Surf school graduates.

[jimmy]

Gee wizz. That was a good thread! 39 views no response.

[BA]

1. 35 years

2. maybe 5 years or so

3. no

Another question. How did ya learn?

Me, I was pretty much self taught. Just used to watch the older guys and copy them. As I got older some of em would offer advice, help me out.

No surf schools back then.

[Quangers]

1. 16 years
2. Depends on my latest surf (may noy have got there yet)... but 3-5 years
3. No

On the topic of surf school grads, I had some cousins come out from Ireland backpacking who went to a surf school to 'tick it off the list'. I'm pretty sure they'll never do it again, yet will still claim that they 'have surfed'.

[Skipper]

Gee wizz. That was a good thread! 39 views no response.

fair go Jack. (Russell)
I think he's trying to reach out.
Part of the new vanilla flavoured RS.

Gee wizz I wish I had a buck for everytime you start a comment with gee wizz

I'll get back to ya on this one nuffink. I've go to go somewhere.

[Grooter]

Ah fcuk it, I could always be doing actual work instead.

Surfed probably for 20 years although of that there was about a 6 year gap

Competency? I suck!

No - probably should've though

[Beanpole]

Since the September of 1969.
I learnt on a seven foot pintail which was allready superceded.
For example my next board was 5'10" which was average a year or so later.
Took me about three years to actually start really surfing and I remember reading an article
in Surfer Magazine that Bob McTavish wrote about pushing your board into turns that was a major
turning point for me literally and metaphorically speaking.

That was my surf school.

[Skipper]

Given a KFC corky for my 10th birthday in 69. 
Practiced paddling and stand up techniques at the then newly opened Roselands pool nearby where I grew up.  
Used to go to Nielson Park a lot on weekends those days where old folks fished off the jetty there and on the occasion a wind chop or cyclone swell remnants swept in there cut my teeth in the savage shore break. Soon managed a couple of sessions at Cronulla and was hooked by age of 12. 
Given my first fibreglass board, can't remember what, soon after and began catching the train out there for the next 5 years religiously rising at 4 in the morn on Saturdays and Sundays and carved out a place amongst the Nth Nulla gang on the Hill. Alternating between Joes and the Wall.   Felt almost local when my crew managed to find a place there to leave our boards and travel board free. 
Got a Bonzer, the first one in my crew and one of the first to have one there i guess, in gee? , 73??...74?? . 
Tired of that and got my first G&S off the racks soon after. 6'8" rounder pin. Hole in the fin for the leg rope. And that's what it was.  A rope. And hanky at the ankle. 
Christened it at The Point on a solid 6' + , Banksy et al dominating the inside, calling us groms in off the shoulder on a few.  G Green was one of us, as were a host of names long forgotten now some gone the way of smack deaths. . Stuck with the G&S for  years, loyal fucker I am, till I picked up a second hand thruster in early 80's. In those ensuing training days I vividly remember sitting out on the shoulder during that massive swell of 74 with PT earning browny points on massive Point insiders. We called em 20' back then. Heck, nowadays,.....8ft Iggy scale.   
Kept that till I moved down to tassie in 89. Carted it down in the boot of a 67 Chevy Impala. Bought a Stranger shape from Hobart in 92 and savoured much that the wild south and south west had to offer thanks to my job deckying for Ab divers. Experienced my first surf in long fetch powerfull swell at Sth Cape Bay in those years. When 1metre swell felt like 6ft solid walls. Ah, the rush of it. Took this board to Bali 3 times since  and experienced similarly solid waves, unlike anything I'd been used to on the Nulla, or Hobart beachies.     
Only last  year,  replaced it  with a Psillakis Hipster off the rack here in iBond.   We'll grow old together I suspect at this stage. And keep out of harms way in the savagery of Bondi summers.   

   

[Trev]

Geez Skip. You're not so young either.
I had one of those foamie thingies but long before KFC got involved. Had mine in about 1960-61, graduating off the hire mats at Kirra.
Then got onto a real surfboard in '62.
Surf Schools???
Nope.
How long to get competent? I started in '62 and was competing in Currumbin Surfriders' Club events by '64 and the Qld Titles at Snapper in '65. I was surfing cyclone generated barrels at Kirra Point by '64, in waves I wouldn't even paddle out in now. No leggies at all, then.
But I was blessed by living at the beach and going to Tweed River High School which meant surfing before school and after.
Gave it away in about 1970 to go driving rally cars and came back in 1985.
Ahh. It's a bummer getting old and not as flexible.

