Session 4083: Stoke 3, so Philosophy Corner Today.

I was up since 5:10 this morning but I played with the computer for the work
stuff too much that I did not get out until much later. In fact, when I got
in the water it was already 9:40. And then I had to be in the office to
check out a customer situation that has been brewing hot for this past week.

As for the condition, it was just a lot of agitating sea without much in
terms of surfable waves, even compared to yesterday it gotten really worse.
Nothing was breaking that much so even duck diving was not necessary to get
outside, so that's about it. It was so bad that I hardly saw anyone doing
anything significant.

I know, my log has been becoming somewhat tiresome and so I need to start to
think about the new direction in writing, so I will be throwing in more
surfing perspectives I have from time to time.

Recently we have been talking about the "fear" of surfing in general, and I
have started to create a compilation web page of that information based on
the info people contributed. Most people responded with respect to how they
are afraid of permanent injury or death. I am going to touch deeper on the
issue in my logs. But one of the big fears that I have is actually not
catching enough waves and as a result I am not making good progress.

So, that brings up to the thought that I have been seriously considering
getting a foamy mini long 8'x board. The reason? Not catching enough waves
is extremely bad for me. And actually the root of this fear is not simply
about not catching enough waves, but that the fear is based on the fact that
I might hit someone with my board, or I might be hit by someone, or board
might hit me if I tried for bigger situations etc, and they all have
happened with fairly noticeable consequences.

So what if I had a foam board, then a lot of these worries will disappear
and I will go into the most crowded and rocky places and start "stealing
waves" lefts and rights, and if someone's fin would slash the board, I don't
really care (the board will probably just bounce other board off breaking
other person's fins etc, but nothing will happen for me, probably), I just
don't even fix it, and just keep on surfing improving the most important -
the time standing on the waves. Even if the board is to break in half, there
I have a boogie board to get back in! Beach assaults - no problem. Board
hitting the Jetty, no problem, I will go right ahead. It a bumper-car on the
wave (of course, I would be really careful about my body, I now know my way
around much better.)

Which actually brings back to the fear the most people have, though if I ask
they will *all* deny having; the fear of not surfing well on a "low
performance" board. But I now know that 90% of surfing is how good the
surfer is and it got nothing much to do with the board. If I cannot ride the
foamy board like a pro, then all the good features on a high end board will
go wasted. I really believe that, in fact I have gone through 6 boards
already, yeah I can tell the difference allright, but I don't think I am
hardly doing any justice to the creations of Bob Pearson, Randall French,
Dale Velzy or Donald Takayama, and I have to make myself do that now.
"Manabu Tokunaga rides Pearson Arrow exclusively." if Bob hears about this
today I will probably hear "Yeah, right."

No, I am not saying that I am going to get rid of all my boards. I will
certainly ride all of them. I am saying that I do need more opportunities to
perfect every basic turn and the body movement, the strength, and the rhythm
of connecting through the turns that are badly needed for me to move up to
the next level. Without them, there will be no floaters, roller-coasters and
snap backs., and that's where I am aiming, and I have the road-map to get
there, though I cannot run, only walk slow to get there. As an adult surfer,
I must carefully build those skills up perfecting one by one.

So later on this season you just might be seeing me ripping like a pro on
the 2 x OVH on a stupid yellow foam board. Wish me luck, would you?

But! Having said that tomorrow is probably going to be same story all over
so I ought to bring the 9'0 to see if it makes any difference.

Session 4082: Back in the water.

Good thing I did not make a commitment to go for 10480 days (or whatever it
is) of surfing (There is an article on Dale Webster finally finishing his
goal on this month's Surfer Mag.) Even I do not surf if the conditions do
not look fun. But checked the wind report and I was ready to go. Probably
should have gone to the Jetty, but I committed to meet with Jen and Ken so
there I was, getting ready to go in at 6:30 AM.

I am back on my Arrow 7'6 board.

This morning was still junky as there are a lot of short period local wind
swells coming in, paddling, ducking, paddling and looking behind, I am still
not making much progress. I hate that when that happens, then finally the
last white water, gets out to the calmness of the "outside!"

