I hear you about the big board with volume.steve shearer wrote:You serious?Braithy wrote:
and doing it. Start at swimming 2-3 ft then work up to taking a swim at 6ft. Swimming out to some heavy beachies and move around in the rips and sweep and getting a feel for the ocean on bigger days is probably the best confidence raiser.
When was the last time you swam out at a 6ft beachy just for a lark?
Last time my leggy snapped in a 6ft beachie it took me half an hour to get back to the beach. The rips were shifting and gnarly.
As they are at most east coast beachies under heavy swell.
That'd be one of the worst ways to get confidence and probably a good way to drown unless your supremely fit.
Bloke needs a line-up that makes sense with a clear path in and out, preferably a reef or point. Somewhere where the waves are breaking more or less predictably ( a line-up that he can understand) so he can find position for catching waves and being in a safe spot (well as safe as he can be). And a good board with more paddle-power and projection.
Swimming out to a beachie on a big day/s is how I got my confidence. Maybe it's not for everyone? Whenever I'm back home (goldy) there's a few of us that swim out in from the central beaches in cyclones ... I'd only do it with fins on and provided I'd been doing my hours in the pool.
I'm an amateur too. Watching Shieldsy swim out to 12 foot pipe with a camera and 6kg housing, or swim through 6ft+ West Oz beachies makes what I do look outright girlish. I remember Bradshaw telling me he swims out to 15ft Sunset, which has to be the rippiest stretch of water I've ever seen in my life at that size. I thought he was joking until I saw him do it.
Those guys are nuts. Not me