Just wondering if any of you had a ''list'' in your head, or written down, that you wanted to accomplish in your surfing life. In the early 1950's, when I was exposed to surfing, larger and larger wave size was the Grail we all sought. That morphed into other things later. What about you? Did you have one? Did you accomplish it?
I once thought that after I surf outside Waimea, I’d stop. All my friends were doing it when we were in our 20’s and 30’s. But I never had the luck of timing to get out there when it was OK to try it.
Luckily, since I never did surf big Waimea, I’m still surfing. My days of chasing the big ones is limited to the south shore. I got a taste of big Waikiki this year after seeing it years ago, and I’m hooked. I would like to ride Kalehuawehe when it breaks again.
It would be great to meet a lot of you Swaylocks guys too. I think that would be a nice thing to get done as well.
My only goal is to be lucky enough to ride waves until I can no longer go out into the surf. I see this old guy who is paraplegic out at Waikiki, and that gives me inspiration that it’s quite possible to surf until I stay Make, all pau.
once said that i would give up surfing when i managed to hang ten in the tube… probably so i would never give up!
1.) Get another keel fish. I loved mine, best board i ever had. Not sure why i tried to ride other boards, when i knew it was the right board for me and the waves i surf most.
2.) Start surfing the hollow rivermouth not far from me again. Linked with the above, under head high, i had some great waves there on my fish. Not exactly the right board for the wave, but shit, if you paddled in hard and angled, and you did make the take off, you'd get a smoking ride.
3) Maldives. Im no ripper, never will be, but would like to go somewhere i can surf fun waves ( good size, good shape, long rides ) on my longboard and ( when i get one, hopefully soon! ) fish for days on end.
4.) Enjoy it for what it is.
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Learn how to body surf. Check
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Learn how to ride a mat. Check
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Learn how to paipo. Check
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Stand up on a surfboard. Check
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Make my own kneeboards. Check
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Learn how to ride a “hull”. Check
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Make a longboard. Check
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Make shortboards. Check.
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Surf Baja. Check
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Surf Indonesia. Check
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Surf the North Shore. Check
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Make a balsa gun. Check
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Make boards for someone other than myself. Check
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Surf the Ranch. Check
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Write something about surfing and get it published. Check
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Uh oh…
I have a “Top 20” list for surf spots, 10 are domestic and 10 are international. I made the list about five years ago but life has gotten in the way of surfing most of the spots. I have two domestic spots down and I should have 2-3 done in the next few years. Some notables on the list: Mentawais, Nias, Jeffrey’s, Winkipop, the Ranch, Rincon, and Steamers.
Well honestly Bill, I am addicted to pointbreaks. My goal is to travel and surf as many pointbreaks as I can in this lifetime, big or small I don’t care, just love those long perfect peelers. I am only 34 and already have surfed some: all the points on my home Puerto Rico, Tres Palmas and Uluwatu(Fajardo) being stand outs, have surfed Cane Garden Bay in the BVI, in California: Steamer Lane-Cowells, Pleasure Point-The Hook, Rincon, Malibu in January waist to shoulder high with only 10 guys out… and Chicama in Peru: 3min and 50sec rides timed with a chronometer…
never had a list, always wanted to surf J-Bay…made it to Bali, G-Land, Fiji, Tahiti, West Oz, Central America, mainland Mex, surfed the west coast from Cabo to Vancouver Island, spent months in HI…and never did make it to J-Bay…
and now in my early 60’s, less important than just sharing another session with my son…
I also had big traveling plans out side of the states and surfed mainlaind Mexico and Costa Rica but then I met my wife in CR. Everything is on hold for the last 17 years but when I win the lottery I will be back on track but hoping sooner then later because in February I will be 42.
