The ancient Kahunas‘ hang out?

[jaffa1949]

Just from your figures alone, looks like a reasonable heart and body health………review .blood sugars long term and cholesterol ( but debates about that)
Important PSA for prostate cancer.

Usual answer too if there are changes in energy levels breathing , and digestive habits relative fitness changes, at any age get a review done!

fair wear and tear allowed

[BoMan]

Usual answer too if there are changes in energy levels breathing , and digestive habits relative fitness changes, at any age get a review done!

Thanks for the reply.

I work a lot harder at 72 to paddle outside and catch waves than I did at 60. Strength and lung capacity are in shorter supply. To keep the intensity up I take fewer waves, rest more, and hold nothing back when it's time to go! As a precaution, I take a low dose baby aspirin on surf days.

[oldmansurfer]

https://youtu.be/3MPrUXQAe44 Here they talk about special boards which to them are the boards that they will use only in very special conditions like surf contests. It's also apparent that boards have a nearly disposable significance to them (except the special boards). They may break several boards a day so they have lots of backups. And they discuss the hassles of traveling for surf.

[oldmansurfer]

There is a surf break on Kauai a ways left of the dry cave beach park in Haena called Cannons. The reef drops straight off like an underwater cliff to a depth of at least 70 feet. It breaks in the shallow water over the reef and the break is a left and real hollow and fast and it often spits water out of the tube when the wave collapses. It's a backside wave for me so slightly more difficult. I went surfing there a few times because I wanted to be spit out of the tube by the famous wave called Cannons. It's not a break that I wanted to surf much because it is a dangerous break and I am sure that whether or not you get a serious injury there is just a question of time spent there. The first time I went there it wasn't breaking too good but I came all the way from the east side to catch this wave so I paddled out and caught some. I was very conservative and didn't manage to get tubed. The next time I went there I got tubed and the waves were better but no spitting out of the end of the wave. I was in the tube and came out and then the wave spit but not that heavy spray that almost blows you off your board kind of thing. However the spit was so strong it stung as it hit my skin like getting hit with a bunch of needles. The third time I went I finally got spit out and immediately went in after that wave since it was really a treacherous wave and I didn't want to push my luck. I never hear much about people getting injured there but I am certain it is a real dangerous break and that people have been injured there. It just has that feel and it sucks water off the reef leaving little cushion and you can see the reef clearly in parts of the wave. At least I can say I was spit out of the tube there but I have been spit out of the tube many places since then. At this point in my life I have no wish to ever surf that break again. Too old and out of shape to handle it.

[oldmansurfer]

I had been surfing about 2 years and the break closest to my house Horners was breaking really good and big. The other surfers have often made fun of me because I stayed well ahead of the wave when surfing bigger backside waves like at Horners. In bigger waves like above 5 feet (10 foot faces) I was basically scared so stayed ahead of the break so they would tease me about it. This day was huge with about 15 foot plus faces but breaking in a slow moving tube so I convinced myself that today was the day to try stalling to get tubed backside. I have gotten tubed backside previously but no stalling involved. Basically I was racing for the shoulder and the wave went faster than me so I got temporarily covered up unintentionally. But this day I was going to try to get a backside tube. So I took off and the drop was okay made my bottom turn and put pressure on my back foot raising the nose of the board. What happened is I stalled completely. The board stopped dead in the water and started going up the face of the wave. I didn't know what to do but as I got near the top the lip was coming over and I had to crouch or get hit. When I crouched way down my hands grabbed the outside edge of the board and I thought what if I just push the outside edge down? So I did that and the board broke free and started dropping down the face of the wave. I was maybe 10 feet behind the lip when I hit the bottom but this was a slow moving wave so I shot out in front and thought "That worked". I stalled again and once again stopped dead in the water and started climbing up the face of the wave as it went by. This time I knew what to do so I pushed the outside edge of the board down a little sooner than I had on the last wave. I imagine I was almost as high as I could go without going over the falls on the last stall so didn't want to wait that long and it worked again. This time the lip was coming down just couple feet in front of me. I thought "That worked again". So I did it again. This time coming down right where the lip was touching down and I did it again and this time coming down in front of where the lip came down and the tube was getting noticeably narrower and I could see a big section walling up in front of me. I jammed a hard bottom turn and did my under the lip backside speed turn and then the wave exploded and nearly pushed me off the board with a heavy spray. I came out riding on one foot with my back foot up in the air in front of me, but managed to stay on the board and cut out off the end of the wave on one foot. One of the guys who used to tease me said "That was a good wave. I didn't know you could do that." I answered "Me neither." I can't imagine what Cannons spray would have felt like at that size but glad to get spit out in such a glorious manner. I am sure whoever was watching assumed I was toast (so did I). I haven't ever been blown out of a tube so violently and survived before or since then. I have gotten completely blown off my board a few times. I guess part of staying on your feet is to crouch in anticipation of the blowout but unless I get blown off my board I am not thinking about getting blown off my board so the next wave I could think to crouch but that often didn't help as I don't have as good balance squatting down. Probably I needed a solid squat stance with hands on the board or something. So any of you youngsters if you get blown off the board think about a stable squatting stance. All you fellow elders myself included most likely won't have to worry.

