Most surfers’ ideal setup
involves a long, grinding
pointbreak. Tucked away
inside corners of headlands
well away from the wind,
points can be relied upon
in the most extreme
conditions. The permanence
of points makes them easy
to read. Waves come in;
water runs out through
established rips and
keyholes. There’s always a
prime jump-off spot, usually
at a point where one of
those permanent rips awaits,
to take you out back.
On big, big days on the
points, the water moves the
same way as the smaller days.
Only faster. Long-time chargers
of any point who have it wired
know exactly where to sit for
the deepest barrels; they know
when it’s big and they get
dusted where to paddle or swim
to safety, should shit get real.
The biggest obstacle out
there are humans. Pointbreaks
are often reduced to a state
of human soup, thanks to an
easier paddle out – compared to
a big day on the beaches – and
long, enticing walls running
for hundreds of metres, lulling
even the clumsiest of kooks into
thinking they can score the rideof their life.
Most points have a pecking
order, where locals who’ve done
their time sit the deepest and
get first dibs on any set wave
rolling through the lineup; they
rarely bomb or fall off a wave.
Which means there’s a good
chance at any two-hour point
session, every single wave which
comes through your inside is
already taken.
A good strategy for surfing
points, if you’re not a part of
the pecking order, is to sit a
little wider. Sit further down the
point where the riders aren’t
as good and pick the wider
breaking sets where the locals
aren’t on them. Watch around
you as to who’s making waves
and who isn’t, and when those
wide sets come... pick your
waves and paddle hard for them.
Or, do what Dane Reynolds
suggests: “Sit shallower than
everyone else and pick off the
smaller scraps that get through
the crowd. I do that and get a
high wave count no matter how
many people are out there.”
Be warned, though,
when the sets come, you’ll
be duckdiving and avoiding
oncoming riders and traffic like
your life depends on it.In all their
leg-burning beauty!BREAKS
POINT
Surfing Life have spent hours staring at this dreamy
pointbreak situation. We’ve not only mind-surfed this
wave to death, we’ve also mind-built a log cabin on that
clearing, and mind-moved in, mind-raising our children
all the while mind-paying our mortgage off. If only, huh?
PHOTO: SCOTT