Bill, you haven’t said what your list changed to? would be good to hear, and have you acchieved your new goals?
make long noserides - but i need to buy a good blank, or a board, find out what works…
i would like to surf 1 winter again, as much as i can, somewhere nice and warm, bigger waves, not huge
make a flawless board, for once, that also surfs nice
make a balsa gun to surf guethary with
get a shaping lesson from someone real good, jp, md, or?
$$$Tavarua$$$
Hah, great topic, thanks Bill. I don't have a surfing bucket list per se, its just great to be surfing, every day I paddle out is a treasure. Yesterday I surfed some little offshore-wind peelers on a longboard with one other person out, had a blast, seagulls were chomping seaweed almost within touching distance, someone said a humpback swam by but I missed it, the sky was blue the sea was just beautiful, who could ask for more?
I do have some surfboard design things I want to try. I want to build a hollow surfboard and fill it with pour foam, just to try it. I want to combine foam and wood in some other ways that I've never seen done before. Just a bunch of weird experimental stuff to satisfy my curious nature.
I guess I could add, I would like, someday before I die, to surf some isolated point break with warm water and waves all day and just a handful of people out.
A bit off topic, but I once had this weird death fantasy daydream, that was so real in my mind I've never been able to forget it: I know I'm dying, and I drive down to the beach. I paddle out, its real foggy, and on my way out I paddle past all the significant people from my past or current life, they're all on surfboards too, they smile at me, I smile back, and keep paddling, into the fog. They know I'll never be back, and I know it, their smile is their goodbye. I can hear myself breathing in the isolation of the fog. Its a right point, and I finally get to the top of the point. A perfect six footer looms up, silver and glassy in the fog, I turn around and drop in, and everything just goes white, and ...that's it! Weird, huh?
I’m in my 30th year of surfing and I have never been to the West Coast or Hawaii. I’d really like to surf the North Shore while I am still physically able but I am running out of time. My dream wave has always been medium sized Sunset Beach.
Now more of my surfing wishes have to do with just going surfing with my 3 kids. That’s more fun than anything I could accomplish on my own in the water.
I m the only one left in the original group of friends that still surfs. It gets lonely out there. I’ll surf until I can’t stand any more, then I’ll try kneeboarding.
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Bill, you haven't said what your list changed to? would be good to hear, and have you acchieved your new goals?
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My first surfing fantasy was to ride 20 foot waves at Makaha, having seen early Bud Brown films. The dream of surfing in Hawaii was just that, a dream. I was too young and poor for such exotic travel. The natural extension of my interest in surfing, led me to make a surfboard, because I could not afford the $75 dollars for a new balsa surfboard. There was no such thing as a used board market then. I could afford the $35 to $40 dollars to build a surfboard. So, that set my path. Then it became build a better board than the last, and somehow get to work as a shaper at a real Surfboard Shop. Velzy made that dream come true, in 1960. All the while find and surf new spots, make a ''coast trip'' to a new area, and always seek out larger waves. By then the new arena, the North Shore, had burst on the film scene. New goals were set, and now it was Sunset Beach, and Waimea Bay, later Pipeline, and leaping off the highpoint at Waimea Falls. Long story short, I got to do it all, and then some. I wish I had done it all sooner than I did.
Mine has changed with time. My only regret in surfing is I didn’t move to Hawaii out of high school and surf like many of my friends. I mostly just f…ed around surfing my local breaks and pretended I was going to school. I will say of those friends that went most are no longer surfing, drugged out losers, or dead.
Right now I’m thinking about spots north of here. You hike in. Camp. Surf. Fish. Bears. Fog. Surf4 fins are you reading this??? We talked it up at Plaskett I think. Lavarat’s done it. Mike
15-20 foot Punta de Lobos
Bill, how old were you when you surfed your first 20’ wave? Most of my friends who surf big waves began in their 20’s, I am 34 and only in the last 2 or 3 yrs have I began to venture out into 3XOH and larger but I have yet to surf a proper 20’ day. I guess in my case, experience is finally starting to overcome my fears but I see that a lot of big wave riders start fearless in their 20’s. How was it for you?
Build a sailboat with 3 beautiful deck hags and sail as far away from reality as I can. Find the perfect A frame reef. Then and only then will I have finished by Bucket List!
Till then I’m stoked to just be surfing where and whenever I want. No damm hag telling me I can’t!
Lifes good B)