I'd like to just say hi all, long time reader first time poster. But I love to talk so where does one begin?

For me, surfing is like bumping into an old friend I lost contact with many years ago. A distant memory, in a chapter of a book I thought long closed. A long forgotten dream I gave up on ever reliving, oh where did the years go?

And yet here I am once again.

To begin with, I spent many years surfing (body- boarding to be precise) at some of South Australia’s lesser-known spots and have had the fortune to be able to surf throughout SA, VIC and WA.

I know body boarding has always been frowned upon and is technically not surfing, but I grew up in a time where longboarding was unheard of or never mentioned. Where it was cool to be seen with a thruster under your arm. Cut backs and floaters? Forget that, everybody was under-gunned on low volume, thin boards. Where you bunny- hopped all over the wave just to stay on the ride. A time where the shout “STAND UP AND BE COUNTED” was a cry to rally, even if you were a kook.

This I could not stand, as for me it was all about being close to the wave, feeling its power, and of course spending as much time as possible under the lip. I was never in it to look cool.

Somewhere along the way though, life took a left turn and the wife, kids and I ended up in rural Australia, where I thought the dream died, and for many years it did.

Surfboards and body boards for many years were either stored back out in the shed hidden at the back of wardrobes or were kept in far off coastal locations to be enjoyed by others.

We forgot what it meant to live.

Life became about work, and the hours spent each week on the road to and from work. It became all about filling the car at the petrol bowsers each week and then working to afford to put more fuel in the car to go back to work the following week.

But that’s ok, because that’s what everyone else did. It was the accepted norm.

If you managed to put anything away from each pay packet, you spent it on two week yearly holiday down at the same beachside caravan park with everybody else from your town…..If you managed to put any away that is.

For me the smack to the head came when my children asked me “when I would ever stop working” one day to play with them, ouch! It also didn’t help that I had gone from being athletic fit to being overweight by at least 20 kg (all belly) and out of breath at the simplest tasks.

For my wife it came when she became frustrated that we were spending more money on fuel to get to work rather then on the groceries (over three times as much, and more).

Lets throw a major cancer scare in there too boot as well and it doesn’t take long to realise that THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

Well two years of planning and after getting our act back together we made the jump back to the land of the living, and are loving life once again.

Being only a stone’s throw from the coast has allowed me to do something I thought I would never do again and I have gotten back into surfing. As I’m approaching 40 I thought I might give longboarding a go. In fact It was because I stumbled on this forum that I made the decision to purchase my first longboard, so thanks guys and girls.

My wife has also taken up longboarding (how cool is that) and every spare day she has, we drop the kids off at school and head for the coast to surf. The best part if both kids are hooked on longboarding as well and both want a longboard as well and want to surf out the back with me (they are 5 and 8). I promised that when they could swim 200m non stop, swim 50 meters underwater and hold their breath for 30 seconds, then I would take them out the back (is that being too hard?).

Its taken me 3 months to post on the longboarding forum because I promised myself that I wouldn’t do so until I was back up and surfing on my feet (decently).

Oh, and why the screen name “CrossStep”? Well that was because on my first real ride on the longboard (not all wobbly and falling off), I thought, “oh hell, how can I perform such a sacrilege and waste so much potential on the board”….so I started Cross Stepping up the board.

I didn’t get very far, but boy I still smile at my first attempt.

Cheers all. (Sorry for such a long first post).

Nice to hear that you're back in the water XS, going from an esky lid to a longboard is a strange route, but not after such a long break.

And you're obviously a bit of a renaissance man if you don't like the shorties with all their silly circus tricks and flippity floppity moves.

And don't worry about the long post, it's only Scotty who doesn't read them

What a fantastic post XS and a warm welcome mate.

G'day XS..I think we all started our surfing by body surfing way back before seeing that there were better ways of riding a wave so I'd say your in shared company.

Good luck with the learning process..we never stop

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Macaha said..

What a fantastic post XS and a warm welcome mate.

+1

Well sad Mac. Looking forward to your contributions going forward XS. Make sure you post some pics of yr family quiver - we love pics in the greenroom!

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obct said..

Nice to hear that you're back in the water XS, going from an esky lid to a longboard is a strange route, but not after such a long break.

Who'ree you calling' strange? That's exactly the route I took?

Welcome CrossSrep.... Hoe you have a much better time on you're longboard than I did on my shark biscuit! Too much competition here on the northern beaches, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I say...

Welcome to the show X/step ...BTW nice entry post

Nice to have you and great story.

