Sunday, November 10, 2013

Teaching the kids to surf



I first started surfing back in the early 1990s but gave up about  1995 when  I got into white water kayaking instead. When the kids came along I no longer had the spare time for kayaking either so for the past decade or so have mainly been using my playboat for surf-kayaking and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been on a river in the past few years.
Looking south from Kakanui towards Moeraki
 Over the past 3-4 summers the kids have been doing plenty of boogie boarding at Kakanui and for the past year or so Finn has been asking me to get him a surfboard. At the end of last summer one of my soccer mates gave Finn one of his old boards so he has been very keen to get started. Finn gave it a go the last time we were at Kakanui but wasn’t too successful (he quickly realised it is harder than it looks) and wanted some help. I'd been thinking about getting back into surfing so while we were in Blenheim for his soccer tournament I caught up with a mate who I’d given my old surfboard and arranged to get it back. I picked up the board when I was in CHCH for Conquest but one look at it I realised I’d be struggling to use a short board these days so last week I bought myself a 7’ 9” mini-mal - short enough to be able to control pretty easily, long enough to be able stand up on without too many issues and have “loaned” my short board to Hana to learn on.  

Kakanui- not a bad spot really!
  I took the kids out both yesterday and today and they had a blast. Both were able to get onto their knees and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be standing. It took me awhile but I managed to catch a few waves. By the end of today Hana had, very briefly, managed to stand a couple of times.  They’ve bruised knees, arms and legs from being hit by the boards but both are rearing to go again next weekend. Tonight they spent their time watching how to surf vids on Youtube to get a few more tips. I’m not sure if they will stick with it, at this stage it looks like they might. They spent about 6 hours in the water over 2 days (not bad since they only have spring suits and the water is a “tropical” 14 degrees celcius!) and were both absolutely buzzing once we’d finished. Surfing is a great sport, so I hope they get bitten by the surfing bug and stick with it. There are a hell of a lot worse things they could be doing.
Alas, this isn't me.
Craig

11 comments:

  1. Hard to beat quality time with the kids!

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    1. The key has been not pushing them- they both love the water and hopefully this will continue.

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  2. Oooh, nice left. I'm a goofy footer. Although I haven't been on a board since 2005, I grew up in Hawaii about a mile from the beach (South Shore). I surfed almost everyday when I was a teenager (70's). Incidentally, my best friend from elementary school (Waikiki Elementary) moved to Auckland back in the 60's - lost touch with him - didn't have the internet back then. Best, Dean

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    1. I'm sure the water is a lot warmer up there Dean! Hawaii would have been great place to grow up!

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  3. Great family fun no doubt... must admit I lost my open water confidence once I learnt there were 'big beasties' in NZ waters...

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    1. Great whites breed off the coast of Oamaru- Dunedin apparently. There have been three attacks at Moeraki over the past 100 years (about 10-15km south of Kakanui) and in 2000 a kayaker disappeared after coming out of his boat at the Kakanui river mouth- was not proved if a shark took him or was bitten later. I'm always aware of sharks, just more likely to be killed in a car crash getting to the beach! Still I don't like going out to far when swimming...just in case!

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  4. They will stick with it if they get that buzz from it.
    cheers

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  5. Good memories! Thanks Craig... my friend Jamie Chapman got married on that very beach, great spot till the southerly rolled in, we all froze our nenes off but the show went on! (Jandals compulsory!)

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  6. Small world. I know Jamie and worked at Poly with Rebecca. Off back down there tonight and had to do some work on Weds at our Oamaru campus so stayed the niht at the bac and got to surf before and after work :)

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