Session 5229

Had an early work start and a couple of con-calls this AM, so I took a part of early afternoon and surfed at a local spot. It was gorgeously sunny. A bit windy from the side shore, and the sets were small and in the time I was there the tide really swung up and basically killed the whole situation, however I had the entire beach to myself which still amazes me sometimes. Of course, once you are out, others would want to come in, so when I got out and got back to the car there were a couple of surfers coming in.

In my last log, I said that I would write about my relationship with surf boards so here goes.

A lot of you know already that I am riding the Rusty 6'3 and French Epoxy 6'6 boards a lot lately. I really like both of them, and to this date, I really like the 6'6. It is my most favorite. I was really thinking about this for a while, or debating with myself in a sense. The main question is whether it is the board that likes me or it is me that like the board. And the forgone conclusion is the latter. I think that there is a big distinction here. I think that there are a lot of people who think that there is a magic bullet there. I used to think that too that there should be a board that would allow me to surf much better. So let's count all of the boards that I had gone through, there was a 7'0, 8'6, two 9'0s, 7'6 and a 7'5, then 6'6, 6'3 and also this past weekend I got a JC Ugly Stick which is a 6'4. So basically I have gone through 9 different boards.

So even though I still have at least half of these things, I usually end up taking out the 6'6, and I now know why. I discovered that I really like to surf specific types of waves. I tend to prefer mushier waves and not really big, probably overhead is the maximum I would enjoy having fun. I've certainly surfed something bigger and even steeper, but at this stage of my skill and life, it is simply more fun to get out on a mellower condition on smoother water and catch a bunch of waves. But I don't want to ride long boards. Long boards are fun, but it is just a lot of hassle to load and offload. With short boards, I just throw them inside my car, and I usually stock two boards in my car, which consists of the trusty 6'6 and another board. It can be a 7'0 or a 6'3 depending on where and the types of waves I think will be out there. Even then by taking out the 6'6, it will fill almost all my needs at the moment. How about even shorter and narrower boards, a 6'0, 18-19 inch wide, more rocker? Well, I can probably be challenged with those and go for more hollower or steeper situations and the like but I really don't want to hassle with extra paddling efforts and possibly not having fun riding. The bottom line to me is get as many rides as possible at this juncture. This type of trade-off is pretty common in reality and eventually I would move to a next skill level that the combination of the conditions and the board selections will be different, but right now the combination of my favorite conditions and the board is what I am fixed into. Having different boards is teaching me good lessons though. From time to time, I would surf the same session with two different boards and I either realize I am not ready for it yet, or would come to conclusion that "Yeah! That was fun, may be I am really ready to go full-time on this board." Of course that's what initially happened with the 6'6. Though it took a while to get to the point that I would say, I want to surf the board most of the time, and that was a fairly lengthy period to grow myself into the board. Also conversely, I am very certain to be able to say that I have never grown out of the any boards that I have, and that includes a 9'0 foamy board, which when on a rare occasion I ride it, I am still amazed by the characteristics of the board, and it can still teach me some real basics on turns etc.

My future installments of WavLog, I would write about how I have not had leg cramps, and how I think I am avoiding it, then some interesting discovery about duck diving, and also about opening up more options.

LC:M