It is a fun sport … which accounts for all those people lugging their waxed-up sticks to the ocean on a regular basis. There is no doubt that it is fun! The booming water sport attracts hundreds upon hundreds of new people to the ocean on a daily basis, luring them with the promise of the next greatest sport to try. And people come in droves, happily donning surf gear and paddling out into the clear blue … after all, like you said, “how hard could it be?”.

This is Step 1 in Learning to Surf: thorough research! How hard surfing will be for any beginner depends on how thorough your research is about surfing, and how much research you do regarding equipment suited for you and your surf breaks. Before you even get in the water … before you even wax your first board … it is important that you understand some of the surfing basics.

Surfing basics are easier to discover for beginner surfers with the help of knowledgeable surfers, namely from a reputable surf school or a non-retail oriented surf shop. After you have exhausted resources from the internet and on-line articles about surfing, and especially after you have frustrated friends who surf with a million-and-one questions … the surf school instructor or surf shop expert is the next line of information. Their information will be especially useful since they have the inside track on local breaks and local surfers … something internet research may not provide for you!

By being open to what surf instructors and surf shop experts have to reveal to you, what type of gear you may eventually get, and the types of breaks you begin to surf may vary. In any event, being an open person and listening to the people who know the surf community will lead you to a rich research experience and get you on your way to the next step in learning to surf!

As a final word to starting your research, do not buy into surf fads and jump on the surf industry’s commercial assault of the surf community. You do not need the biggest, baddest, newest, or greatest. You just need an open mind, a caring heart, and a sense of adventure and fun!

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Paulaner Kellerbier (Munich, Germany) : Paulaner is a primary brewery in Bavaria, and their astounding kellerbier are of a great tasting beer in the world. This is especially for people who hate beer, because it is as smooth as silk. It’s a beneficial thing, too, as bottled water is more expensive than brewskies in Munich.

Tanzanian Peaberry Coffee (Tanzania) : Tanzanian pea berry coffee beans, impudently brewed with a bare simple machine, are virtually perfect for curing fatigue. The Tanzanian Pea berry Coffee is more refined than the rest of the coffee exist in the world. The taste is amazing and easily attracts the drinkers from the first consumption itself.

Portuguese Green Wine (Portugal) :

Wine manufacturing is one of the leading industries in Portugal. Green Wine is an exceptional wine in the entire world with an exotic blend combining brilliant aroma and shiny look, making it an exclusive nature made beverage. The alcohol level in this beverage is medium in nature. The great advantage of this drink is that it carries enormous digestive properties which are good to all. It delivers a discrete taste and tasted best when served chilled.

Pocari Sweat (Tokyo, Japan) : Not to be confused with the always amusing Calpis Water, Pocari Sweat is the post-exercise darling of Japan. Clear and less sugar-laden than Gatorade, it rehydrates without causing stomach upset and helps you recover from the oppressive heat in a heartbeat.

Acai (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) : Acai, an Amazonian berry, can be found on any beach in Rio. Generally served with a dash of guarana syrup for caffeine and a guaranteed sugar rush, it looks like purple frozen yogurt and is delicious with a bit of granola or banana on top. Just keep an ear open for “acai, acai, acaiiiiiiii!” and look for tan men carrying coolers on their hips or heads.

Long Jin Cha Green Tea (Hangzhou, China) : The famous “dragon well” tea of the western lake district is well known for good reason. It is one of the top 10 best-regarded teas in China and delivers a beautiful combination of lightness, mild taste, and immediate alertness.

Cold Mugicha Barley Tea (Tokyo, Japan) : Mugicha is the anti-heat weapon of choice for millions of Japanese and Koreans. It has a strong flavor, but the few sessions it takes to acclimate and appreciate this unique drink is well worth it. It improves circulation and, in so doing, helps decrease body temperature more than simple ice water. A delicious but acquired taste.

Yerba Mate (Buenos Aires, Argentina) :

Yerba Mate is considered as a drink of Friendship from good old days and is often referred to as ‘Drink of the Gods’ for being a natural stimulant prepared with dried leaves of the Ilex Paraguariense bush. Yerba Mate is a healthy and ethnical drink of old ancestries. Guarani Indians of South America were the first to originate it. They prepared it with the ingredients which keep its drinkers healthy and energetic.

Yerba Mate is considered to be a cultural phenomenon throughout South America and has earned fame as most popular drink among South America.

[based on article written by Timothy Ferriss, author of the best-selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek]

Huwsplums: Being able to get away from everyone and everything when you’re stressed where no-one can get hold of you – no mobile phones!!!

Daf Williams: Seeing the lip crash down as you duckdive through a hollow keg, pulling snaps at the most vertical part of a section/close out so that the wave actually takes you down with it..

red&yellow: Paddling and riding over the wave in a large set and not being dragged into the face.

Steve: Getting butterflies in your stomach because you know it’s a big swell and can’t wait to get in the water. Like this weekend, I’m trying to get all my Open Uni work out of the way not to spoil the weekend.

surfing dark lord: Going for a pint after…no question man or denying your mates claim to have had a cover up… always a close second.

