🏄‍♀️ One shuffle forward, two wipeouts back—or surf progress hell 😈

👋 Happy six-month anniversary! Unbelievable, but The Wipeout Weekly has been around for half a year! Thank you so much for reading! Plenty more exciting stuff coming before the year wraps—so keep your eyes on this space.

🏄‍♀️ Let’s surf:

• 1 shuffle, 2 wipeouts = surf progress hell 🤮

• Samara, CR – sleepy but fun 🐢

• What it’s like to surf Pipeline 🫠

• This week’s surf news 📰

• 14,642 days later 📆

• Making surfing friends (is possible) 🫶

^SURFODRAMA

😱 One shuffle forward, two wipeouts back–or surf progress hell

It happens. Over and over again.

You just had a session where you felt like you forgot how to surf. Not only did you not progress, you didn’t even plateau—you simply regressed and got stuck. It hurts.

We might call these sessions “one of them days” and accept them as part of the surfing experience. But we really wanted to know why this happens, so maybe there’s a way to fix it?

Laura Day—one of Girls Who Can’t Surf Good and founder of Surf Société—shared something she learned in a workshop with a sports mental coach:
 
“The brain will temporarily sacrifice skills you already have to focus on learning something new. So when you’re pushing yourself and feel like you’re regressing, it’s all part of the process. You’re not actually regressing—you’re making room to grow.”

📉 There’s an explanation for this
That quote made me think about the power law of practice. Now, bear with me. I promise it’ll be worth it.

The power law says there’s something slowing down the learning process—that learning doesn’t increase at a steady pace. Oh no. Our learning is hindered no matter what we do. And that kind of makes sense, right?

You experience huge gains early on—like when you stood up on a board for the first time.

Then slower gains creep in—say, when you’re practicing your turns. You hit plateaus, where you’re not improving at all. 

And then, the worst of all: occasional regressions, where you suddenly feel like you’ve forgotten how to surf altogether.

🌊 Surfing can’t be controlled
Surfing is a complex motor skill, and the power law of practice definitely applies—but with extra twists.

Because you’re not practicing in a controlled environment (and honestly, even wave pools barely count).

Changing conditions add chaos. And chaos makes plateaus and regressions more likely—not because you’ve stopped improving, but because the parameters keep shifting.

So your progress might look more like a jagged learning curve—forward, backward, sideways—but overall trending up.

🤯 And another thing
I’ve always wondered if there was something besides conditions that slows down learning in surfing. And I mean all conditions: like waves, board type, whether the sun is shining, or whether you’re hungover.

Based on my experience? I think it’s total cognitive overload.

Once you’ve truly mastered a skill and it becomes automatic—like driving a car—then it’s all a bed of roses.

But if you’re trying to process too many things at once (takeoff angle, pop-up speed, foot placement, and—God forbid—a turn?), your brain can fry its working memory.

It doesn’t know what to prioritize. So it panics, shuts down, and it’s hasta la vista, baby… until the next session.

🛠️ How to stop your brain from frying
The key, I’ve learned, is to make your practice more deliberate and isolate the specific skill you’re trying to acquire.

Break it into smaller chunks: just catch a wave and ride it on your belly, rather than trying to pop up as well.

Then repeat that with focused attention—not just mindless reps. Apparently, that helps commit it to long-term memory, one step closer to becoming automatic.

And if that still doesn’t work? Then it was definitely “one of them, can’t-be-helped” days. Let’s just get some ice cream and sit on the beach instead! 🍦

^{SURF SPOT SPOTLIGHT}

Samara may be sleepy, but still fun 🐢

Sámara is a sleepy beach town on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. The kind of place where time slows down. The surf isn’t legendary—but that’s the point. It’s consistent, calm, and welcoming. Perfect for learning.

🌊 Waves
Sámara Bay is naturally protected by a coral reef, which means the waves here are usually small and mellow—perfect for total beginners and nervous first-timers. Think long rides on soft whitewater and lots of room to practice your pop-up without worrying about rogue rippers. When you're ready for a bit more push, head a bit south toward Playa Carrillo or Playa Buena Vista.

🚰 Water quality
Clean and warm almost year-round. During dry season (Dec–April), expect glassy mornings and postcard-clear water. Rainy season (May–Nov) can stir up sediment, but it rarely gets gross.

👙 Wardrobe
Water hovers around 27°C (80°F), so leave the wetsuit at home. Bikini, boardshorts, or rashie if you’re sun-sensitive or doing a lot of lessons.

☀️ Best time to surf
December to April = prime beginner season. Small, manageable swells and offshore winds most mornings. Rainy season brings slightly bigger surf and fewer crowds.

⚠️ Hazards
Coral reef (mostly far out, but worth noting), the occasional stingray (shuffle your feet), and sunburns that sneak up fast. Rip currents are mild but can appear near river mouths during the rainy season.

🏄🏻‍♀️ Surfboard rental
Plentiful. Shops like Choco’s Surf School, C&C Surf School, and Tico Adventure Lodge rent beginner boards, offer lessons, and sometimes throw in a beach chair. Prices are reasonable, and locals are friendly.

🍉 What else to do in Sámara
Horseback rides at sunset, kayaking to Isla Chora, beach yoga, ziplining through the jungle. It’s a great place to do stuff, but also a great place to do absolutely nothing.

