shed some advice for a newbie

keegs's picture
keegs started the topic in Wednesday, 7 Nov 2012 at 5:45pm

Hi fellas,
Long time reader, first time poster.

I started surfing 3 years ago at the ripe age of 22 after shedding 40kgs of butter, and thought it would be a good way to stay fit and keep me active 3/4's of the year.

Anyway I finally handed in my 8" mini mal which I've had since day one, and bought a Firewire Addvance 6'6 after a test drive at 13th. I love the board as it makes light work of smaller situations and paddling is quite easy too.

With all the above bollocks out the way I just wanted to know if people could give me a few tips on some good beaches to surf for beginners as I have only really surfed 3 beaches and would like to try a few more beginner friendly spots in vic.

At the moment I go between Barwon Heads SLSC beach, YCW and 13th (when conditions suit).

I'm not really interested in hitting any reefs ie) flynns, express, winki until i'm a bit more confident in my ability.

any suggestions would be great, could even be a stubbie in it for u if i meet ya in the line up.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Wednesday, 7 Nov 2012 at 10:46pm

Cat bay (shelley beach) is a super mellow wave perfect for learning, breaks on reef but its flat reef with heaps of weed on it, i learnt to surf there when young never gets very big even on huge swells, best on incoming tide from half tide up south to south east winds.

flynns is actually pretty mellow for a reef just surf it at high tide, good option when learning if to small at cat bay same with right point.

Offcourse as a groment when learning I also use to surf YCW and Smiths and when they were to small id surf Berrys beachies and if to small there id surf the open beaches (wollamai etc)

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 8 Nov 2012 at 5:56am

Technically, Barwon Heads SLSC is also the 13th Beach SLSC (it's where our surfcam is). I reckon Ocean Grove is probably the best learning environment in that neck of the woods. There are also plenty of open beaches west of Torquay that (depending on the swell) are fine for beginners.

keegs's picture
keegs's picture
keegs Thursday, 8 Nov 2012 at 4:27pm

I've heard about catbay but wasn't sure what beach it was so thanks for that, will have to give it a go saturday morning.

Thanks heaps indo and thermalben, it's one of those things where I just want to go out and have fun and catch waves but at the same time not piss off the die hards.. haha.

Had a great session couple of weeks ago at 13th at first light and it was almost like something you see in a postcard, glassy sets just rolling in maybe 2ft (great size for me haha) Hope to have many more like that.

cheers boys!

sypkan's picture
sypkan's picture
sypkan Thursday, 8 Nov 2012 at 6:06pm

Good onya Keegs for having the common sense to not paddle out in crowded waves until you feel confident with your abilities, you could teach a euro or two a lesson in Bali/Indo

Not too mention some of the surf schools in Australia, who love to send their bunch of kooks out in crowded lineups, three years experience and much wiser than your average 'surf coach'.

if you are gonna 'teach' surfing, how about teach the kooks some etiquette, because lets face it the whole teaching surfing thing is just a way to fleece money from the ignorant

sunny's picture
sunny's picture
sunny Saturday, 10 Nov 2012 at 10:38pm

When I was a grommet in the 80's a mate/ mentor was a vegan.
He got me off Macca's and ice coffees and into quality food. Said to eat the good stuff about 80% of the time.
I've done this and weigh the same 5'10" 70kg now in my 40's.
Surfing has improved with age and I piss off a lot of blokes when I catch 5 waves to there one.
My mates are old and fat and don't barely surf anymore and some can't even see there cock below there gut, then complain to me how there Mrs is not into sex anymore, wonder why?