[BoMan]

I am certain it is a real dangerous break and that people have been injured there. It just has that feel and it sucks water off the reef leaving little cushion and you can see the reef clearly in parts of the wave.

That would make me surf more conservatively for sure!

At my break the water is cloudy in the afternoon and when the tide is low, underwater rocks pose a similar problem. You can't see them. Over time I've figured out where they are and usually kick out before getting too close. Tasty reforms rise over the sketchy area daring us to keep going when we shouldn't. Despite crouching very low on my board and falling shallow I took a bruise on my thigh this year!

[oldmansurfer]

Wiping out is a part of surfing and even more if you push your limits more. I imagine I have wiped out thousands of times but can only remember a few times. Other than getting injured or almost killed there isn't usually much else to say about wiping out. You get tossed around by the water and then you come up and have to get out of the impact zone before you get pounded more.



Sometimes you know you are going to wipe out so you have a chance to take some action although usually you will still take a pounding maybe not as bad. Generally speaking if you have a board cord then you want to kick the board away from you as you wipe out (but be sure you aren't kicking it somewhere that it will hurt someone else). The board can hit you and that can injure you so usually if I can I kick the board away from me. I have noticed lately that some surfers at pipeline jump vertically off their board. I haven't done that but I assume it is to get deep in the water and avoid getting sucked back over the falls after wiping out. If it is shallow you really don't want to do that because you may hit the bottom and other than your board the bottom is the thing most likely to injure you in a wipe out. There is one other obstacle and that is other surfers and their boards and there is not much you can do about them but try not to wipe out near other surfers. If I do I try to kick my board away from them if possible.



I haven't ever hit the bottom badly in a wipe out. This may be because of my days as a body surfer where I learned to prepare for the bottom and keep oriented so I know when I am heading that direction. Or it might possibly be due to similar reflexes that develop with years of wave riding experience. When I wipe out I automatically do things to avoid the bottom. I have had a few run ins with my board on wipe outs and I will tell you some stories about some of those. I haven't really had problems with other peoples boards when I wiped out but have been hit by others when they wiped out or got pounded going through the surf.



Once I was surfing Horners on a 6 foot day (wave faces around 10 feet). I got tubed and wiped out and when I came up my board was no where to be seen. I had a surf leash on and was thinking it must have broke. Suddenly I felt something raking across my legs and thought "Shark!" but it was my board which came shooting up between my legs. I wasn't injured much but had red marks on my legs from the skeg scratching as the board shot up.



One day at Kealia I wiped out and ended up getting hit by my board in the calf. It didn't hurt much and I didn't notice any injury so I kept on surfing. A couple waves later I was sitting on my board and noticed some green stuff floating by in the water. I didn't know what it was and caught another wave and was once again sitting on my board in the water waiting for a wave and noticed the green stuff floating by my right leg and the right side of my surfboard. I watched closely and it seemed to be coming out of my leg so I pulled my leg out of the water and looked closely and there was a little hole where the board had poked me. I squeezed my calf and blood came squirting out of the hole. Blood looks green filtered through the water, something I didn't know till then. It continued to bleed for 45 minutes after I came in.



Once I was surfing at Waikokos (the far side of Hanalei bay) which is a left making me surf with my backside to the wave. It was a real good day breaking about 4 to 6 feet (8 to 12 foot faces). I had numerous tube rides but this one wave I was in the tube a long time and the wave started to break faster than my board could go so I tried to do a little turn to speed up the board but it resulted in my head touching the lip. This rushing water from the lip just barely pushed my head over but I was unable to pull it back and gradually it kept pushing my head over and further down till I was crouched all the way down then it really grabbed my head and pulled me off my board. I had visions of my head getting slammed into the reef and actually ended up doing a shoulder roll on the reef but emerged unharmed (shoulder roll is a skill I learned in Judo classes).