I am making a note to myself for the future, but in the past few months I am
definitely making some progress on short-board style turns. Still the wave
selection sucks and so is consistent take offs so I actually it is the take
offs that I need to really work on. As for the take-offs, I am getting in
much better shape and that allows me to apply a lot more power in take off
strokes.

Only 4 of us out in the area I was surfing so I was really happy about that.

May 12: Still Windy

Sometimes, I wish it was still in winter. The wind is still on at 30-40 knots out there. NW facing beaches were all just a big mess and the Jetty was blowing hard too. Resorting to more INDO-surfing today.

May 10 and 11: Extremely Windy

Looks like the summer pattern is in and when the pressure gradient from the air mass is enhanced by the afternoon thermal winds we can get gusts of up to 50 Knots. Past two days, there has been so much wind out in the last couple of days. So I have stayed out of the water for a bit.

Session 4081: Back to SC

This morning Arthur called me up and wanted to an early session at Montara.
Yes, it was the S swells day today, but unfortunately the tide was in the
minus zone. That's a danger sign. I told him that if he finds it good there,
I will hook him up there. 30 minutes later he told me that the waves were
poor all the way from Linda Mar to the Jetty. So we decided to go south and
hit the best beach we can find. We stopped by just about every state beach
along the way, but did not find anything so attractive, so we ended up at
the 38th.

Arthur was riding my old Velzy 9 and he had a blast, while I had quite a bit
of struggle today to take off on rather fast breaks that were coming in,
plus the crowd. My version of the excuse is that I have been surfing beach
breaks for the last 2 weeks that I have totally lost the feel for the breaks
in SC. But it was very challenging today. Those short boarders who were
taking off were all good.

Well, more work needed.

Session 4080: Analysis of Fear

Saturday was kind of a mellow day for surf as it was in an transition period
from one S swells to the next. So not much to write about in terms of actual
surfing.

Lately I am back in the mode of thinking about all sorts of fear we have in
ourselves, and especially relating to surfing, of course. This is probably a
start of a serious of logs that I will be making.

So in terms of fears that we have within ourselves, I think we can classify
them in to various categories today and then later on I would like to
develop more thoughts on each of the category like how they happen and how
they can be mitigated. I am listing them in the order of most severe to less
(in my opinion).

The fear of losing life
The fear of getting hurt or parts of your body functions lost.
The fear of getting in a fight with someone (may link to above)
The fear of losing friends or jobs
The fear of looking bad to others

Session 4079: Fun Friday Afternoon at Linda Mar.

With the swells getting smaller by day, I was a bit worried about the
condition at Linda Mar this afternoon. Did hook up with Ren. It was a fun
hot afternoon. I have started in front of the shower area which had several
nice gentle chest highs and then I migrated to the north gradually.

Last 2 sessions, I have been taking out my Arrow 7'6 hybrid board and it is
really fun to catch lots of waves with it.

Technically though, I am starting to understand where I am presently having
problems with and where a bad loop is occurring.

Like many people have written in the Yahoo Group, I too am afraid and timid
to take waves in crowded condition. So in order to avoid that I try to go to
places and time when I do not have to deal with it, but that often means for
me to take less favorable location or conditions. One very encouraging thing
is that after looking at some good people rip on these crummy beach breaks
at El Porto, it is still possible to do some good surfing in conditions that
I thought is not really possible to have some fun.

I am of the school that unless I know exactly I am doing, I don't venture
out to situations that I know it will cause problems. In the beginning I did
not know what these situations were so, I was unknowingly venturing out to
situations, but I have learned quite a bit about understanding my own
current limitations are. Of course, a part of the problem I am running into
it might be that I now need to push that barrier a bit to move up to the
next step.

I also have this nightmare in my nightmare library that plays every so often
that I get swept away with a strong side current and then a big wave come
separating me from the board and I am swimming and swimming and can never
get anywhere in a place like Montara.

Great thing that is happening in the last few months is that I can turn the
board more radically, especially on shorter boards, than ever on more
conditions. I have been really happy about this.

