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It is important to exercise caution and safety when surfing at night.
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There were moments that I felt a jolt of fear and adrenaline run through my body as a wave snuck up on me, or I watched a friend tumble beneath the waves and reappear moments later. It definitely pushed my limits and required me to rely on my friends who called out waves for me (more on this later), and trust the ocean and myself. Take it from my personal experience – my friends and I have all found surfing at night to be a far more intense experience than surfing during the day. Just as in daylight, it is always important to practice other standard safe surfing practices and keep a close tab on the condition of the ocean. Moreover, it is extremely unsafe to enter the water by jumping off a rock or pier into surf during the dark. It is essential to plan this in advance while you scout your surf spot. This is necessary for safely avoiding obstacles and navigating currents and tides. As always, it’s important for every surfer to plan out how they will make their way to and from a surf spot. Lastly, entry and exit can be more dangerous in the dark. It may be very difficult for your friends or passer-byers to locate you in the dark. Let’s say (knock on wood!) you take a rough fall and need help. The lack of visibility while night surfing also makes it difficult for your surfing buddies or people onshore to see you if you should need help. If you cannot see the waves clearly while you are paddling out, you run the risk of paddling straight into a fall line. Moreover, once you are able to catch a sweet wave, you must be careful while paddling back out. Not being able to see the waves increases this risk. Catching the wrong wave can result in wiping out and potentially hurting yourself. As we know, it’s important to pick the right waves to catch. If you can’t see the swell or wave, it’s difficult to catch the right wave. If you’re a beginner surfer, this may look like sitting on the surfboard where the waves are breaking, watching the swell, estimating a wave’s speed and attempting to match your paddling speed to the wave’s. We all know catching a wave is a very visual pursuit. Surfing at night also makes it challenging to see when to catch a wave. Avoiding piers often gets complicated, considering that night surfers will often intentionally surf close to well-lit piers in pursuit of light. It is always important to remember to stay a far distance from all obstacles not only to avoid a collision but also to avoid potentially dangerous currents that usually occur close to obstacles in the water. This increases surfers’ risks for surfing into or close to obstacles such as piers, boats, rocks, other surfers, swimmers, cliffs or buoys.
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Depending on how dark it is on a given night, it can be very difficult for surfers to see where they are in the water. Are there any safety alert devices I can carry with me while I surf at night?Īs stated, it is typically unsafe to surf at night because of a lack of visibility.Where are the best places to go night surfing?.What if I don’t have anyone to go surfing with?.Take Your Time And Choose The Right Night.Choose where you surf carefully and scout your surf spot.Tell someone onshore that you’re going night surfing!.Surf with your friends! Surfing is better with friends – especially at night!.Just about anything can be done fairly safely if you take the correct precautions. Luckily, there are ways to make night surfing safer. Other factors contribute to making surfing at night unsafe. Furthermore, surfing at night makes it difficult for your surfing buddies or people onshore to see you if you should need help. If a surfer cannot see where they are, when the waves are coming, their nearby surroundings, or their beach marks, it is easy to get into trouble. It is typically unsafe to surf at night because of a lack of visibility. So, is surfing in the ocean at night dangerous? In short, no. I noticed that surfers often make the mistake of going out into the water late at night without ample preparation I decided to write this blog post to share with you the safest way to night surf. My friends and I love night surfing, but we also know that it can be dangerous. It’s portrayed in movies as thrilling and even romantic, and many big-time surfers love to share stories about their best night surfs. Surfing at night is an exciting way to add an extra challenge to your favorite past time.