Surfing 101

This picture was taken before paddling out to a "Secret spot" after we had already surfed a couple hours at gas chambers. We went from a break with probably 30-40 people, out to a break where the only people out were the 4 of us! It was great! It was a very long paddle and seemed even longer because of the previous session. But we were happy to get away from the crowd. With us we had:


Audrey: My old teammate, roomie and surf buddy!!!


Matt... long time friend of Stuart... always kidding around.



Aww how cute!


Unfortunately we don't have any pictures out surfing due to the fact that it was really good and we didn't want anyone to miss out on surfing to be photographer but below we have pictures from our early session at Gas"ies".

Stuart:


Stuart:




Alright so we had an interesting session where I got out feeling embarrassed about being a girl in the water... no i take that back, feeling embarrassed for all the other girls that were out there (besides Audrey and 1 other girl). Its girls like the ones that were out that morning that give surfer girls a bad name. I'd heard it all before that girls are always dropping in on people but never really saw it because all the girls I ever surfed with didn't do that. But now we have proof.

Below is a nice little sequence of example A: Stuart getting dropped in on...
oh yeah... for those of you who don't know there's a little something I like to call surf etitquette, or the rules of surfing... (I don't know if thats accurate cuz I like to think there aren't any rules in surfing, however I guess there are because in a surf contest if you drop in on someone... even if its a perfect ride and you do something really really cool, it doesn't count.) Ok, so the rule is, the person who is "deeper" or "inside" on a wave has the right of way. Deeper meaning: closest to where the wave is breaking. So to put it simply, lets say you want to go right if you look to your left and there's someone there thats also going to go right... they have the right of way.


Here you see Stuart, and closer to the photographer is this Brazilian Body Boarder lady... She has just committed the surfing sin of dropping in on Stuart.... not cool.


The photography however...


very cool




Here we have Exhibit B: Once again... another girl dropping in on Stuart. This particular girl would drop in on everyone this is the one we got on camera though. but a little side story... later, she dropping in on this other guy but he kept on surfing and she ate it (hehe) and she was yelling at him. I'm wondering if the fall affected her thinking because she was the one at fault here. That one was pretty entertaining because he could care less and she was complaining the whole time she paddled back out. Ok Back to exhibit B: tiny little asian girl with high squeeky voice drops in on Stuart and gets pretty close:






Next we have a view of what surfing should really look like: A beautiful sequence of Matt on a super nice wave... oh and look... no one is there in front of him to mess it up! Enjoy!








That was beautiful! Nice wave Matt! Nice photography Stuart!




Here's a pretty picture of the water: I just like it so I thought I'd share it with you!




Exhibit (what is this 3? C? well you get the point...) This is not me... but it is my wave as you will see in the next couple shots:

Ok call me crazy but... I thought us girls need to stick together! Its one thing to drop in on a guy (really bad behavior) but its a whole other thing to drop in on a fellow female surfer! come on now! These guys out here are catching a million waves, and then there's one perfect wave that come straight to me and this girl decides to drop in on me... I'm on it she looks back and sees me ( I see her see me) so I think she'll get off, but no, she keeps on going and I end up on not quite dry reef but just about a foot of water... so I beat her up in the parking lot after... no no no I'm just playing... but I did hear some guys say that about the brazilian girl pictured above in example A. They were joking of course but I had the pleasure of hearing them say it (she was pretty rude and told this guy not to go if someone else who knew what they were doing was going...ouch)

You can see my arm and the nose of my board on the right hand side of the photo:


As you can see I am deeper... and its not like I'm way behind the wave and wouldn't beable to make the section or anything like that! I'm in perfect position for a great wave!


Sorry for the buttum shot... not the best angle haha.

Oh well... there's always tomorrow... what am I talking about, there's always Today!



Well lets finish on a good note! Here's another great sequence of Matt!





Oooohh Pretty!!!

Hope you enjoyed our day of surfing!