poll for Design Forum nerds:

[oeste858]

How old were you when you learned to surf??
[vote to view results]

If it let me ask a 2nd question in the poll, it would be:
Did you learn on a hard or soft board?

 

[MathDebater]

I picked 21-30 since I was almost 21 and it is a bit more accurate to my age group.

I was on a wavestorm at first but I quickly got a beat up Stewart longboard because I was embarrassed to be on the wavestorm. haha

 

[CutnSnip]

back when i started they were called "doyles" BZ brand if I remember correctly. We used em for paddling at junior lifeguards. no one i knew thought to surf on em and never saw others surfing on them. we coulda been having a ton of fun on those things.

 

[Woke AF]

There were no soft boards that you could stand on at that time the 3' unglassed foam ones just broke in half. Started with canvas mats that rubbed your nipples off every summer

 

[Havoc]

u shud start a "ever surge naged?" poll!

 

[oeste858]

No softtops when I learned at age 10 either. Would've been much gentler learning experience! After realizing the board I was so stocked to get through the classified ads(!) - a Local Motion HPSB with the sweet orange/red fade airbrush- wasn't the easiest to learn on, a neighbor let me a use his longboard and gave me and his son some lessons for a couple months. That did it... hooked.
I honestly wonder if everyone learning on a softtop makes a difference in how quickly people seem to bail their boards nowadays. You learn real quick that hard boards hurt!

 

[Havoc]

learned actual surging on a hard board although got damn good at surging the boogie board. any of u gays remember ur first "real wave?"

me, headhigh bay street santa monica, stvssy thruster, brown clean right wall for days. totally hooked after that.

 

[sdsrfr]

I almost got knocked unconscious by a 9’ something that was really heavy for the sized human I was at the time.

have had an irrational fear of big boards in larger surf ever since.

 

[njsurfer42]

age 9, circa 89-90, on a trash-picked late-70s single fin. there were no soft boards back then. i also got run over a time or 2 for being in the way. if memory serves, my dad (who still surfs at 75) made sure i was ok, then asked if i'd learned anything.

 

[oeste858]

Tourmaline. I can't remember a specific first wave but definitely remember the feelings of stoke that I wanted to keep chasing: making it down the line, and first turns and getting better enough to move further out in the lineup... and eventually to better spots.

 

[Woke AF]

ur first "real wave?"

well if you can call knee high shore break at Torrance Beach a wave on a 7'2 single fin Rick.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

Tourmaline. I can't remember a specific first wave but definitely remember the feelings of stoke that I wanted to keep chasing: making it down the line, and first turns and getting better enough to move further out in the lineup... and eventually to better spots.

Funny, we probably floated around and got in peoples way together at the same spots. Tourmo, shores, PB, and MIssion for me.

 

[One-Off]

There were no soft boards in 1973 except surf mats. I did ride surf mats before I got my first board.

 

[One-Off]

well if you can call knee high shore break at Torrance Beach a wave on a 7'2 single fin Rick.

I learned at Torrance on those blue and yellow surf mats.

There were no soft boards in 1973. My first board a 6-3 E.T.

 

[Kento]

back when i started they were called "doyles" BZ brand if I remember correctly. We used em for paddling at junior lifeguards. no one i knew thought to surf on em and never saw others surfing on them. we coulda been having a ton of fun on those things.

Same.

The first ones were something like 4 inches thick with extremely boxy rails. Not good for much but straight-off Adolfing and promptly pearling. But the thinner softtops with more normal rails, those things were a blast.

Good to learn to surf without a leash - those younger JGs were like ravenous blue sharks in a feeding frenzy trying to claim any board getting washed in.

 

[Waterlogged05]

5’10
lots of V
3 inches thick at least

 

[griffinsurfboard]

Canvas Matt at 8 years old in feezzzzzing Half Moon Bay

 

[paunch23]

a 6'6" Matt Kechele fish pu/pe!!!

 

[ZZ Soft Top]

Ha, I just posted my story in the other thread, but I learned on a no-name hard-top longboard/funboard at Campus Point when I was 20. I was a die-hard skate rat from ages 8 - 20, but also did a ton of boogie boarding, body surfing and skim boarding while growing up in SB. First wave was a rib-cage high right (of course). It felt like the first time I landed a kickflip - that I had finally solved this impossible physical equation in multiple dimensions.

 

[CutnSnip]

learned actual surging on a hard board although got damn good at surging the boogie board. any of u gays remember ur first "real wave?"

me, headhigh bay street santa monica, stvssy thruster, brown clean right wall for days. totally hooked after that.

first real standup wave where i actually surfed the wave was at Thalia St on that little right off the reef. just remember feeling slomo - and thinking this is way better than boogieboarding.