[Skipper]

^^^
aahh, it's all in the mind Trev. Still ravin', that's my aerobics, and
I find Dane's method of a couple of beers before a session really helps with flexibility these days.

[kayu]

Quite a story Skipper.......personally I prefered the dog-collar to the handkerchief........I have a vivid memory of Ross Fielders surfing alone at Shark Island on one of "those days" at the point. I don't think anyone will remember him though..........the drug casualties from those days were horendous...

[otway1949]

Ah the Otway history.
Started surfing in 1958, on a coolite out at Dee Why basin and centre, the board riders wouldn't allow us to go anywhere near the Point , this continued even after I got my balsa pig in 59, until i show enough skill to get out amongst them.
My crew were only allowed to hang on the point side of the women's change room overlooking the basin, we didn't have enough clout to have a pavilion.
Was competent by about 5 years could surf and body surf the Point.

No surf school just watch and copy and cop it on the head.

In 69 went to Newcastle Uni, lived in Cooks Hill and surfed through out Newcastle and at weekends surfed Avalon based from my parents' new home at Clareville, loved Nth Avalon rocks.
Surfed in New Guinea came back got married, divorced and went to South Australia.
Favoured Yorkes and Gleeson's landing.
Studied Chiropractic, got good girl friend who became wife moved to Central Coast became a Forrester's surfer. Worked as actor while on the Central Coast
Now deep south in NSW with same wife, retired to regularly surf a lovely long left.
Two out of three step sons remaining and a grandson who surfed. (there is a story here on my thoughts on drugs and alcohol, mental illness and genetics)
Currently as competent as knees and older bits will allow, but able to impress the young guns on some occasions.
Will occasionally miss a wave talking too much in the line up, a mal rider but a sharer
I manage a trip OS for surf about once a year.

I'm the one having the most fun continue corollary

[Johnno]

Soon managed a couple of sessions at Cronulla and was hooked by age of 12. Given my first fibreglass board, can't remember what, soon after and began catching the train out there for the next 5 years

Bet you turned up at the beach in yellow t- shirt and carrying blue duffel bag on the 9.30am special ........ ..........

That statement answers all three kiddies ..........

[Beanpole]

My daughter went to a surf school and doesn't surf. My son never went to a surf school and can't get enough surf no matter how onshore and dodgy it is. Still seems a bit more reluctant when its a bit bigger but thats changing fast and has me wondering how long till the role reversal is complete and I'm going to be looking for the reforms on the inside while he takes off on the peaks.

The one thing you have to say about surf schools is that theyre one of the greatest lurks of all time for the instructors. I don't know if I could handle being out in the sun that long seven days a week though.

I really don't know how many people stick at it. Bondi seems to be one of the greatest places to have a bit of post surf school softboarding as part of your beach routine. Dripping Wet has been the biggest beneficiary of the surf schools from the number of boards you see around.

[chrisb]

Mine:-
1. I've surfed since 1969, but not all standup:
Bodysurfer -regular at Queenscliff till 1971;
Kneeboarder - regular at Narrabeen in the mid 1970's followed by spasmodic surfing punctuated by long breaks.
Boogieboarder and a return to kneelos in the late 1980's
Learned to standup in 1999 - initially a mal, then a fish. Now alternating between a fish and a mal depending on my level of fitness and the surf conditions. Unfortunately today laziness has me favouring a mal but I intend to make a comeback to my fish.

2. I assume you mean a level of competency in respect of standup ability. Initially 1-2 years but now, as a weekend only surfer, ability only returns towards the end of my holidays after a week or more of surfing every day.

3. Yes, Byron Bay surf school in 1999, just the one 2 hour session - but I was a star pupil with the advantage of surf experience albeit non-standup.

In my early standup days I was ultra-keen to improve and spent many hours surfing all sorts of conditions no matter how dire. Practice was especially needed for me as I'm taller and heavier than average so I don't have the natural ability of a wiry lightweight midget.