Surfing From Home

[Howly Wolf]

Hi there. I hope everyone's enjoying their descent into madness! Any suggestions out there for surf/stoke boosting activities while isolated at home? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I'll start: Having dealt with a few inconvenient injuries lately, I've turned part of the garage into a "surf zone" using padded gym mats. I taped out the dims/sweet spots of my shortboard and set aside about 15 minutes each day to improve pop ups and foot placement-- the space itself really helps commit to recovery and/or staying in form. Also made a poor man's indo board using found wood, grip tape, and pvc pipe. Good for mimicking surf movements and balancing with eyes closed-- fun and good workout for the vestibular system.

Then there's Wim Hof Method. If you aren't down with The Iceman, here's an awesome interview with him from Joe Rogan -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np0jGp6442A . Wim's a wild guy.

Essentially, his practice consists of breathing exercises and cold water exposure, both of which not only apply to frigid pacific holddowns, but are scientifically proven to rally the immune system. Gets ya high too.

Been at this about 4 months now and am really into it. Here's a guided breathing lesson if you want to give it a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ (please do not operate heavy machinery or surfboards while you're doing this).

[INTERN]

Not much of a TV watcher, unless it's PBS or Ken Burn docs, but I recently found out my smart TV has an app XUMO. Has stations that sort of have "playlists", but they have a dedicated tour surfing channel and an Adventure channel that has blocks of surfing, skate, and such....Plus a whole channel of This Old House...Good for short attention spans or putting on in the background.

[Major Lazer]

Watched Bethany Hamilton's Unstoppable with my daughters this morning. Not sure what streaming service we found it on, but for what its worth really good and pretty inspiring.

[Major Lazer]

...Lost has been streaming their classic flicks. Right now is ...Lost at Sea before that was The Decline and before that 5'5" x 19 1/4" Redux.

https://lostsurfboards.net/

But howbout an obvious one, Lavarse Los Manos:

https://vimeo.com/16005298

An older one, but a good one.

[BOX]

Watched Bethany Hamilton's Unstoppable with my daughters this morning. Not sure what streaming service we found it on, but for what its worth really good and pretty inspiring

Agreed, Major. Watched it this weekend and found it to be pretty inspiring as well.

[Major Lazer]

Cool glad you checked it out too.

Was going to cook up an eggy mid length with a local shaper and now would be a good time to do the cooking up part, but kinda hard pressed to throw any cash at surfing right now esp with fairly full quiver.

[Howly Wolf]

Bethany Hamilton's Unstoppable

Hopefully it's better than her other movie, Soul Surfer. A bit too much Jesus in that one imo. Kind of sold Bethany Hamilton short as an individual. What she's overcome deserves much more than a lifetime special.

If I'm up for another HBO free trial, gonna check out Momentum Generation. Some bad boy surf renegade drama might be the only way to fill the void left by watching "Tiger King" all weekend.

[Howly Wolf]

Was going to cook up an eggy mid length with a local shaper...

What are you thinking for your performance midlength?

Always a good time to dream up boards, but kind of nerve wracking to pull the trigger when staring down the barrel of a recession... Guessing there's a lot of stressed out shapers and surf shops at the moment. Now's probably a good time to support your faves if you have the means to do so.

[Major Lazer]

I didn't see Soul Surfer, but the name alone is a deterrent. Unstoppable is more or less about her working her way up to surf Jaws.

Mid length I'm thinking of is for gliding on grovely stuff or just fat slopey waves. Doesn't have to be to performancey. Basically along the lines of a Bing Collector, with not as pinny of a tail. 2+1 or quad option for fin config.

I agree about trying to support peps right now, but I need to wait for this mess to blow over and assess my employment situation. I think it will be stable, but who the fucck knows. Could be a lot worse than the 2008 recession and I support a family of 4, but enough doom and gloom. Speaking of midlenths, I'm gonna Q up this one tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJpOvM0N5hQ&feature=emb_rel_end

[Major Lazer]

And then there is the ever classic Message to the OSP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aiXeAvshyw

[Howly Wolf]

Anonymous really did a number on this forum. Y'all should've never expelled Tyedog!

Actually a little surprised there hasn't been a little OSP renaissance lately. Even Dane Reynolds has supposedly returned to blogging, so what's old is new again.

Now there's a quarantine activity for you... digging up old surf blogs. There's some epic stuff out there (thanks, Doc). Makes me miss the golden age of the blogosphere very much.

As for midlengths, I think 4 +1 is the way to go. Having the quad or twin option livens up the shape so much. I'd love to add a bonzer egg to my quiver someday https://bonzer5.com/boards/egg/ but no way I'm throwing down a fresh board anytime soon, much less heading to Cali for a pickup. Would potentially risk coronavirus and bankruptcy if one popped up on craigslist though

[Tex]

holy shite, I never saw that vid....so we did win....and I would vote to bring Ty-Dog back to the family.

[Major Lazer]

Surf looks like its been pretty sub par....... haven't been to tempted that's for sure. Late season snow has been pilling up and I am missing not being able to surf the white wave. Hard to beat the March April dumps. Light crowds, relatively affordable Spring pass, and often bluebird vis at times.

Spring break high speed (gorilla forearm) layback slash from maybe 5 or 6 years ago. The Mrs was kind enough to let me charge ahead and lap 1st 6 chairs this AM, while she got the kids ready. Love riding hans solo on a good powder morning.

[X-squid]

And then there is the ever classic Message to the OSP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aiXeAvshyw

Hahah - I remember this. Man... there was sooo many people on this page and so much 'tension' (feigned or otherwise...) I remember if you even wrote "The Cove" anecdotally in a post you'd get shellacked... When did things start dropping off? 2014-ish?

[Major Lazer]

When Blogger software came out, it was the beginning of the end. Oregon surf discussions carried on through a number of different blogs. The problem with blogs vs forums is they are fairly one sided and silo multi threaded topics and conversations into one persons thoughts.

Then Facebook and Instagram. And now themed forums have mostly died of. Reddit now is a one stop shop form for mostly everything including surfing. Wanna read some funny shitt go to Reddit surfing. Surfer mags forum is still pretty active.

While we might expect to have seen some activity here currently, lack of self registration is a real deterrent. The current registration process is cumbersome having to email someone who has to manually set up you account. And even so, Oregon surfing is just not as unique as it was when this forum 1st dropped.

I remember checking this site out pre forum and perusing photos from a dial up using AOL at a small coffee shop in Brookings when I was living and working down there in 95.