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.

Fit to Be a Surfer

Well after my last visit to Durban I came to the conclusion that I need to work out my arm and shoulder muscles. Every morning (well...most mornings) I've been doing this work out tape that's about 50 minutes long. It's really tough. It works out your legs, stomach and most importantly, you arms.
I occasionally do some yoga too. It is good for your core and it keeps me calm.

Also to surf, you need to have very good balance. So I stand on this now and then to improve my balance.

In a surf shop in Gateway there is this balance board. It is very good for balance as well. It's not for sale, but even if it was, it would probably cost a small fortune...So I decided to make my own. It's very simple. I nailed stoppers onto the underside of the plank so that it wont slip off the pipe, and I have painted it.

 

Day 1 Holiday Surfing

Today Rachel, Thaila and I went down to Durban as usual.. The waves were really good. There was a strong side and back wash though. We didn't catch much. At backline  I was watching the other surfers that had long boards like us. They also can't duckdive so when a wave comes they would flip themselves onto the underside of their board so that the wave doesn't hit them and drag their board behind them (and rip their leg off). I tried it....and got the whole ocean down my throat. Thaila tried it and it worked (because like a normal person she blew out bubbles underwater).  

Afterwards we went to the I heart market.  Rachel bought a present for her mom. We bought macaroons (A cookie made with egg white, sugar, and ground almonds or coconut) EXPENSIVE...but delicious. It was hot so we left early.

Bluebottles

I went out to Durban without Rachel and Thaila today (they were busy). Dion was there and he took my mom and I down onto the beach to show us that it was a waste of time. There was an on-shore wind which brought in truck loads of bluebottles.  The waves were choppy and rough. 

My mom and I left. We just drove around Durban for a while. 

Afterwards we started driving home, but took a detour into Umdloti. We drove along the beach looking at the waves. No one was in the water. It looked a bit dodgy. The waves were rough but better than Durban. I decided that I would just go for a swim first to see how rough it was, and if there was a rip, before I took my board in.

It was freezing. Not too rough and no rip, but still a bit sketchy that I'd be the only one in the water. I would have gone out if Rachel and Thaila were with me.  On our way out of Umdloti we passed this adorable little hippy house.

It's been raining for about a month now but it cleared on Sunday. We went surfing. Dion was there and he gave us another lesson. The sea was really rough so we didn't bother going to backline while we cant duckdive. I always seem to get injured and this time I got cut on my wrist and foot plus a couple of bruises :(

 That's Gaby

After 4 or 5 lessons (6 o'clock in the morning) our coach said we don't need him anymore so we go on our own. We have learnt how to stand up on foamies and now we're paddling out to back-line for real waves. We can't duck-dive with our long boards so its hard to get out at high tide.  Durban beaches have no waves in summer so we're looking for a better one to learn at.

We found an instructor that used to be the captain of the KZN surf team. He offered to coach us for FREE.
Jess (right of me) was our photographer  for the day. Follow her blog here. She made my BEAUTIFUL banner :D

He gave Thaila (left) and I boards (Rachel has her own)

We started off catching foamies

After a while he called us out and told us what we were doing wrong.

Thaila's first time surfing