Love this! Great to see a woman's perspective! For me, I want to work on confidence and believe in myself!!

I'm an intermediate, unstylish surfer with tons to learn, but when I surf, I feel like I found a missing part of me - I grew up on a windy, cold coastline and have surfed for 20 years, tackling storm swells, onshore winds and snow. I take any opportunity to surf.

Yet, when I see a crowded peak (esp if it's full of men, has an aggressive vibe or its a world-class break), I feel like I don't belong, and sit down the line waiting for wide swinging peaks and take the dregs. Likewise, when the swell gets bigger, I may find somewhere it's breaking smaller- not just because I'm scared of the size, but also, due to imposter syndrome - I doubt I have the skill to even be out there despite having done 1000s of successful duck dives in my life - It's important to know your limits, but I'm sure there're are days I had the ability to ride bigger waves, but didn't even try. 

Cath Gito that’s a lot! Taiwan was around 21-30 degrees when I was there, but it was abnormally warm for that time of year. I back in Vancouver now- so cold and dark! I used to live there and dec-feb could get cold (down to 8) or have warm days (up to 25), shoulder seasons are nicest, summer too hot. It always rains in Taiwan!

If you are surfing, taitung in the south has the best surf and is beautiful. Yilan has its days. Let me know if you ever want any more info on taiwan!

I’ve wanted to go to Siargo for ages, but we didn’t this time due to it being typhoon season- hopefully one day though!

Looks amazing (even if a bit big for me!). The philliphines has really been hit recently-hope there’s not to much destruction. I’m in Taiwan at the moment as that swell is coming in, but am unfortunately flying out today. Managed to get out just after the last one in some fun waves!

Best of luck on your new chapter Anthony Laye and excited to hear what you do! For me, your ability to be humble, approach challenges with humour and keep learning with enthusiasm has been inspiring, your insightful questions have helped us all learn and the line up could do with more of your kind of attitude so we could all have more fun! Thanks for helping me learn so I can enjoy one of my favorite ways to spend my time more!

Your health most certainly is more important! Hope the surgery and rehab goes well and you are back to full function quickly!

As you welcomed suggestions for further training, I was curious about any interplay between length, width and thickness and rocker (I think of guns in big waves) and how body types may impact choice (muscle and weight distribution). I'm a female with smaller feet and more weight/ muscle in my legs/hips than shoulders, I find chunky, wide boards hard to get on rail and hard to duck dive, but felt I needed volume for paddle power. As such, I tend to enjoy slightly longer, slightly narrower boards with narrow noses - my favorite board is my 6,4 and 19 wide, 2 1/2 thick with decent rocker, which I like way more than my shorter, fatter straighter 6,0, 20 1/4 wide - catches anything but chunky. My favorite board is water-logged toast, and I'm looking to replace it- I'm definitely take line 3 mostly and am working towards a 4, but thanks to OMBE training on positioning and the OREO, I catch tons more waves, so considering if I wish to mix up the dimensions!

This is super helpful along with your board series! Really made me appreciate the complexities of board design and I'd make far more informed choices when I shop. Wish I'd watched this prior to buying my last board! As a long-term swallowtail rider (which I chose believing it would increase my paddle power), I'd never considered other tail functions and I'd consider a squashtail for hollower waves! 

Nico Palacios what’s your level? I’ll actually be there in a few weeks, and it’ll be my third trip there- haven’t been for a decade though and reckon things have probably developed and changed a lot!! Back then, I was less confident and had barely any experience on reefs so stuck to echo, dreamland and Kuta beach. A decade later, I’ve ridden far more reefs so I’m going to try my luck at the Uluwatu area (Bignin, Baglan, impossible too)- if it’s too hard for me, there’s always dreamland! Bali is busy, but I found kuta easier to compete for waves as there’s less advanced surfers in the water. I have several friends who discuss their “near death” experience at kuta reef when they got there and realized it was too big and advanced for them- never been there myself!

I’ll also spend some time by Keramas area in the east- suppose to be a quieter area.

I’m bringin reef booties!!

As a note, trafic to the bukit peninsula from Denpasar/kuta is a nightmare-better on a scooter, but plan extra time or avoid making that transit. There’s also a busy trafic circle on route where police have been known to ticket travellers without helmets or proper licence for their scooter.

But it’s beautiful there and there’s no shortage of waves! Hope you have an awesome time!