Fw: Session 4.126 Friday Afternoon Session and 4.127 Saturday AM Session

CHAPTER 2

 

This is the start of chapter 2. I am declaring this day as the official day of a shift in my surfing skills. What has changed really compared with all previous sessions is that I can have consistently have rides where I feel that I am in complete control from the start to finish of a ride. Exactly what does that mean? It means that I am paddling out to places where I am going to catch waves, then I can now select the waves and then after taking off I know where I am going to go and where I am going to wind up. Still, what is the difference between that and the past? One example is this. I am now planning the course rather than always reacting to the changes in the waves. Before, sure, I had some phenomenal rides but I was just lucky, and the waves worked out the way. Of course, there is still an element of luck, but I am now observing and calculating what will happen next if I kept going in one direction or others.

 

Session 4.126: After this phenomenal changes, I now decided that I should get back into learning short-board riding again (this is especially I decided not to compete this year). So I am back into the original plan of getting to the level where I can do a complete round cut-back by the end of this year. It was also a good excuse to go out since Ren, Nancy and Amanda were going to be there and also Nancy requested to borrow my foamy.

 

I pulled out the Arrow 7'6 for this evening because I have not ridden it for a while, and I was hopeful that there will be some waves that let me surf. Getting back on the 7'6 was so strange feeling again. I felt like a total beginner again but it is only appropriate that now I am in Chapter II of my surfing life that I should start over. But it was a mistake for the condition. There were not any steep enough waves and when waves were steeper, they were breaking right at the shore. I did take a few of these possibly dangerous breaks, and luckily did not break a thing. In the meantime older surfers with mega boards and Ren with her 9'0 were taking a lot of waves. Also the beach was so crowded that it became a totally opposite enlightening experience I had in the same day!

 

Couple of strange things happened on this day though. When I was getting ready to go in Mark found me. It is fairly rare to see him. Then when I have finished, Wardo pulls up on his red truck, and we shared about this phenomenal day, and decided not to compete and all the stuff. It is so fun to talk to him since he is a musician and a surfer and I really feel like we are in tune. Also he reads my log so he knows exactly what progresses I have been making. But sometimes I am spaced out.  At one point he asked "Did you do Roundhouse?" It did not click in my head. Partially because there is a spot in Linda Mar that is named Roundhouse. Also I have been doing the long-boarding for the last couple of months and I have actually totally forgot about this year's goal that I announced. I am very glad though and I am very encouraged that he thinks that I am going to "do it" this year! I sure hope so.

 

Session 4.127: Saturday AM DP

 

So, I promised Arthur that I am going to show up at LM at 6:30, and I did. He did too. But first thing he does is he drives up to me, roll down the window and tells me "I am going to bag it." He was not pleased with the waves he was seeing. So he went onto the OB.

 

My basic philosophy though is to ride all the waves given to me at all the time. I feel that it is an important skill to have because even if I am surfing in a bigger condition, I do sometimes connect sections when it is small. Also small waves are harder to ride, and I am starting to get a hang of riding both types of waves on a long board.

 

This morning, I brought the 7'6, the 6'6 Fish and the foamy. I first took out 6'6 and paddled around for a while. I did not take any significant rides. There was one guy with a short board and he was doing very well, so again, it is not like impossible. I just need to get there.

 

Though it was not fun to continue with the 6'6, so I switched to my Ultimate Weapon for Mash Destruction, and man, that was instantly so much fun. The waves were getting bigger as the time went by and I was catching some good waves and again consistently longer rides.

 

It was also a lot of fun comparing the rides between a "real" long board with foam board. Definitely the Takayama does have some speed and edge (literally speaking) to surfing!