Surfing Ettiquette

Hi there!

I was going to paint a version of this but I've been busy and I'm just kinda lazy. So I've just posted an actual picture of the do's and don'ts of surfing.

Cape-Town-Surf-Adventures-Surf-Etiquette

Lazy-I mean Long-board

Hey!

I want to say a very happy birthday to Thaila who turned sixteen today! 

Thaila, Jessie, Gaby and I went surfing on Saturday. Sadly I got injured on my leg from Jessie dropping in on my wave so I won't be able to surf next weekend. I will be making a post about surfing etiquette so that no more accidents like this happen. 

Jessica H and I went to Thaila's house for her birthday. I took my brother's long board that he got for Christmas, Thaila had her penny and Jess used an old skate board. We went skating around Thaila's neighborhood. It was the first time I'd ever skated on that board. It was really fun and easy. Its a lazy surfer's board because you hardly have to do any work to get it to move. I didn't have any skating shoes so I had to use Thaila's hiking boots. I will be saving up for a really nice pair of vans. It was super fun and I can't wait to do it again!

I am going to try out for our school's surf team in  the third term when I'm better and when I have a short board. Slade says that girls get marked higher in competitions because it's more impressive when girls do things that only boys are meant to do. 

Photos by Jess Huang

Morning!
The waves were perfect today. Not too big and not too small. I dropped down and turned on all the waves that I caught. There was quite a lot of people there, so we had to keep moving to a new spot and being really careful not to surf over someone's head. 

I saw a guy on the promenade with his surfboard attached to his bicycle with that rack that I want to build.
Oh, and check out my polyvore account please and thanks. 

Beach Bonfire

Hi there!

I've been crazy busy. My school does this exchange program every year where either we host some students from England, or we go there. Right now I'm hosting Tim. And it's loads of fun. I'm hoping to go over there next year. I've taken him to hang out at my friend's beach house and to beach bonfires. 

Today all the English kids and their hosts went to the beach and the waves were massive. There were huge barrels, it was amazing to watch. There were a few of my guy friends surfing but they're crazy. At least they can duckdive.

It's a lot of fun to have him here but the downside is, I couldn't go surfing last weekend. I will be going on Sunday though. Yay! And this time I will get photos of me standing up.The waves are supposed to be amazing because of the cyclone in Mozambique.

I think I'll be ready for a short board by June, so I'm going to ask my parents for a 6 ft for my birthday. Then I'll learn how to duckdive. I'm finding out where the best place to buy a board is and what kind of board to get. 

The Boys

I woke up so early this morning that it was still dark. My dad drove Lita, Ciara, Rachel I down to our usual surf spot. After being in the water for only a few minutes, Slade (Rachel's boyfriend) paddles up to us and we went with him to the pier to surf with Jessie and some of our other guy friends too. Rachel was scared that if she fell then the guys would laugh at her, so she didn't paddle for many waves. I caught quite a few really nice waves. The most amazing thing ever was when I caught a double up. I dropped down onto the wave and then I realized I was on top of another wave so I dropped down again. 

Later on, we went to where the water was waist-deep to teach Lita and Ciara. We'd tell them when to paddle and how and when to stand. I guess we were a little too close to shore because when we were loading the boards into the bakkie I saw that one of my fins snapped off. A new one costs R700. Any donations? 

This is Jason (left) and Slade (right)

This is a surfboard bike rack that I'm going to build with my dad (once he fixes my bike). With this I will be able to ride my bike to close beaches once I'm a confident surfer. Check out how to build it here.

Sooo Rough

This morning the waves were huge. But they weren't foamie huge. They were really good, huge open face waves, and they weren't choppy at all. Getting out to backline was pretty tough. Jessie and I made it the first time but Thaila and Rachel struggled for a while. Eventually Thaila made it and Jessie went back to help Rachel.

There was a lot of people on surf ski's. I think it's a nippers club. One of them bumped into my bored and chipped the nose :( There were 2 competitions going on along the beach. One surfing and one surf skiing.

I found out that there are right waves and left waves. When you turn on your surfboard, you have to turn the way the wave is going or else it wont work. You need to know if you're natural or goofy (left or right foot in front) This will help you to know which waves you can catch.

In the end I only caught one really nice one. Rachel just stayed near shore and caught foamies, and Thaila cut her foot on her fin. It was quite a rough day. I think the worst feeling is getting dragged by your leash after a huge wave. Oh and hip-bone bruises aren't the most fun either.