Couple of bad things that I need work on are takeoffs and wave selection.

In terms of take offs. I still need to be able to take off on conditions
that other better surfers are capable of. I still not have not quite gotten
a secret magic of it, but I think there is something that I need to do well.
I think that it is a combination of lots of small skills that need to be
built up. One of the things that is unveiling is the importance of strong
strokes at the right time. These kinds of breakthrough usually come as a
"surprise." Just yesterday, such a change occurred: I was able to take off
on a wave that I thought certainly I would not, but I kept on paddling
harder than usual, and it worked. Another area is the weight distribution
during the take off. This is the area that weight changes very quickly in a
period of 2-3 seconds and on a precarious position of being on a prone
position on the board... center weight for the initial paddle in, forward
weight during the initial down slope then back weight when the tail lifts,
flick up, back weight and quickly to forward weight to go down the slope....
etc.

Wave selection is another area now I start to pay good attention to. Of
course, this is the area the "share the wave fear" plays pretty poorly
because to some extent people tend to gather where the waves are good, and
all the good ones will be stolen by expert long boarders followed by expert
short boarders. What has been helping though is that I just get out after a
couple of rides, and then from the beach I am trying to take more attention
to where the good spots are or might be. It is also often easier to identify
good waves from the shore but not from the lineup so I am trying to get a
feel of when it will be good waves.

Session 4078: Montara this morning.

Montara is kind of a place where it looks great from the highway and as you
get closer and closer to the water it looks worse and worse. But I gave it a
shot. Main problem this morning was that there is so much reflection waves
that they are colliding with incoming ones. So I catch it, and get going and
then come to an immediate stop. There were some spots that where the water
was colliding so hard that they were creating very tall plumes of upward
splashes. It is hard to get out with strong inward and also sideshore
currents etc. It is kind of a place that I really would feel not very
comfortable surfing all alone, especially when I arrived, one by one,
surfers started to leave (I am hoping that I am making some sort of a
reputation that eventually the word will get out to Santa Cruz and the same
thing will happen when I get there.)

This past week or so I feel I have been stuck again. I know I keep at it it
will be better again. The waves, my attitude etc., are all working against!

Session 4077: Back in Pacifica!

4 days of beach breaks in So Cal, and now I am back in Pacifica. Felt like
another afternoon in El Porto (without the power plant, but no fog and warm
weather) One of the things I need to start thinking about is actually wave
selection. Putting myself at the right spot and only paddle when the wave is
right. One difference here is that should this have been So Cal, there would
have been at least half a dozen surfers that will look surfing in these kind
of junky condition and they are all over the places paddling and placing
themselves at the right spot every time!

Session 4076: The Final Day of Industrial Strength Surfing

Well, last night I was taking the shower and a news come out. A "rare" shark sighting at Will Rodgers park, complete with an LAPD helicopter shot of the shark swimming in the ocean. In So Cal, everyone takes the beach seriously... machine beach grooming, surf conditions posted on chalk boards, hourly life guard patrol to an LAPD helicopter patrol. Even forgot to mention from yesterday that at the Seal Beach, when a couple of boggie boarder got into the inside of heavily surfed zone, a life guard pick up truck came right up to the beach, shouted to them from a loud speaker to get out of the area for their own safety.

So back to the sharks, that essentially ruined the plan for Malibu. Oh and by the way, when we were at the Seal Beach as you already know and there was a chalk board that indicates the "Grunion" counts. This is not something I have ever hard of up in NorCal. I thought that this is some sort of Groms Re-union at Seal Beach. But the news happened to mention that the shark is looking for Grunions. So I understood that this is some sort of fish. http://www.cabrilloaq.org/grunion.html


So to protect my ability to surf again in Nor Cal, I got out to El Porto for one more day of Industrial Strength Surfing. My wife got some video so when I get around to it I will post some clips from it, but man, these beach breaks are difficult! You think our stuff is fast, theirs is just as fast. But that's just me complaining. We just need to learn to just shut our mouths and surf because there are better people doing just fine with all possible championship shortboard actions to stay on the waves!