Shorum: Driving to the beach. Ooh the anticipation…

adie: Seeing the sun shining through the lip of a peeling barrel

salsan: Surfing at sunrise and sunset..

thesurfingcat: The slide. The feeling of slipping fluidly over the surface of the water, sapping the full potential of the waves to pull you shoreward, then immediately paddling back out to do it again.

Kev: That inner smile after a good session, and every time you think about thereafter.

nick flack: I love that. Hours later, at home, in the pub, wherever…You close your eyes, and you can still see the lip coming up. A small smile, barely visible on the outside is as big as the ocean inside. Only a surfer my friend…

Kev: Years later, even, the very best sessions are still embedded and can be recalled whenever. Thought myself to sleep last night with one at Slade Reef 6+ yrs ago Big waves on my 10′6″ just me and Silverback surer out. Smiling now.

surfing squirrel: Dropping a load at dawn watching the swell roll in

Bic: The anticipation of a good session.

Duncan_Agg: Sitting out back, waiting for a set to come-lots of thinking time to yourself. so peaceful perfect.

Jamez: Laughing out loud as you watch your m8 get caught inside on a shallow reef whilst the set of the day flies through onto him…..hehehe

Gazza D: Searching for new waves and getting them perfect with just your mates.

Oafie: catching a few waves with wildlife, looking down on a slow easy right & gliding over a massive stingray…and just the smoothness of a sloooow peeeling wave & the board just doing what you want it to!

EvS: Feeling like you’re flying!

Beach Brum: Sitting out back @ whitesands watching oyster catchers and seals while waiting for that set to come in.

Mart: The late arvo sun as the glassy waters around you turn pinky red as the sun sinks + scoring on a dawn patrol and the satisfaction you get, driving back as everyone else is on their way into work having missed it!

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Hand-made in Hawaii, the Pickle is advertised as an environmentally friendly wax remover that uses 100% recycled ingredients. Using the specially formulated contents of the little green bag and some good old fashioned elbow grease, some simple rubbing gets your surfboard clean and free of old wax … ready for reapplication or the occasional repair.

The Pickle does not preclude wax scraping – you still have to scrape the excess wax off your stick, which is why the Pickle comes with its very on wax comb. After most of the wax is removed, it is the Pickle’s job to get your stick back to the smooth, shiny, and clean glassed surface. We liked being able to take all the wax off the surfboard for damage inspection, spotting spider cracks and small nicks that would have otherwise gone undetected as it stayed camouflaged by old wax.

The best aspect of the Pickle is that it uses to liquids or chemicals to clean your board, a definite plus for reducing the mess and the fuss. That being said, it is still best and recommended that you Pickle your board outside where there is plenty of fresh air available … as the Pickle does produce some chunky powder-like residue as it cleans your board. Recycled ingredients or not, you still should seep up the powdery-wax residue that is the result of a clean surf stick.

For our test with the Pickle we used an often used, never completely cleaned or unwaxed since it left the store 9′2″longboard. Set on some old saw horses outside (where we received some unwanted attention from office mates) we went to work on using the comb included with the Pickle kit. We immediately saw how difficult this task was going to be with the flex comb included, and we struggled to get the wax off this nose-to-tail,rail-to-tail wax-covered board. A quick run to the hardware store for a plastic scraper (for 90 cents!) and we were off and running, getting most of the chunked-on wax off the board in only 2 Jack Johnson songs in the iPod.

Holding the pickle in your hand is much like holding a silk nylon stocking filled with sawdust … pliable and almost like a green sea cucumber doubling as a hackey sack. It will take a lot of rubbing and some pressure to get the remaining wax off any board, and our board was no exception!

A constant turning of the Pickle was a definite must, allowing the contents of the bag to do its job as the wax rubs and mixes with the contents and scrapes it off the surfboard surface. If you are sensitive to dust and/or powder residue, make sure that you wear a breath mask or some form of nasal/mouth covering to prevent inhalation of the wax/powder mixture!

The Verdict: The pickle does what it claims to do, which is provide a clean and wax free surfboard, of course always with a lot of help from your own muscles and some good prep work.

Surfers can take some time and wax their board ahead of time instead of begging for wax at the beach (see Matuna’s Wax article) , get a decent wax job from a clean board, and even help maintain the environment by using a “green” product.

In the spirit of that thought, as we sit in our offices and look longingly at the surf rolling through the distant beach, here are the Top 10 things that YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW:

