the surf blog
As previously mentioned, I am now a teacher in the art of surfing as well as various other things. One of the challenges issued to me by my former teacher, who is now my colleague, was to make a blog for the surf class. I did so quite early, but I haven't been shouting too much about it due to its lack of content - until now, that is! Unfortunately, for all those who don't understand Norwegian, the blog contains only posts in our native language. But fear not. For there are a lot of interesting photos (look for the word "bilder") and videos for you too look at, to catch something of a glimpse of what exactly it is we do here.
Peace out, and all that.
t-t-t-t-twenty
Esben seems pleased with his new shortboard that we gave him for his twentieth birthday. He is hoping to be able to try it out for the first time on Friday if the forecast is to be trusted.
[Updated: Monday 2nd March 3009]
Well it was pants on Friday so we just had a good look at some of the local spots. Saw a total of three surfers in the water and none of them seemed to be having any fun. But I got a text message from Esben today (Monday) saying:
Just been to Bore (beach). Nice, surfable waves. Board works beautifully! No probs catching and standing up on waves on it.
point perfect
Just finished a short and sweet one hour session at Point Perfect. In case you're wondering: no, the tip of my board is not on fire, that is the moon.
Left work at 14:00 as planned and drove out to Sele beach. It was a bit too messy there so I followed another surfer to Point Perfect, just South of Orre beach. Look for the signpost to the Skeie Flystripe (airstrip) if you're not sure where to turn off the main road (Rv 509). The spot is a short 150 meter jog to the North from the car park.
The waves were big and slow and thus not too hard to catch. The challenge was getting out past them. Knowing that I could only spend an hour in the water, I used up all my energy pretty quickly. Had to paddle out beyond the break and just bob around for a while to recover. Managed to get on a great wave but lost my balance immediately. Made up for it a bit later with three not-too-shabby rides.
I'm glad to have been shown another spot to add to my ever growing list. I'll be back!
what was i thinking?
It had crossed my mind on the drive out to the beach that I may have set my alarm a little too early for the time of year. But it wasn't until I arrived at Bore beach at 07:01 and turned off the car ignition and headlights that I realised how very very dark it was.
A quick Google search confirmed that sunrise was some time after 09:00 with first light at 08:20. What was I thinking, getting up this early on a Saturday?
Even though it was too dark to see anything, I could hear the waves dumping so to kill some time I drove to Sele and stumbled around in the dark for a while, listening to the waves; they sounded cleaner than at Bore. Still way too dark to see much at all so I drove to the nearest petrol station for coffee and some empty calories.
By 08:00 visibility was nearly good enough so I drove back to Sele. As I pulled up to the car park I noticed a couple of cars on their way out, leaving just one other car besides me. Out jumped a surfer and asked if I was planning on going out. She mentioned that she had spotted me earlier - must have been when I had my stumble in the dark. On returning home later in the day, I found out that Elisabeth knew her as they studied teaching at the University in Stavanger. So if you are reading this Ingy: "hi from Tim and thanks for the words of encouragement"!
We were in the water by 08:30 and a few minutes later, several others turned up, The waves were quite small, very clean and fairly easy to catch for a beginner like me. As the water began to fill up with more and more surfers, I moved away from the group to another spot about 50 meters further South. I was glad I did because I could soon hear angry noises from the Northern spot as several surfers caught the same wave and tried to claim it as their own.
They mentioned the "right of way" on the surfing course, but I find it easier to find another spot rather than fight it out with the others.
As I was thinking about calling it a day, I spotted a familiar group of four surfers on their way down to the beach: it was Esben with friends Magnus, Petter and Emil from the Jæren Folkehøgskole! With the promise of some tips from the "experts", I decided to stay out a bit longer. Glad I did too as the advice given helped me to catch my best wave of the day; no, the bet wave since I bought my surfboard!
I finally managed to drag myself out of the water at midday, leaving Esben & co. to it.
Note to self: check the calendar for estimated time of sunrise the night before getting up for an early morning surf.
a walk on the beach
I was interested to see what a 5 meter swell combined with 50 kmph winds looked like so I took Tara & Tordis for a walk on Bore beach. It was pretty wild - the wind was strong enought to almost blow both girls off their feet!
Believe it or not, but those three black dots in the background are swimmers in wet-suits. Looked like they were having fun but this time I was happy to just watch them jumping waves and body-surfing.
surf camp in the algarve
As Elisabeth wakes up to her first day in Barcelona, Esben is waking up to his last day in Portugal. He has been on a surf camp in the Algarve (Carrapateira) for a week now with his class, enjoying better waves, less wind and warmer temperatures than we have had back home.
He sent me a text last Sunday:
just got back from the beach, surf owns! Shorter boards, a lot more manouverable
He sent me another text a day later which made me giggle. It was the classic "having fun, send more money". Hope to hear more reports from him after his return to Jæren (via Oslo) tomorrow.
surf buddy
The surf forecast was not great today: swell height 3.8m with a period of 12 seconds and a NE wind at 18 kph, giving 4 stars on the MagicSeaweed swell rating, with 2 subtracted for bad winds.
But it has been quite a while since I was last out in the waves, so I headed out to Bore beach to have a look.
When I arrived I was disappointed to see just one surfer in the car park who looked as though he was about to leave. I asked him (in Norwegian) what the surf had been like and he replied (in English) that he hadn't been out because it looked too messy and there was no one else in the water. We chatted for a bit and then decided to head North to Hellestø to see if it was any better there.
It was better: slightly smaller, but cleaner, waves. So we suited up and headed out into the sea, with no other surfers in sight. Before long we had both caught several good waves without having to fight too hard. But after only an hour in the water (and about 30 minutes after sunset) we decided to call it a day.
Despite the short time in the water I drove home with a big grin on my face: it was the best surf for several weeks. Plus I now have a surf buddy in Callum who, like me, is interested in surfing all through the Winter.
Cheers Callum!
surf school
Today was Elisabeth's turn to have a go at surfing, with me as her instructor. I think she did very well given the low quality of instruction and the pathetically small waves.
tim can surf
I've just completed a 2 day surfing course with srfsnosk8. And even though the instructor didn't turn up today I loved every minute of it. The conditions were ideal for beginners: an offshore wind both days with 60 cm waves yesterday and 70 cm today.
Update: here is a cheesey slide show for your enjoyment!