Still my take-off sucks big time so as a result I cannot get on to these waves quick enough. This is right now the major drawback for me that I really need to work on because other better dudes are taking off on the same waves that I think are really fast breaking. Fear, yes... skills yes, the age (I won't admit to that one yet.)

Well, at least I have horned my skills on beach breaks so I was able to have some fun on my short board. I am getting better bit by bit, so by December of this year, like I said I will, I think I can demonstrate a big round cut-back.

Tomorrow, I will be back in the sprit of NorCal surfing, bright and early.

Session 4075: Fight with the waves at the El Porto Continues This Morning

Woke up this morning, walk down the 34th and surfed El Porto again. This was Sunday and a bit more S swells out so there were more people out, but again, between the Manhattan Pier and the El Porto Jetty, people were all spread out.

Like Amy told me, yes, this is more of a short board territory (but there were a fair share of long boarders too). Today, it still was very much like the Linda Mar on a spread-out day. About shoulder high but lots of close outs. The only difference between here and Linda Mar is that we got fairly big shore breaks that made getting in and out more difficult. So it is more like the entire beach is like the N End of Linda Mar.

One difference here compared to our Nor Cal beaches is that they got this huge sand plow vehicle that they run in the morning to flatten the beach. I have never seen anything like this in NorCal! Good thing that I did not leave a back pack on the beach. They would probably have ran it over. Another difference is that there are lifeguards that patrol the beach on pickup trucks with a huge rescue board. Except for Manresa, I have not seen those guys in our area.

On these closed-out days, a strategy I use is to surf on reforms. I was able to get several educational (but no long) rides by just waiting for the waves to close out then ride on the white water. Most of those reform back to about chest high breaks, so I was able to rip a bit on my Fish. I am part happy that I know how to deal with these, but on the other hands, I wish I had better waves.

Most people here were surfing with the "Sea Gull" style wetsuits with a few men surfing with just a board shorts and a rash guard. The daytime temp is getting up to 90's and so it have been hot for the last two days. I have only seen a few young women surfers on short boards. But there were some few groms that were really good.

At the end of the session, I did not realize how far S I was carried out. When I got up to the Highland Street, I could not tell which way to get back. I had to walk about 4 blocks N to get back to the motel!

Tomorrow, Monday, we will try to hit Seal Beach or Huntington.

Session 4074: From El Porto, LA County

I am writing this from the Sea View Inn in Manhattan Beach. I am riding on someone else's wireless network in the neighborhood, but it is working (thanks whoever).

 

As it turns out this small motel is located right at El Porto, so I just walk down three flights of stairs down the hill to get to the beach and there, it is the El Porto!

 

The swells have not been so good today, but in spite of what I thought of the LA area it is so wide spread that the place was totally non-crowded. I am telling you, it is less crowded than in HMB. I am amazed. But the sets are not holing up and just fizzling out at the moment. It is a bit choppy today with a bit of onshore condition going.   I was able to rip a few but not much, and not very many other people were ripping her either.

 

But it was nice, and the water was 60 F... still requires a wet suit but no booties or gloves required. The main reason we are here is to see Wendy's friend's play, and that's tomorrow so I will set up a quick session in the morning. Of all the places we have been to (except for camping) this is the first place where I walk from the hotel to surf. It is kind of cool. Manhattan beach area is really nice too.

 

Hope all of you are having fun in NC.

 

 

Session 4073: Small Waves but Great Session. Stoke 8.

Today we met up with Jen, who is aspiring to become the top competitor at the Australia Deaf Surfing conference next year. I think many of our group members have successfully convinced her to get out of her "competition jitter" and commit herself on appearing the NSSA Gold Coast conferences prior to the Australian event. I am sure every one of our member is thoroughly stoked about this news. I am too.

 

On the way to the surf, I was a bit worried about how well I can communicate with Jen, but it is cool, we exchanged a lot of messages throughout the day using text messaging and once I was talking live, I did not see any differences at all talking to her than anyone else. It is really cool she can even read my Japanese accent lips!

