Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Session 5032: Back to Basics

When I was barely waking up, I had a bad feeling about how the day was going to turn out. I had some gastro-intestinal problem and did not feel well. I woke up at the normal time of around 5:30, but I went right back to sleep hoping that this will pass by. But by 6:30 when I got up, and knew that I had to write the day off for a some kind of "stomach flu" The rest of the day was miserable, and I am not going further into graphical details, but I must say that I have not been this sick for a long time, perhaps this came very close to my first big hang-over after a college party, if you will understand this.

Tuesday, morning, I was lucky that I felt I was recovering, but not completely, so I called off any surfing.

This morning, though I felt quite normal. And I must say, episodes like this really make you appreciate what being healthy feels like. I decided to do at least a short paddle out to make sure that I can still surf!

When I passed by Montara it looked really tempting, but I just still hesitate to go there just by myself and get into some sort of trouble, so as usual to a more convenient and safer bet. But when I arrived, at the beach, the place was empty and it looked really flat. There were some foolish surfers waiting in flat water wasting time. But then, I thought, it would be perfect for me to just paddle out before work.

What turned out to be is actually one of more stoky short board days I had in a while. As I got ready, I have started to see some nicely forming small sets coming in. And as I was warming up, even bigger sets started to arrive, after a while I paddled out, there were some good nearly head-high sets to come in occasionally, and there were only 5 of us in the entire beach, so I had some time to do some nice take offs.

Then I paddled up north a bit, and the sets had gotten even bigger. Since there were nobody around, I have decided that I ought to take off on every one of these damn waves no matter what and regardless of the size (to mean regardless of how afraid I feel about them). I have decided also that I ought to just take off and do not worry too much about even standing up. This turned out to be a good lesson because I have forgotten that I used to do this when I started surfing and gained a lot of confidence. Now I feel like I should get bigger size waves more consistently, I should practice the "take off" part of it without really trying so hard to stand up on the board. The difference between now and when I was starting out is that when it is possible to do so, I do stand up and when I do, I get really good long rides. I also am practicing taking off more forcefully at an angle to set up the initial take off. If I can take off on a bigger situation more confidently, accurately and with less fears interfering with me, I know I can start practicing even faster flick ups, and then when everything works out all will connect into one cohesive motion. Once I master this, then I'd have more time on the wave and that's when I will start to nail more short board moves.

So looks like I am going back to some basics for some time!

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