This is my 3 rd season. The progress is slowly. Now I can take off in unbroken water, and I am just getting into turning.

I get up at 6 in the morning. I do bits and bobs all day, and during the evening, several times a week, I go looking for waves. I never had that much energy before. I feel more fit than ever before, and I am heading towards 61 years of age.

The type of surfing I do, I call " leisure surfing " It is a question to stay fit in a interesting way.

The draw back is that I drive everybody nuts with all the talking about surfing, especially my girlfriend. She is very patient with me, but does not like the long drives and lonely cold beaches.

During the winter I have had a caravan transported to Cantabria in North Spain. I will use that a a base to get some Atlantic swell  to exercise with during the summer.  

Sunday 29 Marts 2009

A cold day with strong wind from the North. I was in front of hotel Esperanza. This is my "storm shelter".Eventually the sun came out.

Cold and rainy evening. I arrived at Sa Marina in the evening. I didn't like the look at it. Waves to big. Getting dark as well. However I got the wet suit on. I changed sitting inside the car. Then you get a good work out at the same time.

It turned out to be all right. I stayed close to the shore, and did very well.  The drive back to Palma was in darkness. Much to my surprise I was not tired, and that had been a 14 hour day.

Another cold evening. Around 10 deg. C. Sa Marina was to high waves, so I went to Playa de Muro.

The swell was only 1 foot here. The period, however long. It was enough to get the board gliding and me standing. I then had some interesting time trying to get the best glide and trim. It seam that I need to shift my position forward.

I think this is a comment mistake. You place the body to far back on the board to avoid pearling.

The right way is to be at the point where the board is gliding best. Tip of long board just out of the water. Then as the board start gliding, trim by arching your back.

I will look more into this.

This way you can catch the wave further out. You have better time to get up and standing, and get a longer ride.

We had booked a hotel near Cala Millor for the week end. I took the surf board and went to Cala Mesquida  both days. No swell to speak about, but it i a nice place anyway.

The caravan had been transported to Oyambre Beach in Cantabria. Surfboard had been shipped with parcel service. ( Far cheaper than taking it on the plane as sport equipment). Now it was time to go.

Up at 03.00 hours. First plane to Madrid and at 13.00 hours we landed in Santander.  We picked up the comfortable C4 hire car.

By 17.00 we were installed in the caravan, everything was fine, except that there had been a short in the camping place electric writing . First night we had all sleeping gear in use. We did not feel any warmer as we have a view to the snow on Pico de Europa.

We had a evening meal at the beach restaurant, looking at the swell, which was just about right, and I was looking forward to next morning and the start of my surfing.

It rained all day and we went driving with the car, to have a look around. Late in the afternoon the sun came out. The swell was up as well and the wind died away.

I was on the beach in a split second and had more than 1 hour of great swell and ice cold water. Afterward a warm shower to thaw the fingers again.
 

The photos are from San Vicente beach, some 5 km from Oyambre beach. We spend most of the day there. Marianne had a look at the town and I joined the about 10 other  surfers. They were mostly beginners, like me. The view from the surf spot towards the snow covered mountains was the best I have ever had.

You start to see people lying on the beach, sun tanning. However in the shadow the temperature was only 16 - 18 deg Centigrade.

Later we had lunch at the Camping El Rosal restaurant. Then we drove back to our camping.

I took one last session at  Oyambre beach. Tomorrow we are flying home.

Later I had a dip myself. At a place with less swell height. Still there was a good push even then.  Out of the water I saw that one of the small side finns vere broken, so I have to find a shop with some spareparts.
 

Today it was my turn. The swell was close to 6 feet. I was eager to get started. A bit to eager. First I found myself standing on the surfboard on top of a 5 foot vertical wall of water. I actually managed to make the drop and landed with a teeth shattering slam. Then the wave broke right on top of me.

Later I was riding the board sitting on the edge like a cowboy riding a bull. That hurt. Then I decided to be more careful.

I had one more  session in the afternoon. Called the local surf school to sign up for classes. Tuesday I will be getting 4 hours.

Photos from left. On the camping. Surfer Oyambre beach. People on Oyambre beach.

I feel fine again. Classes started at 11.00 hours and lasted 2 hours. Later 2 hours again in the afternoon. As I suspected I had a few wrong habits already. The teacher is very good, and very effective. he could see that I already had a good bit of experience. After pointing out the things I do wrong, we started catching unbroken waves after the first lesson.

This is a great possibility for me to get some high quality tuition, so tomorrow we continue. 2 hours as a private lesson.

The photo shows the surf school in Oyambre. You can see San Vicente town  in the background. However normally you will meet at the beach.

 

Now I know more or less what I am supposed to do. It is now a question of more time using the board.

So far I have been very satisfied with the lessons. Tomorrow we start 9.00 hours.

I was up at 7 o clock. Down on the beach at 9. The air temperature was 8 deg and the water 13 deg. Very windy as well, but we are hiding behind a rock headland, and the waves are reduced by a off lying reef. A good storm shelter. And that is what is needed  today with winds of more than 30 knots.

It is great with video so you can see your faults. Not that easy to correct them. My pop up is not good enough. My weight distribution on the board is wrong. It is good I eventually took some  tuition to point this out.

The first hour I was doing white water,  working a bit to get the stile right. Later I was tempted to paddle further out, due to the good smooth swell. There I was catching unbroken waves for the rest of the time. It helps a lot now I know how to position myself, What waves to paddle for, and so on.

Once you gain speed down the wave, you get this satisfying feeling, mixed with a good injection of adrenaline. Now there is no time to think about stile. You just want to stay on top of the board. Better not think about the many tons of water trying to catch up and give you a  "wipe out"

During the afternoon I had another session. I am still surprised how much difference it has made with some tuition.

Rain all day. I had the last session . Still it amazes me with the progress I have done. Now I am catching unbroken waves as never before. Tomorrow is travel day. The surf vacation is over.

During the last week I have been doing some stretching exercise following a Pilates DVD. I can already now feel the effect. It only takes 10 minutes once or twice a day.

Last week I was at Sa Marin a one evening. Very bumpy and windy. There I decided to order a new board. It is on its way. A 9 feet 6 inch BIC Nat Young. A copy of a board that Nat Young used to win 6 world championship.

Not a board for beginners i guess, but I will try.

The new board has been canselled. The shop could not deliver. Besides there are no waves. Meanwhile i have been working on my pop up. The is a small video clip below. Note how the rear foot is landing on the board first. That feels better. The body gets a nice smooth rool forward, and that is where I want my centre of gravity

Remember to warm up before you do pop ups like this, else you can easily end up with some torn ligament  and sprained muscle.

Actually quite a good day, but very crowded at the good spots. I was further down the coasthaving some bumpy rides. Four times I went into the water and it was late before I drove home.

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