 

I was also fortunate to meet three new friends today at the Jetty. Jen, Kim and Katy, plus Mark (I now see that you are dedicated like we are!). In spite of the S swells that we all know about, the Jetty was not super crowded on a nice sunny Friday afternoon. We were so lucky. When I arrived at the Jetty though, Jen showed me her busted center fin. We quickly drove over to the HMB surf shop to get her a replacement.

 

We surfed for a couple of hours as the hour went on the break quality got better and I was able to catch so many waves with my Takayama DT4. Now I think the board is starting to accept me as a rider, but the board is still a bit touchy. But once it goes, it really holds me up and with an added speed and turning ability to the board, I can hold on to the ride longer. I am pretty stoked about this, needless to say. This board loves to be ridden on a forward weight from take off to during the rides. It needs a bit of getting used to, but I think I am starting to understand this board. I put on a longer middle fin this time so I think that is helping too.

 

Last several long board sessions, I have been surfing on a wide stance since it allows me to be stable and also can change weight shifting more dramatically. Strangely enough, the wide stance is something that I acquired from riding short boards, as on short boards,  essentially the stance is max the board can take.  It is really fun though when the board starts to become a part of my own surfing mechanism. It is so satisfying when I exert a control the board makes the exact course change I intend to do. I think that this is a bit of breakthrough of the recent since I am more consciously controlling the board, rather than letting the board to take me on a ride. Of course I would say the success rate is about 60% of the time. Other times, the rail would bury and totally stall or whatever, but it is a progress, nonetheless.

 

On to Manhattan beach tomorrow early, got some cool tips from Amy and Jen (So Cal exiles). More report to follow quickly if I get into the Internet, or if not, when I come back on Wed!

 

We all left the beach happier and stokes charged up to the shoulder than when we arrived!

 

Stoke 8

 

 

 

Session 4072: More struggles today

The condition this mooing was a tad improved over yesterday. This is to mean that the power has tamed a bit down, but it continues to close out at the JTY, and so I could not put so much good rides in.

 

Couple of issues I need to work on though;

• Overall I am not relaxing. I think that part of the issue is that if I go in the morning, I really feel like I need to catch lots of waves within an hour to 90 minutes session period and the work is in my mind. When I surf on weekends, I am much more relaxed for a 3 or even 3.5 hour session without any other pressure to get out at any specific time and I just let others have waves and also there always is some spot that other surfers overlook, or just let them have the first set, I come in on the second or the third of the set. What most people don't know is that it is usually the second or the third of the set that gets bigger than the first.
• I am still not up on the board quick enough and also not putting the weight down to the board. These things cause the board to slip out immediate after hopping on the board. My text book says that it is because the upper body is not relaxed as a result the body rigid and so not transferring the weight on the board. Or also quite often, the board takes off and I belly board all the way down wasting the whole surface. It is an element of fear working up for not standing on the board!

Surfing is difficult isn't it.

 

 

 

Session 4071: More South Stuff. Period dwindling. Closed out more!

This morning the ground swell period was down to about 17 seconds. It also seemed to pick up more local wind swell stuff that made the situation rather junky so we all had to work with close outs. For experts, I think the Jetty looked great but I am still hesitant to get in there and fight for a small take-off zone. This is a kind of a day that I can take off but immediately after doing so I got consumed by the agitating white water junk that I could not even keep being on the board. Not easy to out run. From various forecast sites, tomorrow we have one more day of this S swells, with more mixed NW wind swells. Today I used my "Gold Fish" and tomorrow I plan to bring out my DT4 again to see if it will make any differences.

 

When I started surfing, I could not understand why things get poor in the spring and the summer but I think I am gradually joining those pessimistic surfers. I subscribe to Surfpulse surf report that comes out every morning, and 8 out of 10, their OB reports seems to be pessimistic to me the words like  "poor" and "junky" appear a lot. Well, but, I still enjoy being in the water and have a free membership to all-natural gym. No lockers or combo-locks to worry about!

 

The weather was still great in the 70's at 8:30 when I got out. Still getting gazing from all the drivers that pass by the PCH.

