The art of the surf check
The art of the surf check By Louise Southerden
An excerpt from Surf's Up, The Girl's Guide to Surfing (2nd edition coming soon!)
There are lots of factors that affect waves but the thing that impacts most on surfers’ lives is swell, that is, whether or not there are waves. Even if the wind, tide and sandbanks are all perfect, if there’s no swell, there’s no surfing. (Of course, the opposite can also be true: sometimes when there’s swell, the wind, tide and sandbanks at your local beach can be all wrong but at least you’ve got more chance of finding somewhere surfable). This is why surfers are constantly surf-obsessed.
How do you check the swell? At its simplest, checking the swell means heading down to your local beach where you’ll be able to see if there are waves or not. But what happens if the swell is coming from the south and your beach is sheltered from south swells? The surf will look flat and you might think there’s no swell anywhere. When you get a bit more surf knowledge, you’ll be able to look at the surf at a particular beach, determine how big the swell is and which direction it’s coming from, and make a decision about where to surf based on that information. In the meantime there are surf report websites and surf cams, Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, weather maps and of course surfers themselves – all valuable sources to help you interpret the conditions.
A ‘surf check’ list: what to look for when you get to the beach
Is there any wind? If not, get out there! Glassy conditions can be lovely to surf in. If there is a breeze: How strong is it? Which way is it blowing? Is it onshore, offshore or sideshore (blowing sideways across the beach)? You can check this on the way to the beach by looking for flags flying. Otherwise, kick up some sand and see which way it falls. If the wind’s strong enough and you have long hair, turn your head and see which way your hair blows. Or use the old ‘wet finger’ method: stick a finger in your mouth and hold it up to the wind; the side that dries first or feels cooler is the side facing the wind!
What’s the tide doing? Is it coming in or going out? How close is it to low/high tide?
What are the waves like? Are there clear peaks, or is it more like a washing machine?
If you can’t see any waves breaking, wait a few minutes—you might have arrived in between sets (many a surfer has driven past her local beach in this lull time, concluded that it’s flat and driven home, only to discover later that her buddies had a great surf).
Are there any other surfers out? Where did they paddle out? Where are they sitting? Are they getting any waves, are they going right or left, are the rides long or short? If you see any coming in, ask them what it was like out there. Or ask another surfer checking the surf what they reckon the conditions are like, how the tide might affect it, if they’re going out or not.
If it looks good, it’s time to go surfing! If you’re not sure, spend a bit more time checking the conditions—there’s no rush and the conditions change all the time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. The tide might drop, the currents might change, the wind might pick up, it might get more or less crowded. Watch and learn...
Edited extract #2 from Surf’s Up: The Girl’s Guide to Surfing (Allen & Unwin) by Louise Southerden
How dangerous is surfing, really?
Because you’re in a natural environment that has rhythms and rules all of its own, surfing has its dangers, and when you’re learning you need to be aware of them—not because you’re more exposed to them (some of the worst injuries happen to experienced surfers) but because you often don’t know what can happen.
It’s important to understand that you’re not alone in feeling scared or worried. In fact, it’s good to be at least a little afraid—it means you’re taking it seriously and respecting the ocean, and that means you’ll be paying attention when you get out into the water which is the single most important lesson you can learn.
According to surf coach and director of Surf Schools International, Ross Phillips, only four out of every 1000 surfers will sustain some kind of injury requiring treatment—most commonly a strained muscle or being cut by a surfboard’s fin. Compare that to about 65 per 1000 for those playing soccer or rugby, he says, and surfing’s starting to look pretty safe!
That said, it’s important to be aware of the potential dangers, how real they are, and what you can do to tiptoe around them.
1. Sharks
Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Although, in theory, every time you enter the water you’re back in the food chain, your actual chances of being eaten, or at least nibbled, are relatively slim because you’re probably going to be surfing, at least in the early stages, at a city beach where people are a far greater threat to sharks than the other way around; and most city beaches are shark-netted and/or patrolled (if sharks are sighted, there’ll be an alarm to tell you to get out of the water).
The more you surf, the more you learn how to minimise your chances of becoming a cruising shark’s next meal. A few ways to avoid shark attack:
Don’t pee in your wetsuit. Urine is a sure sign of distress and sharks respond to minute concentrations of urine the way tow-truck drivers respond to 000 calls.
Don’t bleed into the water. If you cut yourself whilst surfing, paddle in. Sharks can detect one part blood in 25000 parts of water more than a kilometre from where you’re innocently sitting on your board waiting for your last wave in. There’s no evidence that you’re more vulnerable to shark attack during your period, though.
Don’t surf at dusk or in the dark; these are notorious shark feeding times.
Don’t surf near fishermen—where there’s fishermen, there are fish scraps and therefore sharks, because they’re natural scavengers.
Don’t surf near river mouths – they can get great waves but are renowned shark hangouts because of the debris and assorted matter that flows out of them from further upstream.
Keep your dog out of the water—dogs attract sharks by their activity in the water and at the water’s edge, and with their scent.
Don’t surf at night – it’s easy to find yourself still in the water trying to get that elusive last wave in but consider swallowing your pride and paddling in when it’s starting to get dark.
If you see a shark, don’t panic. Try to put your board between it and you, hit it on the nose (it’s been done before!) and paddle to the beach as fast as you can.
Don’t surf isolated beaches on cloudy/rainy days by yourself—they just feel more sharky, even if they’re not.
