The swells have increased a bit compared to yesterday, but the waves were not bad. When the swells are bigger and the period is longer, higher tide will soften things up a bit. This morning started out good for me. I was up already at 5:00 AM and did not have problem getting out of the bed. But still there is a moment of decision to either sleep for a few more minutes or not. I did get out of the bed, and started to prepare in a leisurely fashion. By 6:00 AM, I was getting today's ration of coffee and pastry, and as I drove by the Princeton Jetty, it was still dark with only a bit of light, and some people were already out in the water, but not much waves there.
Since I am pressed for time this morning as there is a company webcast that I had to produce at 10:00 AM, I headed straight down to the Linda Mar beach since it is only 15 minutes from work. Still I had from 6:45 to 8:00 AM of surfing, which is plenty of a surf dose for me for surfing on a school day. As it turned out, I wish I had a bit more time, or may be it was good that I quit when I had to quit.
Many of the thanks goes to Greg, who wanted to demo my 7'0, which was the very first surf board I bought, and I was actually not going to ride this since I started to ride the 6'6 fish a while ago, but last week when he wanted to demo this, I rode it myself, and I did not realize the full potential of this board. If you read my previous WavLog, I finally figured out how his board behaved, and once I rode it fully, I was amazed how I could do turns much better than, say, any other boards I ever owned. But it took me almost 3 years before I could do this. So in a sense it is very good for me to know that I am actually and finally riding my very first board that I got.
So what was so significantly great about today?
First, again, I feel that I am finally riding my very first board, which was really a mistake purchase that it took me this long to fully be able to appreciate this board.
Second, for a short board ride, I had a significantly long ride. Now I've done a similar kind of a long ride this summer at Montara on a long board (and it was actually my Blue Doyle Foam) where I was just sticking the edge of the board and cutting back around to stay on a wave, I was not do the same on a shorter board. Sure, I had an epic time before on my Fish too, but they were much shorter rides.
And, another big stoke point is that I really felt in control from begin to end on this board and making some very satisfactory bottom turns, and I was able to accomplish not just one but a few more similar rides. In a sense that today was a big summary of all of the skills that I have acquired up to now from the take off to getting the best out of the wave that I have chosen to ride.
All of the experiences I got today gives me an added level of confidence that upon which I can build further skills, but today, I really felt that I have crossed the next threshold. Sure there will be more frustrating days ahead as I go for even more advanced skills, but that's one thing going for me? I am still an enough of a klutz that takes me a lot longer than to learn surfing, but a small step by a small step, I feel that I am starting to make visible progress, and regardless of how big or small of a wave I thought I did it, it really gives me a great sense of an accomplishment!
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