1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel. How you feel is how you feel. It’ll pass soon. What you’re thinking is what you’re thinking. It’ll go too. Tell yourself that whatever you feel, you feel; whatever you think, you think. Since you can’t stop yourself thinking, or prevent emotions from arising in your mind, it makes no sense to be proud or ashamed of either. You didn’t cause them. Only your actions are directly under your control. They’re the only proper cause of pleasure or shame. SURFER APPLICATION: Go with your instinct and rely on the skills you have. Sure, that wave might be bigger and gnarlier than anything you’ve ridden before but stop focusing on the fear and paddle like you own the wave!
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2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse. The more you think about something bad, the more likely it is to happen. When you’re hair-trigger primed to notice the first sign of trouble, you’ll surely find something close enough to convince yourself it’s come. SURFER APPLICATION: Am I good enough? Can I make this drop? Are people watching me? WHO CARES MATE! Just throw yourself over the edge and watch good things happen to ya!
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3. Ease up on the internal life commentary. If you want to be happy, stop telling yourself you’re miserable. People are always telling themselves how they feel, what they’re thinking, what others feel about them, what this or that event really means. Most of it’s imagination. The rest is equal parts lies and misunderstandings. You have only the most limited understanding of what others feel about you. Usually they’re no better informed on the subject; and they care about it far less than you do. You have no way of knowing what this or that event really means. Whatever you tell yourself will be make-believe. SURFER APPLICATION: Nuff said … just say you’re good enough, this is my wave, and I am going to make this drop! Period!
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4. Take no notice of your inner critic. Judging yourself is pointless. Judging others is half-witted. Whatever you achieve, someone else will always do better. However bad you are, others are worse. Since you can tell neither what’s best nor what’s worst, how can you place yourself correctly between them? Judging others is foolish since you cannot know all the facts, cannot create a reliable or objective scale, have no means of knowing whether your criteria match anyone else’s, and cannot have more than a limited and extremely partial view of the other person. Who cares about your opinion anyway? SURFER APPLICATION: There is no other surfer out there besides you! They are all concentrating on catching their own stoke, so the last thing anyone worries about is another surfer’s style and skill … so quit belly aching and go for it!
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5. Give up on feeling guilty. Guilt changes nothing. It may make you feel you’re accepting responsibility, but it can’t produce anything new in your life. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done, either do something to put it right or accept you screwed up and try not to do so again. Then let it go. If you’re feeling guilty about what someone else did, see a psychiatrist. That’s insane. SURFER APPLICATION: Guilt – whether it be work or personally driven – belongs on shore, mate! Make sure you leave it all in the boot of your car or on the beach when you paddle out. Surfers surf, and that’s all you need to bring out to the line up.
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6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you. Nasty people can’t make you mad. Nice people can’t make you happy. Events or people are simply events or people. They can’t make you anything. You have to do that for yourself. Whatever emotions arise in you as a result of external events, they’re powerless until you pick them up and decide to act on them. Besides, most people are far too busy thinking about themselves (and worry what you are are thinking and saying about them) to be concerned about you. SURFER APPLICATION: It has been said already … no one cares if you fall, if you wipe out, as long as you are trying hard … 100%! You hoot and holler when a surfer makes a great drop and you feel for them when they fail … so understand that no one is judging you except you!
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7. Stop keeping score. Numbers are just numbers. They don’t have mystical powers. Because something is expressed as a number, a ratio or any other numerical pattern doesn’t mean it’s true. Plenty of lovingly calculated business indicators are irrelevant, gibberish, nonsensical, or just plain wrong. If you don’t understand it, or it’s telling you something bizarre, ignore it. There’s nothing scientific about relying on false data. Nor anything useful about charting your life by numbers that were silly in the first place. SURFER APPLICATION: Ya, so that bloke caught one and you caught zip, so what. Just make sure you are out there having fun … the rest follows easily once you stop taking so much notice of who has what!
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8. Don’t be concerned that your life and career aren’t working out the way you planned. The closer you stick to any plan, the quicker you’ll go wrong. The world changes constantly. However carefully you analyzed the situation when you made the plan, if it’s more than a few days old, things will already be different. After a month, they’ll be very different. After a year, virtually nothing will be the same as it was when you started. Planning is only useful as a discipline to force people to think carefully about what they know and what they don’t. Once you start, throw the plan away and keep your eyes on reality. SURFER APPLICATION: Ya, so you’re not Kelly Slater or Rob Machado. Besides those blokes, who is??? You’re only goal is to be better than you were before, and that you try harder than you did last time out.
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9. Don’t let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions. To hold yourself responsible for someone else’s success and happiness demeans them and proves you’ve lost the plot. It’s their life. They have to live it. You can’t do it for them; nor can you stop them from messing it up if they’re determined to do so. The job of a supervisor is to help and supervise. Only control-freaks and some others with a less serious mental disability fail to understand this. SURFER APPLICATION: This is a big one so listen up … If some bloke chooses to be a wanker out in the water, so be it. He can claim all the waves labelled “wanker” and go from there. He just wants others to be as miserable as him so don’t try to please him by letting him get in ‘yer noggin!
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10. Don’t worry about about your personality. You don’t really have one. Personality, like ego, is a concept invented by your mind. It doesn’t exist in the real world. Personality is a word for the general impression that you give through your words and actions. If your personality isn’t likeable today, don’t worry. You can always change it, so long as you allow yourself to do so. What fixes someone’s personality in one place is a determined effort on their part-usually through continually telling themselves they’re this or that kind of person and acting on what they say. SURFER APPLICATION: If you don’t like the way you are, make yourself different. You’re the only person who’s standing in your way … shortboard, longboard, goofy, regular stance … if you want to be different and want to see change, just do it and stop whining about how others are stopping you from doing it … only you are stopping yourself!

Like the man said, enough said … go and be the change, and surf like you are meant to be out there!