Hi Bros,

I'm a new surfer and looking for surfing videos, books and Magazines to further improve my skills. I already know the fundamentals of surfing and my surf buddies tell me I should develop my own techniques.

Hope you can help me.

I'm stoked.  

I'm at the line up almost everyday bro but it will be of great help if I do get a copy of these additional instructional materials especially now that I have started to try some tricks.

The water's cold here though. Brrrrrrrr.

I'm a new surfer and tell you first hand the pros and cons of surfing with buddies and surfing alone.

The best thing when you are surfing alone is that you can have all the waves you want. There will no worries about positioning yourself properly to get the best wave. Compare that when you are with your more experienced surfing buddies. Definitely, you will have to wait for them to get their waves which would mean the best waves, then and only then can you get your own which is the smallest of a set of waves. Remember that they are more experienced hence, they know how to position themselves and can paddle faster. Poor you; just wait for the crumbs to come your way. It's nice if your buddies are a little considerate like  my buddies here who will tolerate some drop ins by their rookies.

The worst thing about surfing alone is that it is not advisable in the first place; safety-wise that is. One time, my leash snapped when I was wiped-out by double overhead waves. They may look strong but believe me, these things snap. I tried to swim towards the shoreline w/c is 300 m away when I had leg cramps. Its good thing, I had my buddies who had to cancel the session and tow me.

One thing more, if you are alone when a shark attacks. You will be the only natural prey unlike when you are with buddies, at least you have the chance of not being served for dinner.

Hwe hwe hwe.

I'm a new surfer and I think I'm going crazy. I dont know if its normal but I sometimes imagine of sharks roaming when i'm at the line up. It started when I saw a video of a surfer getting attacked by 2 great white sharks in Ripley's. Wild Discover was not of great help when it featured sharks last night. Sometimes I get jumpy when I see my shadow and mistake it for some predator.

Are there man-eating sharks in the Philippines? Had there been a reported shark attacks here?

Hope you can help me.  

on January 16th, 2004, 4:58pm, aska wrote:wear something stripes... or better paint ur board stripes. they say there's something in shark's brain that does'nt like stripes, a genetic thing. discovery channel stuff.

on December 18th, 2003, 2:20am, flame wrote:While surfing off the Florida coast, a tourist snapped his board. He could swim, but his fear of alligators kept him clinging to the broken board. Spotting and old beachcomber standing on the shore, the tourist shouted, "Are there any gators around here?!" "Naw," the man hollered back, "they ain't been around for years!" Feeling safe, the tourist started swimming leisurely toward the beachbreaks. About halfway there he asked the guy, "How'd you get rid of the gators?" "We didn't do nothin'," the beachcomber said. "Wow", said the tourist. The beachcomber added, "The sharks got 'em."  

I guess its normal. I actually don't mind now if there's sharks in the water as long as the swells keep on coming.

Yup, surfing videos can be a rip off. I tried searching videos using a downloading program but I keep on downloading xxx videos with the surf topic

Anyways, I would appeciate it if you could give me titles of surf movies to facilitate my downloading. I plan to burn and sell it at an affordable price.

Keep them coming men

If you're in San Juan, La Union, try visiting German Sunset Beach Resort and ask for Leo, a local surfer working at the resort and buy their Palmer's wax. It's the plain smelling brand but hey, it works. The last time I checked, one piece costs P70