Understanding surf vernacular can be a challenge for new surfers, especially when surfers are describing waves. Words like lip, pocket, barrel, and shoulder will likely stupefy anyone not intimately familiar with the sport. Unfortunately, when it comes to measuring wave heights, it only gets more confusing. Surfers have several methods for measuring wave heights. The...
Your popup will make or break your ride. If you drag your feet on your popup on a critical wave, you’ll miss the entire ride. At Jamie O’Brien Surf Experience, we teach our beginner surfers a fool-proof popup system that allows them to get to their feet slowly to maximize their chances of success. This...
Summer is officially here and for most of the country summer’s arrival means it’s time to ditch the wetsuit and slide into your favorite pair of boardshorts or bikini for your warm water summer surf sessions. Nothing beats the feeling of shedding the winter wetsuit in exchange for something lighter and warm water ready. Here...
Here on Oahu, it feels like summer nearly every day. The sun is shining, the water is warm, and everyone on the island flocks to the beaches and the outdoors every chance they get. Summer remains one of our most popular travel seasons. During the summer on the North Shore, many of our fearsome...
The North Shore of Oahu has almost too many quality surf breaks to count. Within the Seven Mile Miracle, it’s surfer’s choice on what to ride, from mammoth barrels and wide-open carvable faces to the soft rolling peelers of Turtle Bay near our North Shore Surf School. Sometimes we’re in the mood to surf something different,...
In our last JOB Surf Experience Surf Tips article, we walked you through the ins and outs of the bottom turn. This week’ we dissect the top turn to give you the tools you need to hit the lip and retain speed down the line. While a bottom turn sets up your entire ride, a...
Turning is vital to progressing as a surfer. If you’re an intermediate surfer looking to improve your on-wave performance, mastering the bottom turn to top turn combo will help you take your surfing to the next level. In surfing, most maneuvers are designed to get the surfer back in the pocket where the wave has...
Pipeline isn’t just the defining wave of the North Shore or Hawaii as a whole, it’s the defining wave for the surfing world. No wave is as ferocious, picture-perfect, or universally sought after as Pipeline. A good wave at Pipeline can change a surfer’s life. Pipeline is the most technically challenging and dangerous wave...
When spring turns to summer, the last of the large north swells hit the Seven Mile Miracle on the North Shore, we begin to catch the travel bug. While there’s still plenty of Oahu surf during the summer, Pipeline and the other flagship North Shore waves go dormant. During the summer, we sail, paddle, hike,...
If you’ve ever been in the water with a professional surfer, the first thing you’ll notice about what separates them from the rest of the lineup is the speed they surf. From take-off to kick out, professional surfers carry exponentially more velocity into and through the wave than their civilian counterparts. Learning to generate speed...