The absolutely scariest wipeout I had was at Kealia beach. I caught a wave and rode it all the way to the shore where the wave actually broke right on to the dry sand. I planned on jumping off and ending up standing on the sand but unfortunately the wave jumped up a little and flipped my board out from under my feet. I went up in the air and the board landed on the sand with the fin pointing up. I fell right on the fin. I could see that this was going to happen and tried to keep from landing too hard and I did manage not to be seriously injured but an inch one way and I would have been talking in a much higher voice and an inch the other way and I would have lost my virginity.



In the days before I started using a surf leash I had several wipe outs where I fell off the board and continued on the same wave body surfing and once I actually body surfed up to my board grabbed it and stood up finishing off the wave standing again. I had done a similar thing before a couple times when I wiped out and lost my board and caught a later wave in body surfing and body surfed right up to my board and grabbed it finishing the wave board surfing.



Also in the days before surf leashes I had an injury from a collision between me and my board when I was surfing Hanalei on an 8 foot day (12 to 15 foot faces). I saw a huge section breaking in front of me so I turned and went straight up the face of the wave. I think my board hit the lip as it cleared the top of the wave so it went airborne for a couple feet and dropped back down but I was launched 15 or more feet into the air above the top of the wave. As I dropped back down I could see I was going to come down on my board. I tried to turn my body to avoid it but in the air there is not much you can do to change your trajectory. I didn't want to land square on it so I put my feet to the side and they hit the side of the board causing damage to the board and my heel (crack in the rail and cut on my heel). To make matters worse I went in and was telling someone about my heel injury and board damage and he wanted to see my board. Probably my hands were tired and I dropped the board onto some hard sand and cracked the single glassed in fin where it attached to the board.



Wiping out is inevitable but it didn't used to bother me. When I quit surfing and started back up again, I found myself starting to panic a little when I get held under by larger waves. It happened less and less with time and I think it may have to do with my conditioning. I used to be in great shape and now I am in mediocre shape. Really I think it has to do with being used to being out of breath. I have been hiking a couple days a week and lately I have started pushing myself so that I am out of breath and huffing and puffing for a good distance. You don't get a chance to catch your breath before you wipe out. These days I have tried to be careful to not take off on waves if I am still winded from paddling out but still paddling to catch a wave and then doing maneuvers on the wave can get you out of breath again. So when I am out of breath and under the water my mind wants oxygen. I met a guy who had a bad wipe out. He got caught with another guys surf leash wrapped around his neck choking him. The guy kept pulling him thinking his board was stuck on the reef or something. He almost drowned and was psychologically affected and quit surfing for a while. He told me he feels panic when he gets held under too. He thinks it is related to his accident but I think maybe it is the same as me, he needs to get in better shape.


I recall there was a day I was surfing at Horners and my neighbors son was out at the same break. This was during the time when I was trying to turn from the top of the wave like I used to do with my single fin board and that didn't work as well with multiple fin boards so I would catch myself doing that by instinct and have to point the nose toward the bottom. I did so and the lip caught me and held me with the board beneath me but barely still able to contact the board. But my neighbors kid was there nearby pretty close and I didn't want to kick the board away so I managed to keep my toes from one foot on the board and turn it away from the kid and push it in the other direction before the wave finished smashing me.

Often I will try to figure out why I wiped out and resolve the problem on the next wave. Where I surf there is often backwash and if I hit it while taking the drop this will make me wipeout so I look for the backwash and try to anticipate it or if it's coming with the wrong timing I won't catch that wave. Quite often as I get better at surfing steep waves cause me trouble but I try a variety of things to fix this. One is I take off fairly straight down at a slight angle but not too much. Then I push the inside rail into the wave. This makes the board in a position where the board will take the drop itself. The nose pushes itself out of the water so it never pearls. When I am already on the wave and can see a backwash coming I can often lift my legs up as I hit it and push them back down on the backside.

On pretty big waves I will loose contact with the wave usually at the top while taking the drop. The wave becomes concave below me so the board skips and reconnects with the wave. I see these big wave surfers successfully accomplish this type of drop and stay on the board but for me I can't unless the board is going pretty much 100% straight down the wave. So when I have those type of problems I go straight down and turn as soon as I can.

Balance and conditioning and awareness are all important for not wiping out. But basically if you aren't pushing yourself you won't wipeout much anyway.