Session 4070: First Major S. Swells of the Season

We have been treated with a major S swell that has started to hit our shores at 5-6 ft and 20+ seconds. Places that are normally not vibrant in the winter has really become alive, like the Jetty. It is so powerful that even the Jetty is starting to have major closeouts. So I do not know if this is a curse or not. With a record breaking hot weather, it has been really nice, and also the water was hitting 55F.

 

Not much improvement today that I can think of in terms of surfing. This is the second time I took out the Takayama DT4, and this time. The only spot that was breaking rather nicely was, as usually, very crowded. The swells have brought out some 20+ people in the morning!

 

With so much water pushing, once I wipe out, a lot of water will pile up on for a long period of time and hold you down under for a bit longer. But once I get out, just turn around, smile, and keep paddling out.

 

 

Session 4069: Mellow and Glassy Morning. Stoke 7.Almost caused an accident.

Finally back to the routine. I stopped by at the JT to surf for about an hour on the way to work. With practically no wind and with a fairly long period swells (14 seconds, 6-7 ft), the place was good. Already there were 7 or 8 of us out there in the morning. Anticipating a small condition, I took out my new favorite gold fish (I am going to call it this way because it is red and yellow).

 

I am really into surfing with this puny board, and I also really look the way this board looks like. It looks like a board you see on surfing cartoons as its painted in two basic solid colors. As for surfing, it is becoming more fun with it. This one is almost totally opposite of the Takayama DT4. There is so much flotation in the back of the board that to kick up the speed initially as I paddle in to take off, I press the back down a bit, resisting the tail lift up and board shoots me out... kind of like a crotch rocket. I see why this is a good board for small condition, it just has this rockety characteristics.

 

The HMB residents are all aware that the traffic slows down by the Jetty. This morning this Subaru dude was looking at me while I was changing. Next thing I hear a loud rubber screech sound. The guy narrowly misses a pickup truck that was in front of him stopped at the light.  I see also this happen near Linda Mar about 2-3 times a season too.

 

Like surfing, look at where you are going, or you are not a surf dude!

 

Session 4068: Stoke 8 with Takayama DT4 (Road Test) at 38th.

I just got back from a great session at the 38th with my new DT4! So like anything in my life, I need to document this while the charges are still holing in my dendrites.

 

Road Test: Donald Takayama DT4 by SurfTech, not a Magic Board (well... yet).

 

I was itching to get onto my new DT4 and finally I got on the board today.

• Paddling out: Paddling out was not as easy as Velzy 9'0 Pin Tail (another epoxy board I have road tested). The board is quite a bit narrower and also a bit thinner compared to the Velzy. The notable smooth glide of the Velzy was not present on the board. It felt more like the Arrow 7'6 hybrid. As it turns out that this board has much more flotation towards more in the front of the board. After adjusting the paddling position, paddling became considerably easier, however, compared to the Velzy it was much more paddling.
  
• Taking Off: Taking off also resembled much more like a hybrid board than a long board. It required a considerably more paddling to get into the initial wave even when other long boarders did not have problems getting into the waves. With a bit of adjustment in take off positioning (later and more towards the hook of the wave), this problem has been solved. This board seems to prefer much faster and steeper take off style than the Velzy 9'0 (even though the Velzy is also a pin tail). Once I have learned the characteristics of this board, I was able to select waves and take off very consistently.
  
• On the Face: This is where this board really shines and where the fun begins. Due to the less floatation in the back (the board tapers narrowly more quickly), the board is not afraid of taking off on the steeper waves and even on white waters. Where I would have normally pearled, this board just picks you right up and take you safely to the bottom of the wave. This distribution also allowed me to lean on the front more. In many times, the front will start sinking but on this board, it just slides down the slope as if it wants to go and the speed picks up. The board is more sensitive to turns so once the board is on some speed, the board responds more sharply to the lateral weight shifts. Cranking (thanks to Wardo for giving me this term) the turns both at the top (immediately standing) and  bottom worked like a charm. I could feel the deeper digging of the rail and push the knees through the turns.
  
