I do have to add, surfing prone is a very technical and exhilarating sport to do, done well it’s quite a beautiful thing to do. It’s a social bob, invariably proners gather in a shoal and each tends to take a turn to catch a wave. Hardened surfers are technique experts, you can tell them a mile off. Watch, admire and learn the skills, the effortless struggle to surf a wave of a million faces. Truly an art.
Sadly for us SUP surfers we are suffering the brunt of being newbies in a world of seasoned proners. We’re annoying, we get in the way, we have sticks and we fall off a lot. Standing on boards is incredibly tricky even in the lightest of sea states, add in a rip or a wave and we’re all over the place. We’ve/I’ve been doing this a good few years, even as good as I am I still get shouted at by proners, I expect to be shouted at for a good few years yet. Our aspiration isn’t to catch the biggest, the knarliest, the pealers, the act of simply ripping head high is good enough, to carve an arc, a spliced cutback, the peaky roundhouse cutback, the longboard’esque rides, the slashy turns.. then go do that for another 50-100 times before we come in for coffee. Thankfully a lot of us put some effort into teaching newbies to “rules” the technique and the flair, we’re all seasoned, we have all been there at some point, we’ve tried surfing and most hated the cold, we’re older, wiser, learn techniques quicker and have the ability to self manage. We’ve moved on.
I’ll never try to get you to try it, that’s for you to decide, but given the grins I’ve seen from new folks learning means to me they enjoy it, t’is all I care for, people enjoying themselves.
