Sunday, September 21, 2008

NANTASKET, Surfed, Carve 123, with Gerry


Nantasket- unkown surfer dude

Poor man's surfboard- Take a moderately sized windsurfing board, stick a wave fin on it, strap a leash on the back footstrap, and viola! You have a surfboard. It looks silly but it works. I had fun. I got a lot of questions from other surfers like, uh, what kind of board is that? Dude, is that a windsurfing board? But I didn't mind. Hanging out with Gerry, who has a real surfboard, boosted my credibility.

Nantasket- Everyone says it's a little better at mid-tide. The waves were barely catchable to start but got bigger as it neared high tide, then dropped swiftly around dead high. I was told that at dead low the waves break on an outer sandbar and tend to close out. I guess dead low and dead high aren't so great. There were a lot of surfers there, maybe 20 to 30, spread out all along the beach.

Surf glasses- The waves were small enough to get by with wearing my glasses. That's a first. I could actually see the waves coming in before they broke on me. This was very user friendly surfing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can use specially designed surf glasses that work even in the larger surf, Rx too! Check out silverfish.com

Snowy Guy said...

Moderate size being what? 100 liters? 135? Old narrow or new wide?

PeconicPuffin said...

Who knows...the Carve may be just the ticket for certain surfing conditions. I'd try it in a minute!

Snowy Guy said...

Actually I'm heading down to Fla. soon for our condo which is right on the O'cean in a surfing town. I can only take one board, probably. Since I may not be able to windsurf, I'm considering trying surfing. However, actual surf boards are thinner than windsurfers from what I've seen. I tried my 130 liter old style 310 cm up at Mayflower to see if I could paddle in the surf. It wasn't all that useful.

scooper said...

Snowy Guy- I've used an old "funboard" in super small waves. I don't know the volume, maybe 180 to 200, 10 1/2 ft length? It worked but didn't turn easily. I've used the carve 123 liter a few times in small waves. It's stable and easy to catch small waves, turns easier than the funboard but is still not very responsive. I've used my acid 94 liter waveboard once in medium size waves (chest to head high). It worked better, turned better, didn't stick the nose as easily, but I had to be right in the curl to catch the wave. I couldn't come from a little outside, like on the 2 larger boards. I weigh 155 pds, beginner to intermediate surfer (I think). Good luck in Fla.

Snowy Guy said...

Thanks for the reply. There's a surf shop down the street from our condo so I've considered just buying a specialized surf board there. I haven't decided yet if I am going to load a lot of equipment and spend the extra money on gas with the SUV or just take one small board (possibly a directional kite board) and the car.