What you do in the water is up to you. The only rule is that you enjoy it.

ET.

You were lost and now you have found, cool post good to see you got your froth back mate and extra life points for you sharing with the family .

Stoked you weren't inspired by the 666 room mate, 4 people rolling up to the local with 6's is an instacrowd lol

Welcome mate...& yeah the work life balance can be difficult to juggle. It can be hard enough without kids to raise.

Yep as the brethren above said ..... & post pics of your Boardporn

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CrossStep said...
[br]I'd like to just say hi all, long time reader first time poster. But I love to talk so where does one begin?

For me, surfing is like bumping into an old friend I lost contact with many years ago. A distant memory, in a chapter of a book I thought long closed. A long forgotten dream I gave up on ever reliving, oh where did the years go?

And yet here I am once again.

To begin with, I spent many years surfing (body- boarding to be precise) at some of South Australia?s lesser-known spots and have had the fortune to be able to surf throughout SA, VIC and WA.

I know body boarding has always been frowned upon and is technically not surfing, but I grew up in a time where longboarding was unheard of or never mentioned. Where it was cool to be seen with a thruster under your arm. Cut backs and floaters? Forget that, everybody was under-gunned on low volume, thin boards. Where you bunny- hopped all over the wave just to stay on the ride. A time where the shout ?STAND UP AND BE COUNTED? was a cry to rally, even if you were a kook.

This I could not stand, as for me it was all about being close to the wave, feeling its power, and of course spending as much time as possible under the lip. I was never in it to look cool.

Somewhere along the way though, life took a left turn and the wife, kids and I ended up in rural Australia, where I thought the dream died, and for many years it did.

Surfboards and body boards for many years were either stored back out in the shed hidden at the back of wardrobes or were kept in far off coastal locations to be enjoyed by others.

We forgot what it meant to live.

Life became about work, and the hours spent each week on the road to and from work. It became all about filling the car at the petrol bowsers each week and then working to afford to put more fuel in the car to go back to work the following week.

But that?s ok, because that?s what everyone else did. It was the accepted norm.

If you managed to put anything away from each pay packet, you spent it on two week yearly holiday down at the same beachside caravan park with everybody else from your town?..If you managed to put any away that is.

For me the smack to the head came when my children asked me ?when I would ever stop working? one day to play with them, ouch! It also didn?t help that I had gone from being athletic fit to being overweight by at least 20 kg (all belly) and out of breath at the simplest tasks.

For my wife it came when she became frustrated that we were spending more money on fuel to get to work rather then on the groceries (over three times as much, and more).

Lets throw a major cancer scare in there too boot as well and it doesn?t take long to realise that THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

Well two years of planning and after getting our act back together we made the jump back to the land of the living, and are loving life once again.

Being only a stone?s throw from the coast has allowed me to do something I thought I would never do again and I have gotten back into surfing. As I?m approaching 40 I thought I might give longboarding a go. In fact It was because I stumbled on this forum that I made the decision to purchase my first longboard, so thanks guys and girls.

My wife has also taken up longboarding (how cool is that) and every spare day she has, we drop the kids off at school and head for the coast to surf. The best part if both kids are hooked on longboarding as well and both want a longboard as well and want to surf out the back with me (they are 5 and 8). I promised that when they could swim 200m non stop, swim 50 meters underwater and hold their breath for 30 seconds, then I would take them out the back (is that being too hard?).

Its taken me 3 months to post on the longboarding forum because I promised myself that I wouldn?t do so until I was back up and surfing on my feet (decently).

Oh, and why the screen name ?CrossStep?? Well that was because on my first real ride on the longboard (not all wobbly and falling off), I thought, ?oh hell, how can I perform such a sacrilege and waste so much potential on the board??.so I started Cross Stepping up the board.

I didn?t get very far, but boy I still smile at my first attempt.

Cheers all. (Sorry for such a long first post).

That was a great read. Welcome and as the others have said,looking forward to some pics.

I quoted that just for you scotty

Welcome to the Dark Side XStep
Won't be long and that board will feel like part of you. Just one thing, before you lose the belly, get you soul arches down pat.
Stoked for you and your tribe.

Thanks all for the warm welcome.

I will definitely make sure that I post up some “Board porn” in the near future.

As for now I’m surfing with (mumble quietly under my breath) a 10’2” 24” 3 ½ NSP Longboard, so I don’t think that’s the kind of “Board porn” that’s going to get anyone to excited.

