{"id":2349,"date":"2012-02-16T11:35:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T19:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2012-03-01T14:46:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T22:46:12","slug":"web-exclusive-winter-surfing-dangerous-and-bodacious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/02\/16\/web-exclusive-winter-surfing-dangerous-and-bodacious\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter surfing dangerous and bodacious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, winter is a very important time for surfers in the Greater Victoria area. It\u2019s the time of year that Vancouver Island is bombarded by storms consisting of heavy rain and high winds that create the kind of waves that surfers crave.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the most dangerous time to surf.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Winter surfing: it's cold out there (photo courtesy HaliKat).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there are things surfers can do to minimize the amount of danger brought on by winter weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, with bigger waves, know your ability. That\u2019s number one,\u201d says Joel Knickle, a seasonal surfing instructor at Pacific Surf School in Tofino. \u201cDon\u2019t go at some crazy wave that you can\u2019t necessarily surf well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knickle stresses that practice is key when it comes to developing your ability to ride larger waves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way as far as surfing goes,\u201d he says, \u201cis to start small and get bored before you try to really progress, because it\u2019s important that you\u2019ve got all the fundamentals down as far as riding your surfboard goes and catching the waves.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the winter winds are sometimes the least of worries at beaches dominated by cobblestone points and reefs accompanied by strong currents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to understand where these things are,\u201d continues Knickle. \u201cExplore the reef at times when it\u2019s low tide, just so you know what you\u2019re getting into before you surf a place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also suggests talking to locals before you hit the waves at a spot for your first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might only break a fin or damage a part of your board, but it could also be your dome,\u201d says Knickles.<\/p>\n

Knickles\u2019 aim is not to discourage, but rather to inform new members of an ever-growing surfing community in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems as though a lot of people are deciding to come to school here, either UVic or Camosun, just for the fact that they\u2019re going to be able to catch waves before classes, after classes, or on the weekends,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you want to live in a city where you want to surf, Victoria would be a good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, winter is a very important time for surfers in the Greater Victoria area. It\u2019s the time of year that Vancouver Island is bombarded by storms consisting of heavy rain and high winds that create the kind of waves that surfers crave. It\u2019s also the most dangerous time to surf. But there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}