• Santa Cruz 5 Knots Collision Test: The test team was able to fit in a small collision test. The test surfers managed to get a fin caught from another surfer at 5 knots per hour to see how well the bumper survives. Thanks to the TufLite epoxy construction The board has only suffered a very minor paint chip to the front bumper. Back in our  test lab shop, it was already fixed with an epoxy putty. The epoxy does not emit any harmful fumes so the repair was safe and quick.
  
• Recommendation: The DT4 9'0 is a bit more sensitive board and less floaty than many entry level long boards therefore this board cannot be recommended as an entry long board. However, this added sensitivity allows more advanced long boarder to take advantage of more "looseness" and perform more aggressive riding. The board does seem to choose the rider instead of being other ways around. For an experienced longboarder, it might be a perfect addition to your quivers to aggressively ride steeper faster wave situations.

Today's Session Story:

 

The new board was a bit temperamental at the start. When the first time I rode the Velzy, it magically allowed me to paddle faster, catch lots of waves, and make initial turns very quickly. This one was not as easy. But once I found out a bit more about how the board behaved, I started to understand it a bit better to take advantage of the characteristics.

 

I caught so many waves today with it. Today was especially kind of the day where I felt I was really consciously getting successfully getting ahead of the waves. This means that my up and down turns are continuing to get better, and there is a bit more power and speed to surfing.

 

It will be some time before I can extract a lot out of my new board, but it will be fun!

 

The sky was sunny and hot today. Shouldn't have worn gloves! Stoke 8!

 

 

 

 

Session 4067: Back in California! Mellow Day.

The trip to Colorado Springs has concluded a bit early. But, since the night before it snowed quite a bit and I had a nice refresher course on (1) How to brush the snow off the car, (2) Try spinning a car around in a snow covered parking lot. Both were extremely successful. Only concern was that I might have not been able to get back home, as I have heard that Denver was even in a worse condition than CS. Anyhow, I drove the trusty Malibu Classic back to the CS airport, and luckily the flights were still going on and also I was able to get on to 12:30 flight instead of the original 4 PM.

 

Well, I could have surfed yesterday if I pushed for it as I got back at 4. I did not.  I was also itching to try out my new 9'0 Takayama DT3, but I did not touch it.

 

Today, we checked out a few spots here in N. SMC, but could not find anything that have been great so we decided to go to the Jetty in the afternoon. This turns out to be a good pick as the waves were not big but more consistent.  With the DT3 not set up (not waxed and finned) I quickly grabbed my 6'6 and headed out, and while I had fun, I really wished that I took out the longer board as other surfers are "stealing" my waves lefts and right.

 

Nevertheless, once up on the board, I am starting to have a much more freedom in directions and controlling that it was a very satisfying afternoon. Glad I am back and glad that I can surf again! Not surfing for a week is not a good thing. I felt I was already rusty.

 

As of right now, the DT3 is still in "brand new" state. Still catching up with a week of "being away."

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection from the Rockies: Iospea Utah

I must first say that I don't know very much about the Hawaiian/ Polynesian culture nor the Churghe of the Latter Day Sains (LDS). But what I know is that there was a "colony" of LDS members who migrated from Hawaii to the land called Iospea, not too far from Salt Lake City. To condense the story, the town does not really exist any more. There were some problems and also some spread of disease and many decided to go back to their home.

I have only been away from the Pacific for a few days, but thinking about this story, but to me, it looks so sad that they had to give all it up, move to the middle of the mountains only to find out that they had to get back to their origins. Myself, I was born in an island and while I was not so concious of it, I grew up with the ocean around me. I actually did not realize this, but I cannot imagine myself in a world without being close to the ocean. I picked living in the California coast probably because of it. Funny that I was not even aware of this when I move to the Bay Area, but now I know. I have to wake up with the (even the faintest) smell of the ocean, and get back to it before I go to sleep.

Reflections: A "Dry" Week in Colorado Springs

These days, I hardly get to travel on business. It is actually more like I have carefully managed to avoid it so that I can stay close to the ocean, do dawn or dusk patrols surfing etc. I was able to make a reasonable excuse of budget cuts in my team, but eventually there will be a situation where "How come your department is not spending enough budgeted money." So I reluctantly decided to come out to Colorado Springs for a week of software product training.

