Session 8085-90

WavLOG

Day 85-87

Day 85 (Sunday): With the South swells arriving, I headed out much further to the spot that is in the slide show below. It was a bit of work, especially with the Walden Magic longboard to get down the cliff to get to the break, but it was certainly worth it. Not very many surfers and occasional breaks were fun. Note that last slide is a bit strange looking but it is due to some artifact of the camera and not actual waves.

Day 86 (Monday) and Day 87 (Tuesday):

Back to my home break with the south swells continuing. Smooth get-out and occasional breaks, typical of south swells situation, gave me a lot of time to practice.

Especially I had a few nice rides on Tuesday. However, also I cracked the nose of the board by trying too hard and surfing too close inside to the rocks. That's one problem with surfing. There is no break built into the board. You just cannot stop on a "dime."

Nevertheless, I am starting to get a hang of the "top turn" right after taking off and being able to do that really makes a difference in taking longer rides. But it definitely isn't easy, especially for me, and I cannot still be consistent in doing it like other good surfers who came today.

Day 88 Thursday:
Day 89 Friday July 4th:
Day 90 Sat July 5th:

Session 8021: The Ideal Local Surfing Day

WavLOG

Day 21

Every once in a while there is such an ideal local surfing day. Yesterday was one of them. To me the ideal means;

• Smooth paddle out, No winds
  
• Big enough waves. Shoulder to overhead is ideal.
• Not too hollow and hard crashing.
  
• Just enough time to paddle to the outside.
• Nobody else around, except for a few of my close buddies
  

It is like a perfect Mix of all the Pods and EQs and Effects all coming together with an even tempered limiter on without too much of a punch, and in this case the nature has provided such a mix for us to have fun with!

Such magic combo happened yesterday on the way to Santa Cruz. I was checking a break somewhere in between and there was only two surfers out. Then another StokeMaster buddy just happened to show up. What a timing!

The waves were delicious and I was able to indulge myself chopping up the waves in all 3 dimensions + time. Waves were not so fast and also allowed me to practice getting in to the wave by paddling super extra hard and then pushing the front of the board down. When that works, and my board and myself takes off as if get attracted into the sweet and almost magical force field of gravity and the fluid motion energy... almost feels like getting sucked into the field, quietly and smoothly but fast. Only when this happens, I am in the early part of the wave, the bottom works right, the top works right, and the ride can be very very long!

This is a type of a day that I look forward to and surfing in shitty conditions is something that is the due that I pay for. And believe me, just the previous session together with this buddy, we had the worst condition at Linda Mar.

Sessions 7149-50: Trust Your Equipment

I still distinctly remember one thing about learning to drive a car. It was learn how to turn the car. That was to put down the gas as you get out of a turn and let the steering wheel go. I remember this because it was actually a bit hard for me to do. It was hard because I did not want to let go of the steering wheel, especially when making a directional change and then you also need to punch the gas a bit.

But after a few tries, it just worked as exactly the driving instructor said it would. One distinct thing about this is that I had to trust the machine to do its thing, thereby actually being in control of the machine.

Similar stuff goes with with any other stuff, but when it comes to surfing, sometimes I do not trust the surf board enough and that can be the cause of why I do not progress as much. Quite a bit of it is a control issue and the fear that goes with it.

But one would not realize once you have established a relationship with a surf board, and trust it that it will do its thing, even when the wave is jacking up and going hollow, or when you feel like you are going to drop straight down into the bowl of the water in front of you, a moment of letting your own issues and trust the surf board, and perhaps the whole situation of the moment, a magic would occur and you'd realize it is indeed good to put some trust in the whole situation.

Session 7078

With prevailing NW winds in the ocean and also locally at the beach, we were shut out of the north county spots this morning, and in HMB, there was not much waves either. So I headed much further south to escape from the chops and the winds. I know there is a reliable spot when this happens, and sure enough, it was going about overhead and actually rather hollow. I took out my shortest board which is a 5'6 Rockhold model, and headed out.

Already there were some good people catching waves, but the waves were breaking harder than I thought, and it has been quite challenging to catch waves. Usually when a situation like this happens, I would panic and that makes the situation even worse, but I usually cannot control the panic part... that just comes, and so when it comes, I just need to control it.

The main problem I have is that I just don't have a lot of confidence yet, and that causes a bad loop causing me to mess up on take offs or not catch the waves when I can catch otherwise, that makes me feel even less confident. It is actually worse when I don't have someone with me that I can look up to sharing the wave. If there is a better buddy that shows up, he (or she of course) would show me that there really is nothing to it. If I see my buddy take off just next to me that really make me feel more encouraged to do the same on the next set.

Several times in the past, I was taken to situations with more advanced surfers that I would never set a foot in if it was just by myself. Much bigger waves, much further out in the ocean or a spot that I have never been to. I was so scared but in the end I came back all intact and even caught some of the waves they were catching. After doing so many of those, eventually realize that "Hey, this is exactly like the time before with my buddy. I can handle this." And so I go out and have really fun.

And that's the kind of things that I wanted to tell you. It is often important to find a mentor surfer. I think that give you a lot more confidence.

And don't use me as your mentor. You've heard about the expression "A blind leading a blind."

Session 7049: Back to Xanadu 5'6

Now that that we are moving towards the end of the spring, I am starting to surf on 5'6 and also a long board. Quite a bit of contrasts but that's what I love to do. Surf on small beach breaks on these short boards. I think that this year, I am going to compete on both modes on local contests.

As for the session today, it was another fun day with the waves not overly threatening and doable for me and not much crowd to speak of. I am willing to take crappy waves over crowded waves. Also crappy waves are more fun because there is some serious challenge to read the waves and paddle to where it is going to break next. It is a lot of work out and a 90-min session can wear me out in the morning. Get home, eat lunch over a beer, then take some nice nap in the afternoon. I cannot ask for better!

TECHNICAL UPDATE

Well, some of you might be wondering what's Manabu up to? Right now, I am passing through a period where I need to polish the art of "getting up on the board" much faster and tighter.

Here is what's going on. I am starting to be able to challenge myself with finding and getting into a more critical section of the wave, a bit faster, a bit bigger and bit more power than I have been used to. It is "moving up" to the next level. The board catches the wave, it goes fine, but often times, I waste so much good part of the wave by not getting up on the board fast enough.

Learning how to surf for me is a very iterative process. Once you can surf a bit, then you'd want to catch bigger and faster waves, and in that situation, I am all as if I am starting all over again.