That Looks Fun – A Waco Beginner’s Trip

The Epiphany

A few years ago, I was surfing at Waco Surf with a few clients and friends. We bought a few private sessions and had supplemented the trip with some public sessions. Let’s just say, this was an advanced surf group. We weren’t really looking at any waves below the intermediate level to surf or try out.

In the middle of our trip, in the middle of the day, I was sipping on a tea and munching on a breakfast sandwich. Another group of surfers were starting up their session and I looked up (as most surfers do) when the waves started rolling through.

However, when I glanced up at the first wave, it wasn’t breaking in the typical place in the basin, nor was it as fast, nor as tall. But the surfer delicately paddled in, got to their feet and rode beautifully in the pocket until the wave started to hit an inside section where it started to stand up nicely as the surfer walked to the nose and back.

What the?!?

Waco has a longboard wave? For some reason at this point of going there, this hadn’t registered in my brain. Of course they would.

The next surfer struggled to catch the wave and subsequent surfers followed suit (it was obvious the first surfer was the most experienced).

This experience opened my eyes to bringing some of my clients to give the Waco beginner wave a shot. I mean, where else are they going to get multiple repetitions of waves just for them - no drop-ins, no dealing with crowds, just pure surfing?

I promptly forgot about this for the rest of the trip.

The Resurgence

A few years later, while working with two surfers back at my pool, one, who was referencing his wife said, “man, it would be great to just get lots of reps for her without having to worry about crowds, or consistency, or whatever else she has to deal with. Do you know of any surf breaks where she can do that?”

Without thinking about it I said, “yeah, Waco.” That memory of the beginner wave flooded back. I mentioned other breaks around, but we quickly shut them down as, “it would be lucky to get enough reps in a single session with the crowd” because most beginner breaks are saturated with other surfers. They are all good waves for beginner and intermediate surfers - why do you think they are so popular?

But at Waco, she would be able to get the quality reps without a crowd. The husband said, “if you put together a trip, I know we’ll be in, and I think I can get two or three more that would be excited about it.”

With that inspiration, a new trip was born – the Waco Beginner’s Trip. It wouldn’t entail any formal coaching, but the theme would essentially be, “let’s go have some fun surfing super consistent, point break waves, with no wetsuits and a bunch of fun people.” Oh yeah, and you get plenty of turns surfing the waves – your wave is your wave.

As I’ve said on the Dropping In Surf Show, and in several other blog articles, each surf spot has a specific learning curve. Wavepools are no different and in fact, arguably have a steeper learning curve for the takeoff because the way the waves emerge is vastly different from the ocean. But once surfers make it through that learning curve, progression comes fast and furious.

And progression was what we saw as at least half the group was surfing the intermediate wave (in separate public sessions), riding in the pocket, making it through the steep section of the wave, and even began cross-stepping by the end of the trip.

Still wet from our last session, almost every surfer asked when we are doing this again. Yes, it was fun. Really fun. And yes, we’ve got it planned for same time next year, with an increased development plan. Really looking forward to see how much more progression, laughs, and fun we can have.