THU Stoke = 1

Today, I ended up not surfing. The rain made me keep away from the water
this morning due to the concern on water quality, but planned to go on the
way back from work. I actually did surf check at, Linda Mar, GW Cove,
Montara, Jetty, Kelly, and Dunes. Pacifica was too windy but if I stayed
there I could have gotten some ridable waves. But I moved on south and as I
drove further south the condition has gotten really poor. So I looked at a
lot of beaches this afternoon but did not go out.

This morning, however, I practiced duck diving moves on a mat at home. Some
key points I was practicing were;

1) Pushing the nose down, but keep the head up so that weight won't go too
far forward.
2) Put the right toe the tail of the board and keep the shin on the board
right at the center of the board.
3) Shifting the weight to the back of the board so once the front of the
board sinks, then I can start to sink the tail of the board.
4) Raising the left leg high up to help the push down effect.

My book says that (3) is the key point because most people can do (1) fairly
easy.

Another practice I did was a bunch of flick up exercise. I have found out
that if you push up right under the shoulder I can bring myself up smoother.
So next time I will try to consciously push myself up from there.

The third practice I did, in combo with the flick up is the direction my
head during and after the flick up. I am supposed to look at where I am
going to, and not the board. I often look down too long which is not helping
the balance. The head should try to keep the horizontal regardless of which
surfing position I am in.

The last practice I did was weight shifting using knees and hip. A good part
of surfing is about how to shift weight effectively and the knees and the
hip plays an important part of how you'd shift the weight without losing the
balance.

It was actually refreshing to do this type of practice, so I am going to go
downstairs and do this again before going to bed.