September 20

Learned about surf culture, ocean landscapes, and first day of surfing

Today was all about surfing. period . I want to learn how to surf... scratch that... i NEED to learn how to surf. I've found that a big part of my project is going to revolve around the water and who comes to the water from all over... surfers. So today was about figuring out whats so great about surfing, what makes surfing good or bad.... and then eventually getting out there and trying it.. eek

So the surf culture, In the first few days here I listen in on some conversations between surfers... no clue what they are talking about. Its like listening to surfers from California.. yah.. totally.. rode the rip to hit a gnarly right hand and tubed that beast..... what? So I have been checking out magazines to try to decipher this language of theirs and I am no scholar in dicatation but some things are starting to make sense. I think the important part is to figure out first what all of the terms for waves are. I learn about rips and swells, tubes and right/left handed waves, long vs short boards.

I also learn about the landscape underneath the waves, these are actually one of the most important factor to being a good surf spot vs a bad one. Temperature, sun/shade, rocks and obstacles, views, and much of the things that landscape architects think about for a successful site is not too important. The most important thing is the nature of the landscape, the topography of the sand or coral or rock, the surrounding landscape, the trenches and swales, these are what makes the surf... surfable. This is going to be a case study for sure as I want to diagram directions of surf, sand, and the surfers. It is all a really neat orchestra of things moving around to make a neat experience.

Speaking of that my first experience surfing... how it goes is: Sure lets go surfing im up for it..... inside my head goes like this: oh my god oh my god i dont know why my mouth is saying this i dont know what im doing!... So I put on a wet suit... The wet suit however is old and pretty much broken. The zipper in the back doesnt work and the legs are so tight even though they are ripped at the back of the knee to my ankle. But it covers up my unsightly pastey body so it does its job. We get there and Tom and Geoff go off the the side and he tells me to have at it.... ALRIGHT! haha omg Im going to be dead in the next half hour. So I grab the board and walk out into the water and give things a try. Was not bad I wasnt able to stand up on the board but i got a good feel for it and the waves. All in all I enjoyed my first time surfing and will definetly try some more till I get the hang of it.