time to wakeboard! Blabemooch is gonna have to share that barrel and drive to find it.

Oh come on, when there is a nice summer south pushing, you don't have to drive too far!

What about kneeboarding?

How to spend the precious weekend day? At the beach by myself or at the lake with my family/friends? Most trips to the beach will be fun, but only one in several dozen trips will be awesome. Get home from the dawn patrol all burnt with the family waiting around on me to do something (not go to the lake cuz it's too late for that). Yeah, I could start checking surf before going. That'd improve the odds.

Yes, I use wakeboarding and boating interchangeably. Not an error on my part. I also left out kneeboarding and tube towing and cove floating and kid fishing and drunk fool watching. Stick to my guns here. The average day on the boat is much better than the average day at the beach.

For me, I can't break things down as simply as some people as to which board sport is my favorite. If I had to buy pulls all the time on other people's boats, I'd probably ride trails or surf (or stay home.) To get all clinical about it, wakeboarding alone is fun now but just not enough on its own for me to keep doing a lot of if I (or a close friend) didn't have a towboat.

Kook or not, I don't surf enough anymore to keep my skills up. So when I do finally head down there, I suck, and of course more often than not, the surf sucks (cuz statistically, it usually does, right?). At no point are the conditions like what I got used to in the islands (not big, but beautiful and juicy). I still think of knees impacting reef when I drop in. Must get the skills back, must check surf before going down there. Must get ahold of a bigger-than-reef-board. Must get a springer and maybe a better fullsuit. Must buy all of the above for my boy.

Must stop posting thoughts here that have not been thoroughly researched, red-lined and passed through committee.

surfing, it should be called paddling because 95% of it is paddling and about 5% of it is actually surfing

Quote:
"surfing, it should be called paddling because 95% of it is paddling and about 5% of it is actually surfing"

ha ha...I guess you cannot argue that point...also don't forget a lot of sitting waiting for waves also. I guess this is why progression is pretty damn slow.

But when you do finally get a good ride in............

"ha ha...I guess you cannot argue that point...also don't forget a lot of sitting waiting for waves also"

For most people this is true, thankfully because my percentage is closer to 50/50. Most people in the lineup sit and paddle around most of the time without getting waves. I enjoy the down time for the most part in between waves to relax.

Derek, you got some opposition because you made a pretty bold statement. We don't need a discussion on what sport is better than the other. To each his own. If you doubt something, just don't do it. I will continue to surf and have fun!

Darn it Blabemooch you percentage is to high I'm gonna have to cut you off! With a ugly mean look on my face! Oh boy its summer and fun!

I didnt see him stating one is better then the other, more like making a comparison with facts backing it up. Maybe the actual act of riding the wave is more fun when surfing but thats about like drag racing compared to road racing motorcycles, ones over at the end of the front straightaway and the other has 8 or 12 more laps to go(compared with wakeboarding). Im no surfer, never have but can tell it would be alot of fun but the only time around here it would be fun is when a tropical storm is heading our way because the lame waves on the gulf coast suc.
I saw an wakeboarding ad once that said something like "surfers wait their whole life for the perfect wave...fools"

try Kitesurfing. It will change your life. So I've heard....I'm going to take lessons this summer.

Forgot wakeskating and topless hoo-hoos.

Further evidence against surfing is that I posted this foot-gatherer right after surfing.

Had I been on the lake, my post would've been something like, "Do you think Peace Corp members are issued Chevron cards?" or "How do you get mustard out of vinyl?" or "Anyone riding in Alaska right now?"

So if I end up with a longboard, do you think Grant could put in one of them flip-up LCD's?

Really my biggest surfing problem over the past decade was rarely having the right equipment (board, wetsuit) for the conditions. Too expensive, you know? So I went and spent $27K on a boat. Go figure.

And if you can't diss a non-wakeboarding sport on a wakeboarding site, where can you? (teamlazyboy.com)