Stoke 8 experience this morning. It was excellent to see Arthur too. The
swell power is dwindling as we finish this week, and current forecast does
not look too good in terms of the power in the water.
Yesterday, through the encouragement of my wife and a buddy from the SRF, I
have decided to try out for this year's Half Moon Bay Surfing Classic
competition. I originally was not going to and spend two seasons to horn
more skills to be able to truly compete rather than just experience being in
a competition, but, Jack's take on this is that it is a fun and low key
local competition so I should not be worrying about it. Wendy also think
that I have gotten significantly better than last year and I should try it.
So, yes, why not.
This morning I set the alarm to 5:30, and got out of the bed about 30
minutes later to hit the beach. As I was driving to the beach, I was kind of
feeling a sense of being focused again, since I only have just over a month
to practice for the rides. I will probably try to go out every day until the
day of the competition. Trying to have "fun" with my 6'6 will be after
August now, and really focus on the accuracy part of surfing - accurate to
take off and make accurate turns, as any slop will cost a point. Since I am
not a trick rider (yet) keeping long rides is mainly where I am going to
really focus.
This morning there was a period when the swells gotten bigger for about 10
minutes and I had one ride where I could ride through 3 "sections"... the
outside break then the middle reform on the right then ride through the
another that was shaping on my left. That was really fun, and so that's the
reason why stoke 8 for today. Also I am happy that the nature has been
demanding me to ride the lefts a lot, and if this year's competition is back
on Montara South then they are mainly all lefts and so left practice will be
helpful.
Today, one thing became more obvious... Why some surfer know which way to
turn to keep the ride without looking back? It dawned on me that you can
actually see by looking forward and see how the wave in front of you is
sloping and changing... Sounds really obvious, but I even did not have a
time to think about that kind of stuff before.
Another thing that occurred to me that if you are photographing someone,
backside rides might be photogenic better... why? Because your face is
facing towards the beach.
Well that's about it. I cannot hide the fact that I am a bit nervous about
the competition.
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