I was planning on surfing at the Jetty, where when this kind of situation happens (10-11 ft at 12-17 seconds WNW), but after looking at it for a good 5-10 minutes nothing significant. Montara would be down-right dangerous because I don't know what will happen even if you paddle out in the relative calmness, sometimes there is a period that things get really messy.
So back to the usual Linda Mar again, and I actually had a lot of fun. Here things were closing out too, but when this happens, I just sit inside and wait for the white stuff to reform. When there is enough power like today that's the option that I use. I saw a lot of good people out there who have been actually taking off into these close out waves but then not riding at all. I do admire them to even think about taking off. For me, I take off on a relatively large amount of white water, but then they usually reform into ridable waves again, and having a lot of fun. I took a long board out and that helped out quite a bit.
Areas that I had a lot of success or practices are;
- Picking the long board was a good idea. I had a better time today with it.
- Faster flick up. Today I did a lot of very fast flick ups. This was helpful in getting in to a control on these unstable white water situations.
- More successful take-offs. Faster flick up is helping in this area. Sometimes though the water is so strong that it gets between my body and the board separating me out as I paddle. In fact as I starting to go for bigger waves this started to happen a lot more on late starts. At one point though I just let that happen with just my hands hanging onto the board and then when the board gets into some speed I just stand up and that works. I want to see someone video this sequence because I think this will look as if I was completely buried in the white water and suddently I eemerge from it riding it out.
- Sometimes if I am overly eager to turn, I get eaten by the wave. I have to be careful.
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