I would love to have been able to discuss with a local shaper my needs but there are none in the area and a trip to Melbourne/ Torquay is near a full days drive to pick out a board, that I have no idea of it’s/ my capabilities or what I want/ need, and coming back empty handed would have been depressing.

Got to admit though, I would have been happy to drag a plank of wood out on my first surf just to get back out there.

Though as I progress I’m sure this will change. Especially since I am getting quite interested in spending as much time up on the nose of the board as possible. So as a 6ft bloke weighing 110kg I’ve got a good idea I might be sticking with a board in to 10 ft range.

On a side note: I still recall my first session back out in years. A clean, glassy and offshore 2ft beach break, peeling left and right, with no one else out on the wave.

Though the best part was I had shown my daughter the video by “supanimal” the night before (the one where he takes his daughter out on his board), and my daughter was sooooo excited she could not wait to give it a go. On the day surfing, she rode with me in the shore breaks and on the third go she wanted to do it “all by herself”. How stoked was I when she stood up on her first go, she’s only 5. I reckon the nearby bathers would have thought I was loony with the hooting and hollering I did as I cheered her on.

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CrossStep said..

Thanks all for the warm welcome.

I will definitely make sure that I post up some ?Board porn? in the near future.

As for now I?m surfing with (mumble quietly under my breath) a 10?2? 24? 3 ? NSP Longboard, so I don?t think that?s the kind of ?Board porn? that?s going to get anyone to excited.

I would love to have been able to discuss with a local shaper my needs but there are none in the area and a trip to Melbourne/ Torquay is near a full days drive to pick out a board, that I have no idea of it?s/ my capabilities or what I want/ need, and coming back empty handed would have been depressing.

Got to admit though, I would have been happy to drag a plank of wood out on my first surf just to get back out there.

Though as I progress I?m sure this will change. Especially since I am getting quite interested in spending as much time up on the nose of the board as possible. So as a 6ft bloke weighing 110kg I?ve got a good idea I might be sticking with a board in to 10 ft range.

On a side note: I still recall my first session back out in years. A clean, glassy and offshore 2ft beach break, peeling left and right, with no one else out on the wave.

Though the best part was I had shown my daughter the video by ?supanimal? the night before (the one where he takes his daughter out on his board), and my daughter was sooooo excited she could not wait to give it a go. On the day surfing, she rode with me in the shore breaks and on the third go she wanted to do it ?all by herself?. How stoked was I when she stood up on her first go, she?s only 5. I reckon the nearby bathers would have thought I was loony with the hooting and hollering I did as I cheered her on.

Put a pic of the board up anyway cross step and stick with it until you improve . You will no doubt get a full rundown on the benefits of McTavish boards when you start looking for another board . Sounds like your daughter is probably hooked now and you will be getting her a board next.

NSP are a good starting point..tough as nails...once your past that stage check Ebay..then report back in for guidence

I went inland for work for 10 years and had to give it away same as you. The positive is that it feels like its all brand new again. Oh just thought of another positive it means we are a further 10 years away from rotator cuff shoulder injuries, when these blokes are out of the water getting their shoulder reconstructions we'll be smiling out in the lineup

I will look at putting some Board porn up this week.

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surfbroker said..

NSP are a good starting point..tough as nails...once your past that stage check Ebay..then report back in for guidence

NSP are "tough as nails", the main reason I decided to get one over fiberglass was that I didn't want to put pressure dings all over a board I was relearning on. The wifey has the same opinion so she is looking at getting the same for herself. Not because she's a fat bugger like me, but because it's large volume has helped with paddle skills and getting onto waves quicker.

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stuk said..

I went inland for work for 10 years and had to give it away same as you. The positive is that it feels like its all brand new again. Oh just thought of another positive it means we are a further 10 years away from rotator cuff shoulder injuries, when these blokes are out of the water getting their shoulder reconstructions we'll be smiling out in the lineup

Yep leaving the surf for so long is a real kicker, and you are right it does make it feel like its brand new all over again (different outlook as well). If we are now a further 10 years behind everybody else in regards to injuries, I guess it also means that when I'm in 50's and 60's I should be at my peek performance. Here's to hoping.

Didn't Ted ride an NSP in Sri Lanka and love it?
You might be interested in that thread cross step.

