Well, I am not going for 37 days as I need to get packed and get ready to go
to a business trip on an early afternoon trip to Colorado Springs. Not too
bad.
So because of an afternoon dry social event, I decided to do a quick morning
session at LM with Arthur. As I approached the Devils' slide I get a call
from him, "I dinged my board." I could not talk long because in just 10
seconds there will be no cell service.
When he arrived at the beach, I have taken a look at the ding on the board
and sure enough he had another rail ding from yesterday. That really sucks,
so he brought his wife's SoftTOP board. Whenever I see other people have
one, I always wanted ride it because in spite of their reputation, they are
really fun. They are extremely forgiving and easy to paddle. I still don't
know why more people don't pick them as their first board. Should I know
about all I know today, that would have been what I have chosen, but I
basically got bunch of incorrect advises from getting a 7'0 mini-gun to
"don't get a SoftTOP you are gonna outgrow in a few weeks." I know it,
nobody wants to look like they are a beginners. But I just jump on it, and
zoom by other surfers with much more mean looking boards at speed catching
basically every wave I go for. There is basically not anything wrong with
this board at all.
Well, I laid my 9'0 Velzy on top of the ST Hi-Performance and looks like
they are made basically from the same template to me. The SofTOP was a bit
heavier, probably because it is wrapped with more industrial strength
materials. Now, don't get me wrong. The Velzy is a fine board, I call it a
"Magic Board" more on this in a moment.
Back to surfing. So today was one of these kind of days that the it was
breaking all nicely all across the outside that we were so spread out so we
found a section that broke about shoulder level and we caught one wave after
another. It was really a lot of fun.
So I asked Arthur if I can swap my Velzy with his SofTOP. Now this is why I
say my Velzy is a Magic board. As soon as he got on the board, he started to
catch one wave after another. Strange though I also kept catching waves with
SofTOP too. Second thing that happens is this. I let others use my board but
almost invaluably, once they get a hold of it, I have to ply their gripping
hands to get it back.
I saw immediate improvement in Arthur's take offs. The magic of the board
worked for him too. After a few of his successful take offs, (I should
have not) said to Arthur, "Do you want to buy it?" and he actually took it
rather seriously, so it actually became serious. Initially I said that he
can use it for a week while I am out of town and if he dings it it is his.
To fix his ding on his Roger Hinds, we stopped at Sonlight and then I
happened to see exactly the next board I wanted. It is a used "9'0 Donald
Takayama DT 4" it has a bit of concave in front and of course, it is an
epoxy board (great for klutz like me where the board design changes with new
concaves and channels created after few sessions). So I asked Arthur, that
he can buy mine, so the deal was established. So now I got this snow-white
board out of the rack and it is sitting in my garage now.
So next time you are looking for me, look for a helmet surfer with a white
board. It is a bit of a reward for me to completing the consecutive days of
surfing project too.
Unless I break a board this will be it for a while.
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