Saturday, February 05, 2005

Session 5023: Will A Surfer Make A Noice When He Falls Off if You Are Not There?

Woke up this morning and checked the local buoy reading. The wind has already picked up to 20 knots or more out in the ocean. I listened to the outside and see if I could hear any wind here, and I could not. There still is some chance to surf without too much wind, but still another worry is that this wind may have kicked up some choppy waves.

This morning, I've decided to surf at very local beaches for a very quick session, and if I did not find any waves or did find a poor condition, I'd just go home and relax the rest of the day. Just for the heck of it, I took the Fish out of the car, and then threw in the 7'0. This turned out to be a good thing.

When I checked the surf though, there was some remnant of the fun waves we got in the past few days. There were other people coming to check the surf, but they were all turning around. This is good and this is where my forte is, try to get the most out of waves where most other people don't surf. So basically this morning, I had to share the waves with only another long boarder who was sitting way and way outside and good 5 minutes paddle away, so basically it was my own beach and break.

It took me a while to find a good location. I was sitting in this one location and nothing happened, so I paddled in a bit and caught some white water to get back in. These days, I have gotten a principle that I do not paddle in, but I will ride in. I think it is a good skill practice. Getting out of beach breaks has gotten much easier too. The trick is, just be patient and wait for a right moment for a smaller beach break to happen. I also use the beach break to let me land on the beach gently by holding on to the tail end of the board as I get lifted up, instead of frantically paddling to pull myself out of the water.

When I am out of the water, I go high up in the dune and watch the waves for a bit, and there I can see where the breaks were happening, so I just walk to where. As I walk up, I see a section where there were a lot of ripples on the water, and now I know that where the rip current is leaving, so I just jump in, kicking myself as far out as possible and jumping on the tail end of the board. The initial momentum really helps me to get going, and with a help of the current, in no time, I have paddled out 200-300 yards out. It is so much easier to take advantage of the rip current this way.

The 7'0 performed and provided me with a lot of fun. This is by far the easiest to go under the water, and it sinks so easily that I can actually swim under water for a while, just like some Hawai'i surf movies where you can see the underwater duck dive scene, and when catching waves, this board turns so nicely and tightly.

Of course, nobody saw me do all this, but will a tree make a sound when it falls if you are not around?

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