Thanks, I will hunt it down

Where do you get off. Stalk everyone,waltz in here call yourself cross step like you own the place. How can we have a gang when blokes just welcome themselves.
Welcome cross step

great post , surfing with your family rocks

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CrossStep said..
My wife has also taken up longboarding (how cool is that) and every spare day she has, we drop the kids off at school and head for the coast to surf. The best part if both kids are hooked on longboarding as well and both want a longboard as well and want to surf out the back with me (they are 5 and 8). I promised that when they could swim 200m non stop, swim 50 meters underwater and hold their breath for 30 seconds, then I would take them out the back (is that being too hard?).

Good on ya for getting back out there mate.

You might want to re-think the 50m underwater criteria though, it's a bloody long way for kids. I reckon a good test for the kids would be to stand 10m apart from your wife, dunk the kid in front of you and spin them around underwater a couple of times for 10 seconds or so to disorientate them, let them pop up and swim over to mum, who then does the same thing. Then repeat a couple of times. It would be a pretty good simulation for coping a set on the head. The swimming 200m non-stop and holding their breath for 30 seconds are good requirements.

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Killbot said..

CrossStep said..
My wife has also taken up longboarding (how cool is that) and every spare day she has, we drop the kids off at school and head for the coast to surf. The best part if both kids are hooked on longboarding as well and both want a longboard as well and want to surf out the back with me (they are 5 and 8). I promised that when they could swim 200m non stop, swim 50 meters underwater and hold their breath for 30 seconds, then I would take them out the back (is that being too hard?).

Good on ya for getting back out there mate.

You might want to re-think the 50m underwater criteria though, it's a bloody long way for kids. I reckon a good test for the kids would be to stand 10m apart from your wife, dunk the kid in front of you and spin them around underwater a couple of times for 10 seconds or so to disorientate them, let them pop up and swim over to mum, who then does the same thing. Then repeat a couple of times. It would be a pretty good simulation for coping a set on the head. The swimming 200m non-stop and holding their breath for 30 seconds are good requirements.

Love the idea of the dunk/ spin then get the kids to swim to mum.

I should probably clear up though that swimming 50m underwater was for coming out the back of some of the heavier reef breaks (that they are already telling me they want to surf) when they are older. When I was younger it was part of my personal training to push myself to be able to swim 2 lengths of a 25m pool underwater to help with confidence when underwater in bad wipeouts. I don't expect them to get anywhere near achieving that until they are in teens.

Even now, I've got along way to go to get back into form myself before I attempt to head back out to some of the old haunts, and I don't think I'll go back out to them till I get back into shape - otherwise it would be a bit hypocritical of me.....and the kids wouldn't waste anytime in pointing that out.

50m underwater is a pretty big ask considering most of the type of waves you are likely to encounter as a beginner!
the 30 sec breath hold is a good idea as you are normally puffing when you wipeout but in reality unless you are surfing massive waves you are not very likely to encounter anything more than a maximum of 10 sec hold down which is a big hold down in anyone terms
i would up the 200m in the pool (equates to about 50 m in the ocean )and emphasize the floating/treading water/ options and being calm out past the line of the breaking waves you can always float around till someone can help you or you regain enough puff to swim in
not that you want to try this
www.facebook.com/pages/Searching-for-Brett-Archibald/168963063261976
paddle them out the back a few times on a small day and maybe make them swim in while you follow them on the board and make them hop off their board and tread water outside the break for 5 - 10 mins
knowing how to body surf a wave is a major advantage
some of my best mates are bodyboarders (much easier on your board when you run over them )
cheers

There's a stack of inspiration in this thread, thanks to CrossStep!

CrossStep, I too spent quite a bit of time on a "lid".

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Simondo said..

There's a stack of inspiration in this thread, thanks to CrossStep!

CrossStep, I too spent quite a bit of time on a "lid".

Well said.

Excellent post crossstep.

Isnt the saying ...Work to live don't ever live to work...

Welcome back .. And welcome to the forum.

And secretly, I rode a lid to.... Before I learnt what my legs were for

What a great read
Hope you score heaps cross stepper

Thanks all for the warm welcome

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laceys lane said...
Where do you get off. Stalk everyone,waltz in here call yourself cross step like you own the place. How can we have a gang when blokes just welcome themselves.
Welcome cross step

Would an application in retrospect be sufficient

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CrossStep said..

Thanks all for the warm welcome

laceys lane said...
Where do you get off. Stalk everyone,waltz in here call yourself cross step like you own the place. How can we have a gang when blokes just welcome themselves.
Welcome cross step

Would an application in retrospect be sufficient

Your welcome xstep now don't start me on Lacey