Wednesday, February 2, 2022

A large swell is forecasted for this coming weekend, meaning not ideal conditions for a beginner or someone of my skill level. Thanks to the handy dandy surf forecast online, I can avoid getting demolished in waves I’m not prepared or equipped for. Since the conditions were looking perfect for us, we decided to cancel plans we had for Wednesday and make the journey to JR (Jordan River). The forecast showed glass and low winds, as well as wave heights at 3.5 feet. Perfect for beginners or intermediate surfers.

We left later in the day, due to work, and arrived at JR around 2:30. This gave us two and a half hours of daylight, the perfect amount of time to get ready, surf, and unchange before losing all light. There was one other surfer in the water, paired with clean, perfect waves, making for great conditions. We were ready to redeem ourselves from our disappointing Sunday surf! We changed into our wetsuits in record time, just as the only other surfer made his way back into shore! It was just me and Katie and the waves, that is for a little while. We were both able to catch a few waves before another man showed up, which included Katie catching her first non-crasher. Before anyone else had taken our waves, I was feeling quite confident, probably 7.5/10. The waves were a fun size, with the perfect amount of thrill and security. Unfortunately our perfect conditions were jeopardized when a much more skilled surfer took the spot behind us, meaning we had to get out of his way for the most part, giving us both major anxiety, as the surfing community doesn’t tend to be the most patient towards beginners, and ‘kooks’.

We managed to catch more waves, but also managed to get in his way, dropping my confidence level down to 6/10. I caught a few pretty good non-crashers, one of which I rode while I stood up, and the others on my knees. After Katie hit her hand on a rock in the shallow, she headed in while I surfed a little while longer. A milestone I had never achieved before; surfing alone at Jordan River! Once we were out of the water, the man surfing behind us mentioned we should watch some videos from “barefoot surfing”, a youtube channel helpful for beginners. I decided to not read too far into this, as he was either being kind or telling us we sucked and needed to move out of his way the next time, though he seemed pretty nice. Overall, we had a great surf session. We came to the conclusion though, that next time we would try to go out a bit further into the surf, catching the waves in the back. We’ll have to see if we brave it out the next time!