Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Session 5028: Riding Backwards. Yes it's true!

Have you ever ridden a wave going backwards? That is, to ride your waves towards the ocean? Is it even possible? Well it is possible in certain places, like on a higher tide at a breakwater. This finally happened to me, and it went like this. I finished riding a fairly good size break all the way, about 15 ft from the rock wall, then I pulled out and was waiting for a bunch of sets to finish before I'd paddle out. Then even a bigger set came, I turtled under it, and it finally hits the breakwater, then bounces back causing waves breaking in the other direction for a bit. It so happened that right at that moment I started to paddling back out, then this relatively big backwash comes up behind me. "How fun!" So I paddled into it, I had a short ride on it, and then another real set come from the front. In no time, the backwash collided with the set and built up into a big crashing splash that shot up way up in the air. I was launched upwards, and yes, I was hanging onto my board, and that sucked me right out of the water into the air. I was not expecting this to happen so I did not duck through. I should have.

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