I was out at chopes and it was 10 foot on the sets. Laird and his mates are towing in making it hard for anyone to get a set wave. Then this kook paddles out on a paddleboard. He had no idea and it seemed like he just wanted a photo paddling for a bomb. He paddles for a few waves and pulls back a few times and completely ruins anyone elses chances of getting a wave, you could see he never wanted one. .Then he paddles for a ten footer, wasted the wave and pulled back on it...then it sucked him over the falls. He was on the inside, his board broke and then Lairds ski guy goes to get him and the ski crashes kinda and washes up on the reef. Ultimate Karma.
I wouldn't go that far. He did throw us a bottle of water to drink at one stage and said 'you guys are doing awesome keep it up'. He is pretty funny hey. Larger than life. Kind of like a cartoon character. And he charges.
Not as much as they could be, Sup's limit conditions suitable for surfing. Bit of sideshore/onshore chop & its constant Kplunk with them losing balance. Doubt thats fun.
lol well if you wanna get into technicalities, your clearly asking the wrong person as I'm obviously not them, they may well be masochist...so I have to compare it to when I give in to my much shorter/lighter friend talking me into having a go on his 7'5, 27 1/2 custom SUP. I don't find the constant Kplunk to be a fun experience....but I'm cool with people who do...cheers
Not sure if I should chime in. Out yesterday morning, North Chesterman with shoulder high waves. About 15 surfers in the lineup and I just sayed to the side and caught some nice waves, made my first layback cutback, SUP surfed for two hours then kooked out on my longboard for 30 minutes and then back to the SUP. A young ripper paddled past me and said it looked like I was having so much fun! I was and try to follow Gerry Lopez's fifth and last rule of surfing. "The best surfer out in the water is the one having the most fun."
Cheers
bob
Ha ha, good old Wazza. He owns Manly beach from the beach volleyball courts North. Best to SUP south of the line. And if you have got any "SUP Love" stickers, he also owns the the white Kombi T3 Right Hand Cont,,
Rumour has it that Wazza and Chris Bum are lovers! The one foot prone stonewall wonder gets off with the hyper-manic menace. Allegedly, Grinder shares have them doing it behind the tombstones. At least from here Wazza can still hear his mother calling him home for dinner. Chris is never far away.
And to my stalkers - never forget that I too might be watching!!!!
Okay here are some interesting comments I can relay over my 10 years of bodyboarding, 12 years of surfing and 3 years of stand up. The local scene even at manly is not nearly as heavy as back in the 90's. North narrabeen, Newport, Little Avalon, The wedge, they all had the hardcore surfboard riders. But still there were good spots like mona vale where anyone could go.
Manly is a super packed wave and has way too many surfers and due to south american, japanese, overseas riders wanting to live in this area, it has become packed with intermediate to good surfers. This pisses off the locals the most. Not only are they seeing more guys in the line up but these guys are good.
Secondly as to the surfing over supping debate just laugh at any surfer who tries to approach this topic with you. As someone who has been lucky to surf in the line ups with many pro riders, on road trips at foster and on Sydney Northern beaches, the greatest surfers are usually the biggest snakes, Kelly is terrible, Tom carroll back in the day, the worst, taking many, many waves of other surfers and now Tom Carroll rides a sup, the GOD of all agro surfers rides what they hate. :Its just Karma for all the crap surfers gave, bodyboarders and goat boaters over the last 20 years. Bring up Tom they cant say nothing, I prefer it over the Laird defence. Even worse is that Tom carroll still rips like back in his 20's. Check out his footage from North Avalon, during the big storms last year.
Also if you are worried about your rep in the lineup, you need to prepare to go out in the big stuff. If you have a person who constantly looks at you or calls out at you in the lineup, then the sweetest moment is when the local break is firing, you will see the local hardcores all watching, on the sand, sidewalk, corso (manly), as the bombs roll in. You just have to slowly pick up your board, showing no fear walk past the lot and paddle out. You will never and I mean never ever get any crap from the local hardcore again.
I was lucky enough to learn this from experience at my local break when it was pumping in September of 96. It was filthy good off shore. 8-10ft and no one out. With a mate form school on his new gun I paddled out and it was sketchy making it over the sets. All the local hotshots were sitting on the hill of the point. I was sitting off the take off point with my mate, and out paddles Mr Newcastle (Not MR) but Luke Egan dad, training for Hawaii, I got called into a set over 10 feet and just took the drop, got pounded and swept down the beach. :i got three waves in 2 hours that day, but never got any crap for after that by any locals.
You don't need to fight, look at them, answer back, just show them who has the biggest kahunas.
Brings back memories of epic surf sessions at Tuncurry break wall and super tubes, remember if it gets heavy at manly let the locals get angry, grab your SUP, head up to some uncrowded peaks, north of Newcastle.
I can still confirm that on any weekday, there still is a plethora of empty peaks up this way.
Just be good to people and steer clear of negativity.
This was fun wave at manly on the weekend. Th breaks were packed with surfers, 3-5 ft. I just sat in the channel on my own and got some great rides. I got no grief because I did not talk to anyone.