Session 5139

OK, so now I leaked out that I got a new car, I am going to relate this to surfing. Last time I surfed with Edo (some of the the HMB locals suffix a letter "o" at peoples' names, so I am actually going as Mano, locally. So if someone take pictures of me surfing that's Manography!). OK, I back to what I was talking to Ed about was this. I was explaining to him that my car as well as my previous car had so much electronics controlling the car that any failure in any area would cause a serious driving issue, including being totally disabled in the middle of, say, a Baja trip. That would be a hell if the car stops in the middle of some deserted area in Baja in the middle of a summer.

Then Edo said that it is just like a fighter jet where the jets are so unstable by the nature that computer control keeps the plane flying, and basically the pilot asks the plane to go which direction and speed. When this thought occurred, most people would think that it would be easier to pilot a plane like that. But in addition, I think that these pilot can maneuver the plane to the next dimension where it would have not been possible with other ones.

And that brings to my recent change of the surf board. Of course, the surf board does not have fly-by-the-wire technology (at least for now), but what I am experiencing is that this board is so much less stable that others that I surfed that basically I have to re-program my brain to work with the characteristics of the board. It will initially require some conscious understanding of what is going on, then I as I repeat these motions, I can teach that in to more of an instinctive part of the brain and eventually just thinking about going to a direction, the body will automatically move to cause an action, and that's a big part of practicing a lot.

So today I spent a good deal of time catching waves at all different phases and see what happens, and that's also a fun part of experiencing different boards. Between yesterday and today, I have started to ride the board to make some satisfactory turns etc. It is definitely much easier to turn the board but building the speed is a bit more difficult with it right now, and without the speed, ride cannot continue very long. So like anything in life, I gain some and loose some by a change like this.

At this point of time, I have found out that taking off at a much later point of the wave is much successful with it, though not necessarily be the best approach. Sometimes, I feel like the wave burping me out of the wave. Turning shorter radius definitely does not require as much of the power as my other longer boards, and that's actually nice because I don't have to muscle through the turns as much, like Darin was tell me about when selecting this board.