[oldmansurfer]

I remember some sessions surfing only because others broke me out of my usual pattern of surfing. This might result in making me do something different resulting in catching better waves or taking off deeper and making better use of the waves. However this is about a time when other surfers interrupted my surfing and made me decide to call it a day. I was surfing at Kealia and it had a nice wave coming in about every 3 to 5 minutes but lining up that wave and riding it was a learning process. After about 30 minutes I figured out the lineup and after a couple waves I figured out how to ride them. The wave I wanted looked markedly different from the other waves coming in. It had a big shoulder or peak and wall at a slightly different angle in the middle of a bunch of chaotic waves. The first part of the wave broke very fast so you had to really drill the bottom turn and get good projection down the line and then depending on how well you do that maybe a speed turn or not. Then the wave slowed down and had a nice wall to do a lot of maneuvers on for a while. Then the wave started picking up speed so you needed to do speed turns and get into that section before it breaks. That section may allow you to get tubed. Then you can paddle back out and repeat. I was going at it for a couple hours all by myself in these waves with about 8 foot faces when a car load of surfers came and paddled out. Turns out they were just off the plane and they "Couldn't believe I was surfing these great waves all by myself?" I answered "Not anymore." They proceeded to crowd me in an attempt to steal the waves. I got pushed out of the lineup area and couldn't catch any waves but they didn't know what waves to catch. They had seen me catch one after another really good waves but were unable to catch any themselves. They also noticed I wasn't catching any waves anymore too so they asked me "What happened to the surf? You were catching all these good waves then when we came out nothing." I explained there was only certain waves and it had taken me a while to figure out which waves and how to ride them and that they had pushed me out of my lineup. So they agreed to let me catch a wave uninterrupted. So I caught one and showed them which shape to catch and what to do and then I went in because I had enough waves and didn't want to share the waves with a bunch of entitled surfers from California.

[oldmansurfer]

This is a story about a time surfing the same break all by myself and a different car load of guys fresh off the plane came out and I quit surfing indirectly because of them.
It was a good day at Kealia breaking about 8 to 10 foot faces and I was surfing alone when a carload of mainlanders arrived and they came out to surf with me. Turns out they came directly from the airport and saw me having a good time and couldn't believe that waves that good could have only one guy out. Anyway the waves were in that range at about 4 to 5 feet where you could see the sharks riding in the waves. I assume the sharks were there at other times but at that size you could see them sometimes a few of them together riding along the bottom part of the wave. They would always cutout before the wave broke so I got used to it. I took off on one wave and there was a shark in that wave which seemed to persist riding it longer than most do but I didn't think anything of it and took off anyway. I had a great ride, getting tubed a couple times and paddled back out. One of the mainlanders paddled over to me I thought to congratulate me on such a great ride which it was but instead he asked me a question. "Did that fish get you?" No clue what he was talking about I answered "What?" He said "Did that fish in that wave get you? When you took off it turned and went straight for your feet. I could have sworn it got you." I was astounded and responded "That was a shark." He asked "A baby shark?" I said "No just a small shark. Probably a gray reef shark and they don't grow real big." Funny I had a pretty good ride but no mention of it but them again it wasn't so rare to get tubed twice on the same wave at Kealia. I decided I had enough surf and went in for the day. I think something about the new guys was attractive to the sharks so they were behaving differently.

[oldmansurfer]

This is about the two times when people warned me to not go out surfing. The first time happened when I surfed long ago. I went to Kealia beach and was getting ready to surf and a police officer told me I shouldn't surf because of dangerous conditions. I looked out over the ocean and knew the conditions were less dangerous than usual. I knew there must be a reason he said that as I surfed there nearly every day and no one ever said that before even in much more dangerous conditions. So I asked him to explain why it was dangerous and he proceeded to tell me about a tourist that died there earlier in the day. He was walking along the beach with his wife and got swept into the ocean and drowned. His wife was 10 feet away from him but couldn't help because she couldn't swim. That area of the beach is the corner of Kealia beach where the fairly straight beach make a turn out toward the old breakwater built long ago to give ships a sheltered area to drop anchor. Right there the beach often slopes up drastically due to waves and the water just 5 feet in was 6 feet deep because of the current that turns the corner right there. I told the cop the tourist couldn't swim and that is why it was dangerous and it's not dangerous for me. He said he was just doing his job and I thanked him for his concern and went surfing anyway.

The other time was more recently and I was at Wailua beach on my usual weekend outing but the wind was blowing very hard onshore like around 35 to 40 miles per hour. As I stood there the sand blasted my legs and I knew I couldn't stand there for long or I would have damage to my skin. But right as I was about to go out and older gentleman came up to me and warned me about the dangerous big waves. Well the waves weren't big, maybe 6 to 8 foot faces and I said no the waves aren't big and went out. For some reason the waves were fantastic tubing rights. They were the best waves I had there in a long time. I got only slightly covered up but had the lip overhead on a bunch of waves. It was torture paddling back out because the wind whipped salt spray into my eyes and I had to stay in control of my board because if I lost contact the wind would whip it away possibly right back at me. That day made my wife worry because when I came home my eyes were bright red. I should have just told her I was smoking pot and that is why my eyes were red but after that she worried about me surfing.
Funny thing is there were lots of other times when perhaps people should have warned me but no one did. I survived anyway LOL

[oldmansurfer]

On the second example I remember trying to stall my board to get tubed and stepping on the tail bringing the nose up to the height of my head and I still couldn't slow down enough to get tubed. I think this was due to the huge tail rocker the board had but perhaps something to to do with the waves also

[BoMan]

For those who gave up a hobby they once loved and for those who never give up!