2. Being hit by your surfboard
Your own surfboard can feel like Public Enemy #1 when you’re new to surfing; riding a board that’s bigger and heavier than you are, it’s natural to be scared of it. The good news is that you’ll be learning on a board with a rounded, not pointy nose, and possibly even a “softboard”—they’re surfboard-shaped bodyboards with soft rubber fins that won’t cut you. Most surf schools use softboards for these very reasons. To avoid being clobbered by your own surfboard or someone else’s:
Try to be aware of where your board and other surfers are, at all times.
When you’re walking out into the surf, always keep your board beside or behind you; make sure your board isn’t between you and the oncoming waves.
Don’t paddle out directly behind another surfer; in theory they should look behind them if they lose their board, but it’s you who’s going cop it if their board washes onto you so try to stay out of their way.
When you wipe out, always put your arms over your head and face to protect them in case you surface under your board or your board springs back at you after you’ve come up.
Try to fall off behind your board, or into the whitewater of the wave, not in front of the wave.
3. Rips and currents
Rips are currents that move directly away from the beach out to sea. They’re natural phenomena (they occur when water that’s been pushed towards the beach by waves needs to get back to the sea), not the freakish disasters they’re often made out to be. Contrary to popular belief, they rarely go “all the way to New Zealand” (if you’re surfing on the east coast of Australia, that is); most rips lose their power where the furthest breaking waves are, which is why surfers use them to paddle out.
When you’re on a surfboard, rips aren’t nearly as scary as they are when you’re swimming. For one thing you’ve got your board to keep you afloat, so if you do get caught in a rip, try to relax and float with it until you get out the back; then paddle in through the surf zone or let some breaking waves carry you in.
The biggest problem with rips is when you inadvertently try to paddle towards the beach whilst you’re in one—because rips occur where there are deep channels, there won’t be any waves breaking to carry you to the shore, plus you’ll be paddling against a current that’s heading out to sea. If this happens to you, try to paddle sideways out of the rip and then find a breaking wave to carry you in. You can spot a rip by the colour of the water—it’ll either be darker because the water’s deeper in a rip than on either side of it, or sandy because the rip’s carrying sand away from the beach. Waves will often be breaking on either side of the rip but not in the rip. And the water surface might be choppy in a rip, compared to either side of it. Because they’re affected by the tide and other factors, rips can start and finish and move around without warning so always be aware of the conditions when you’re in the water.
What's so great about surfing?
Extract from…
“Surf’s Up, The Girl’s Guide to Surfing” by Louise Southerden (Allen & Unwin, 2003)
What’s so great about surfing?
In a nutshell: lots of things!
Everyone has their own relationship to surfing and when you start surfing you’ll find your own reasons to love it. But for now, allow me to share a few of the things that have kept me surfing for more than a decade...
10 things I love about surfing
1. It’s fun, pure and simple, with no artificial colours or flavours. There’s no better feeling than riding along the face of a wave and then paddling back out with a huge grin on your face.
2. It keeps you in touch with the natural world, which adds another dimension to an otherwise city-bound life. Go for a surf and you can’t help but notice which way the wind’s blowing, if it’s low or high tide, or whether there are fish or sea birds around this time of year. Being a surfer makes you more weather-conscious too, because you want to be able to predict swells and be ready for them.
3. It’s simple. Think about it: all you need, really, is a surfboard and a few waves. Not only that but the waves are free!
4. The sense of community. Yes, surfing is a great way to meet guys—the odds are in your favour, and you know you’ll have at least one thing in common. But I also love the way you can fall into conversation with another surfer and find out about the new swell working its way up the coast, the good waves at a nearby beach or the whale that was sighted yesterday. And that without any planning whatsoever, you can meet up with people you know at the beach, simply by virtue of the fact that you’ve all converged on the best spot to surf that day.
5. It teaches you patience, whether you’re waiting for that elusive ‘last wave’ before you head in, waiting for the next set or waiting for the flat spell to end so that you can go surfing again. There’s always a lot written about searching for waves, but we often overlook surfing’s quieter sister: patience. In a world that values control, it’s nice to know you can’t hurry the ocean.
6. It’s good all-over exercise. Surfing sculpts your body, toning your upper arms, shoulders, stomach and legs, like almost nothing else—and without you even realising it!
7. It’s peaceful. Some city beaches can get a bit aggro, but even in the city you can often find a peak or a whole beach to yourself. At those times, surfing soothes the soul, gives you breathing space in your life and a chance to stop and just be (until your next wave). It helps you get things on land back in perspective too.
8. It builds your confidence, and that spreads to all areas of your life. If I can surf, what else can I do?! Not only that but it gives you stories to tell—about that amazing last wave you got yesterday, or your last surf trip up the coast, or the wipe-out that all your friends teased you about for a week.
9. It’s humbling. You might feel 10-feet tall after riding your first wave all the way to the beach, but you can also get the whipping of your life if you’re not paying attention. Surfing gives you an appreciation for the ocean’s power and lets you see it in all its moods. You can never dominate the ocean, the best you can hope for is to be able to play in it.
10. It’s beautiful. Summer sunsets when the ocean is as smooth as glass and the sky’s colours set the sea on fire. Gloomy steel-coloured days when raindrops splash into the water around you like diamonds. Full-circle rainbows in the spray off the back of a wave. A surfer crouched inside the eye of a perfect barrel. The show never stops.
This page will be updated regularly by Louise, so come back for more soon.