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| article: rob’s weekly fish’n’tip 0627 written for the week of wed 7/3/2012 by rob paxevanos |
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Dated: 9 March, 2012
 | | Caitlin Paxevanos enjoys learning the basics of Surfing at Brou Lee. |
FISH’N’TIP 0627 The Paxy Girls Start to Surf (…and pass on their experiences)
Regular readers will know that this column is not just about fishing: boating, kayaking, sailing and many others water related activities can and have been covered over the years. This week my eldest daughter 13 year old Caitlin is having a her first attempt at writing a column, it’s all about learning to surf, and it’s quite timely given the ocean water temperature is at its peak. Hope you like it; here's Caitlin:
I have been using boogie boards with my dad and sisters for the past 3 summers now, and alongside fishing, swimming, sailing and kayaking, the boogie board is one of my favorite activities.
This summer Santa gave my 10 year old sister Emily and I some surfing lessons at Brou Lee on the NSW South Coast. We were both very excited to learn how to do the great aussie tradition of 'standing up' on a wave.
Of course we are just beginners, not experts,but Dad said there are probably plenty of people in my position who would like to know how to get started and asked me to pen a diary on how the lessons went.
At first this felt like school work to me...but luckily it was an inspiring day and easy to write about. Hopefully some of the fun of the lessons will come out in this piece of work.
Here’s a rundown on the surfing lesson we had:
7:00am: Woke up looking forward to an exciting day-a big breakfast was important because we heard there would be lots of paddling.
8:00: Drive from Batemans bay to Brou Lee where we met the team from Surf the Bay
8:30: Glen Hall, our instructor, was very energetic and you could tell he loved his job, this is always a good thing.
8:40: They supplied wetsuits and boards and then we hit the beach.
8:50: quick warm up stretch and jog down the beach. Then a run down on safety and reading the surf. The surf at Brou Lee was perfect for kids but edging on the small side for adults. There wasn't enough force to push adults along easily, but one English visitor in his 40’s still got up.
We learnt the parts of the board how to measure a wave and the basic steps to surfing, I’ll explain a few of these later.
9:00” hit the water, keeping the vital tips in mind such as paddling with long strokes, ie flicking the water out the back.
9:30 quick group talks on goofy footing (right foot forward) and natural footing (left foot forward). Funnily enough my dad happily does both!
9:40: By then we had all gotten up successfully and had just started to get the hand of things. Given that Glen had chosen a calm enclosed beach it was much easier than it could have been. The conditions were perfect and predictable- with the waves averaging around only 2 foot. Waves I found are measured from the back, not the face, which is always bigger.
10:30 Pack up boards and wetsuits and head back to Batemans bay. Now that I knew what it was like I couldn't wait for the second day! I’ve even started counting up my money to buy a surf board.
Here are a few handy tips that I remember from the day:
1. When paddling keep your feet on the back edge of the board. This puts you in the right spot if you have a beginners sized board.
2. When you see wave that you want to catch sit up on your board and kick them like an egg beater to turn around.
3. When paddling out if there is a wave too big to go over simply roll over your board on top of you until it passes by. This is called the turtle roll. Pretty easy (in small waves)
4. When transitioning from your knees to standing keep your knees bent like a ninja. This way when you let the board go you are not changing postion as much-very helpful.
5 Glen showed us where to put our feet.
6/ The boards we used were big enough to catch a wave and support our weight easily. Apparently a lot of people get a board given to them that is way to small and they have zero chance of learning to stand up! Very Important.
7/ The boards Glen had for us had nice soft edges, very forgiving, especially with younger sisters not watching out for you.
8/If you fall in it can be shallow, so try not to go in head first-broken collar bones or worse are a common injury from doing this. But avoiding it is easy.
9/ Listen carefully to the instructor, don’t day dream like my little sister Emily does, although she did very well too.
Of course I can’t remember everything, but I can say that a lesson can get almost anyone up on a board, it really is easy with a proper lesson. Can’t wait to catch a few more waves while the water is still nice and warm.
Caitlin Paxevanos
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| Rob Paxevanos
Fishnet Pro Angler
Report brought to you by fishingaustralia.tv
Email : robpax@netspeed.com.au
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