Bob

Franck

[oldmansurfer]

Pokemoe's is a break on the north shore of Kauai. It breaks directly in front of a cliff but the waves are often worth the danger. I started surfing there in the days before leashes so losing your board meant you had to pick it off the rocks at the base of the cliff, timing it between the waves. I was very capable of doing this and maybe because of that my board suffered minimum damage. I usually chose to use the board I made myself because it was expendable. It was fast and great on waves like this but not the best for making hard turns. it was a 7 foot swallow tail single fin board that I made myself with a bunch of ideas I had for a board. In making it I learned why they didn't make boards like that although it was very good for steep tubing waves like Poekemoe's. This board was also expendable because before I ever got in the water it was severely dinged. My friend came by after I finished gloss coating it and polishing it out. It was all shiny sparkling new great looking board and my friend wanted to handle it. He proceeded to drop it on the edge of the cement slab I had built it on causing a huge ding on the rail before it left the area where I made it. I was so disappointed it easily became my board for breaks in front of rocks.

Pokemoe's was difficult to surf alone. Most of the time there were a few surfers out if the waves were good. I did manage to catch it open with no surfers out but always imagined that what that meant was the waves were really good somewhere else. No surf reports at the time just word of mouth so when I headed north I would check that on my way to Hanalei or on my way back from Hanalei. This is about one time I got to surf it alone because all the surfers went in when I went out. It looked pretty decent but there were a group of guys out. As I was going out they started heading in. "Shark out there" followed by "Big shark out there" was the greeting I got as I headed out. I was like "Okay I will keep my eyes open" and "thanks for the waves" . I surfed there for a couple hours never seeing the shark but then way outside I saw a gigantic odd looking fin. It was black and maybe 4 feet tall and narrow. I had never seen a fin like that but my father had a book on sharks that had pictures of all the sharks so I was sure I could find it in that book. I had enough waves so I went in hoping to get a glimpse of it from the cliff. By the time I got to the cliff I wasn't able to see anything other than a couple large moving shadows in the water that disappeared.

I drove directly to my fathers house and he wasn't home so I got out his book and looked through it cover to cover. There were no sharks with fins that looked like that. So I thought I would wait and talk to my father since he was very knowledgeable about a lot of things. I sat down in the living room and picked up a copy of Life Magazine and was thumbing through it when suddenly there was the fin, it was an orca. A male orca. Anyway thanks Mr. Orc for letting me surf there by myself.

[oldmansurfer]

Here is a surfing outing I can remember only because the waves were unexpectantly good. My family and a group of friends were going to stay for a few nights at a camp on the north shore of Kauai. Typically in the summer as it was back then there isn't much surf on the north shore. I brought my board after much deliberation even though there wasn't much expectation for any surf. The pros were if there was surf I could surf. the cons were it might get damaged moving it or stolen during my stay there but I was pretty surf addicted so spending 3 or 4 days without surfing was difficult. I brought my board and after a day or two made a trip to Hanalei bay and found awesome little waves at a break called pine trees. It was only about waist high but tubing out and no one was surfing except me. I got tubed on nearly every wave. Just the fix I needed and good enough to keep me happy for the rest of the time out there. It's kind of funny but days like that I most likely have had a few but this day I recall well only because it was unexpected.

[oldmansurfer]

The guys are talking about a variety of things including boards and how to learn tow surfing.

[oldmansurfer]

For those who are having a bad day. Here's some bad days in the ocean

[oldmansurfer]

Da rules for surfing pipeline especially don't number 3

[oldmansurfer]

Surfing Pipeline at around triple overhead. Apparently at this size it cuts way down in the number of surfers out most likely due to it being incredibly dangerous at that size

[oldmansurfer]

Another episode post Nate winning big wave award

[oldmansurfer]

Pipeline is a dangerous break. Highly skilled surfer was knocked out but fortunately saved by the other surfers and lifeguards
https://www.surfer.com/trending-news/surfer-joao-chianca-hospitalized-wipeout-pipeline