Staring down head high waves at Surf Ranch
When the stars align, you go
When SWA posted they were going to the Surf Ranch in March, I emailed to check the dates. I had low expectations of it working because March is a crazy busy month with school events and spring break. In what could only be diving timing, Surf Ranch fell on pretty much the only day that month that could have worked. It was perfect, so I grabbed a spot.
Queen of the 3’ wave
I booked in the late fall and had ~4 months to get ready. While I had caught head high waves before, it wasn’t my comfort zone. I was “Queen of the 3’ wave” — but I planned to get plenty of practice in before March. It ended up being a very windy winter, so despite wanting to go out with smaller boards on bigger days, most of my sessions ended up being on waist high waves and longboards.
After a fun winter of long boarding, I really wasn’t ready for the wave at Surf Ranch, but it was a huge opportunity to just go and make the drop.
Facing the drop
The takeoff at Surf Ranch reminds me of my home break in the summer — fast, heavy, and angled. If waves have a personality, my home break is indifferent to your suffering, and takes delight in humbling you. It goes whether you’re ready or not. For me, when it’s over 4’, catching it is accidental, not skillful; and if I look down…I choke.
Getting over fear isn’t just about courage. You also need knowledge.
So when I arrived at Surf Ranch, being able to catch a wave like that was in striking distance, but I wasn’t there yet. If you look at Surf Simply’s skill levels, they say
Level 3 surfers can consistently catch head high waves without assistance.
I was probably at level 2.8. There were a few things that hadn’t clicked yet.
I like tying level 3 to consistently catching head high waves because there are bad habits and techniques you can have and still consistently catch waist high waves, but you’ll need to understand and fix these things to do it on a bigger wave.
The coaches at Surf Ranch saw what I was doing wrong and quickly taught me how to catch that wave. The coaches are world class, but I don’t recommend going there to learn. In my case, I think the universe knew I needed the option of taking a smaller wave removed. Set waves only at Surf Ranch.
Wave caught - now I just gotta stop looking down!
A wave with a penalty forces better technique
There were a few things I needed to correct, but the most critical was probably actually looking high on the wave and digging the rail. I knew about this, but there’s no real penalty if you don’t do this on a small wave…you’ll still catch the wave, and you’ll ride some kind of line…it just might be straight.
With poor technique, I normally drop to the bottom of wave and then do a turn. You can’t really do that on the wave at Surf Ranch - the speed of the wave enforces the penalty.
So the penalty of falling, plus the coaches yelling “LOOK AT THE FENCE!!” was exactly what I needed to get my takeoff sorted out.
Sometimes you know what to do, but you still need a push.
To get me over the fear of the drop, the coach pushed me into a few waves — which forced me past the point of no return. And it was fine. As long as I looked somewhat in the right direction I didn’t going to go straight to the bottom. And when I looked in the right direction, the wave slowed down...not by magic, but because I was taking a horizontal line rather than a vertical one.
A few weeks earlier, I saw a dad push his grom onto a head high wave and tell him ‘now you know how it feels’. Next set, the grom paddles to the peak and did it himself. I had my grom moment at surf ranch. 🥴
But it worked, so….
Let’s goooooooo!
So, that’s that! I didn’t get barreled, but I did learn how to take off on a fast head high wave which means I can surf my bully of a home break all summer!
Would I go back? Absolutely … but it’ll be in a few years - after I know how to get properly barreled.