🧳 Solo traveling
Ideal. Safe, small, and super welcoming.Bonus: easy to walk everywhere—no ATV needed unless you want to get fancy.

^{WAVE OF THE WEEK}

What it’s like to surf Pipeline 🫠

Pipeline.

As surfers, we should probably know a thing or two about it—so we can stay as far away from it as possible if we want to live. The takeoff at Pipeline was once described as a “god-damn heart stopper.”

In case you're new to the surfing game, Pipeline is the most photographed surf break on the planet. A legendary reef break on the North Shore of Oʻahu, Hawai‘i, it breaks mostly left—while its sister wave, Backdoor, breaks right.

So sometimes you’ll see two surfers on the same wave going in opposite directions. Pipeline is also one of the few big-wave breaks that you can watch up close, right from the beach.

But it’s not all butterflies and cupcakes. No siree.

Pipeline is shallow—as little as 6 to 10 feet deep—and the bottom? Razor-sharp volcanic reef. Wipeouts aren’t just scary, they’re dangerous. There have been at least 11 confirmed deaths, and in one year alone, 30 injuries.

The wave itself is a thick, pitching barrel that breaks fast and hard.

It looks majestic from the beach, but it’s a total meat grinder in the lineup. It can be small enough for some surfing influencers to charge it. It can also be absolutely massive. Regular swells mean 12 to 25 feet on the face. During big swells? You're staring at 40–50 foot faces.

🕰️ Who surfed it first?
As for who surfed it first, the history’s a bit contested. But we’ll go with Matt Warshaw’s version: Phil Edwards, mid-December 1961, with Bruce Brown filming. That footage ended up in Surfing Hollow Days.

The name Pipeline? According to surf lore, it came from shaper Mike Diffenderfer, who suggested it to Bruce Brown—either because the wave looked like the giant concrete pipes being laid nearby or because he thought “Banzai” sounded too intense.

🏄‍♂️ What it’s like to surf Pipeline?
Picture 50 guys in the lineup, strict pecking order, heavy localism. And yes—er do mean guys.

Women still rarely surf Pipe. It wasn’t until 2021 that the Billabong Pipe Pro added a women’s division. Moana Jones Wong won the inaugural event and became the undisputed queen of the break. But even now, most women don’t surf Pipe regularly.

While researching first-hand accounts, I found this gem of a story. I don’t care if it’s really real—I’m sharing it in full:

“For the most part, surfing Pipe as a non-regular completely sucks. If you're even in a spot to catch a wave, you're surrounded by a pack of feral psychopaths frothing like desperate starving piranhas. Or imagine trying to eat a blade of grass on the African savannah with 100 water buffalo charging at you from every direction. You tell yourself, ‘I'm tough, I belong here.’

Finally, if you're insanely lucky, a set rolls in and you’re in the right spot. As the wave approaches, water begins draining off the reef, and what was deep blue becomes transparent—your toe knuckles dragging across jagged coral. Behind you: a vertical cliff of water. In front: a swirling torture chamber.

This is when the Banshee screaming starts. You panic. Are they calling you off or telling you to go? You hurl yourself off the cliff—imaginary dominance intact—and realize the wave is four times faster than anything you've ever surfed. You're 12 feet in the air, drone view over a hollow barrel, maybe with a pro already deep inside it.

This is when you start praying.

The wave slams you down—if you're lucky, you don't hit the reef. The one time I surfed Pipe, I went left, another guy went right—we collided on a double overhead wave. I face-planted into my own fins and got a gash on each side of my eyes.

As we rolled in the shallows, the guy starts screaming, ready to fight. I told him I was going left. He chilled out. Good times.”

Pipe still on your bucket list? That’s on your head.

^{SURF THRU HISTORY}

 📆 14,642 days later: The legend of Dale Webster

Imagine surfing every single day for 40 years. Every. Freaking. Day. Four decades without missing a session. And here we are, thinking 30 days in a row this September is a challenge. 😅

Take a wild guess—how many surfboards, wetsuits, and bars of wax did Dale burn through in that time? Spoiler: a lot.

👉 Read the full story

^{THE WIPEOUT WEEKLY SURF NEWS ROUNDUP}

🗞️ New kite surf world record• Australia wins big at ISA Games • Santa Cruz’s surf makes $

🪁 New kite surf world record
Jake Scrace hits 1,587 ft in a paramotor-assisted “tow up” jump. Wildest ride yet.

🇦🇺 Australia wins big at ISA Games
Australian Dane Henry, 19, takes gold in El Salvador; Europeans do very well too.

💸 Santa Cruz surf = $194.7M/year
New study shows surf drives local economy—but rising seas could wipe out the breaks.

👉 Read the full news roundup

^{GIRL-WHO-FOUND-A-SURFING-FRIEND}

🏄🏻‍♀️ How to make surfing friends—Abby’s story

This is Abby’s story. She posted in Girls Who Can’t Surf Good last December and accidentally changed her life.

What started as a reply to a group chat turned into an unexpected surf sisterhood, beachside heart-to-hearts, a lifelong friendship, and so much more.

👉 Read Abby’s story

⬆️ Aaaaaaand that was the last wave of the week!
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^HOUSEKEEPING

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