So I get off the CRJ2000, probably a 36-seat twin jet (I would not mind having one of those for myself) with a 400 lbs man next seat to me, to Colorado Springs airport and I had to rent a car for the week. I happened to get Malibu Classic. Of course, up to this point, that name did not cause any sort of reaction, but now because of this I becomes awfully curious about "what the heck they named a Chevy car with that name?" These days, if you say to your friends "I got a Chevy Malibu Classic" that is about as boring as it gets. I seems to also miss the mark much further away from "The PT Cruiser." So, I would imagine that you had the Malibu, I would automatically guess that started a family, you are rather conservative in terms of choice of transportation etc. That's kind of far from the image of what I know of Malibu. In fact, my own name is usually mistaken for Malibu too, and also I used to own a Mini-Malibu long board too. So why the heck the GM decided to make cars that is named after most famous surfing spots in California (or the world for that matter). Well, I did a bit of research on this, and it dates back to 1966 or thereabouts where drag racing was one of a popular recreational activities. Then The Beachboys, once they "ran out" of surfing theme songs, they also wrote about drag racing and cars in general. That make sense. So, I am proudly driving the Malibu Classic around Colorado Springs neighborhood as if I am telling to people around that "Hey, I am from California and I surf too!"

Back to surfing....

One thing I managed to do is this. I managed to find out that the Homewood Suite has a free membership deal with a local "Y" so I have learned that I can actually use the swimming pool there. So I have been swimming since I arrived here. Man, though, I thought I was in shape to swim but I still cannot do long laps on freestyle crawl strokes to swim. On breast strokes I can go on for many many laps.

But the first night there was laughable. It is like an ancient man waking up in the year 2004. I have not been to any of these gym facilities for probably 15 years, so I did not know what to do. Now, please be reminded that I go out to the open Pacific ocean on a daily basis, so there is no need to worry about lockers, combo locks any of those. Of course, I have purposely avoided going to gyms, and that's why I chose surfing. I just get out of the car and basically run west and I hit the ocean, then just paddle around. There are no doors nor sign up sheets.

When I checked in, I did not know that you have to bring your own paddle lock, or rent it. I had to go all the way to the locker room to find out about this, so I went back to the front desk and got the lock. Now it took me about 10 minutes to figure out the combination on the darn thing. It just happened to open... more fumble on this later.

For the first thing, I did not know that there was an exit to the pool in the back of the locker room so I took a shower and got out of the entrance part of the room to look for the pool that probably looked rather strange!

But it looked like people in Colorado Springs do not swim. The pool was relatively empty so I really had a good time swimming in there.

After I was done with it through, I did not bring the towel so I was walking in the locker dripping water all over the place completely ignoring the sign "Please dr off completely before entering the locker room." Then I could not open the combination paddle lock for good 15 minutes because the tag they gave me had 4 numbers in it. As it turns out the last number was the "serial" number of the lock.

I went back the second day and it was a smooth sailing as I have to say.

Session 4066: Great Day To Conclude 36-Days Of Consecutive Surfing! Riding the Softop.

Well, I am not going for 37 days as I need to get packed and get ready to go
to a business trip on an early afternoon trip to Colorado Springs. Not too
bad.

So because of an afternoon dry social event, I decided to do a quick morning
session at LM with Arthur. As I approached the Devils' slide I get a call
from him, "I dinged my board." I could not talk long because in just 10
seconds there will be no cell service.

When he arrived at the beach, I have taken a look at the ding on the board
and sure enough he had another rail ding from yesterday. That really sucks,
so he brought his wife's SoftTOP board. Whenever I see other people have
one, I always wanted ride it because in spite of their reputation, they are
really fun. They are extremely forgiving and easy to paddle. I still don't
know why more people don't pick them as their first board. Should I know
about all I know today, that would have been what I have chosen, but I
basically got bunch of incorrect advises from getting a 7'0 mini-gun to
"don't get a SoftTOP you are gonna outgrow in a few weeks." I know it,
nobody wants to look like they are a beginners. But I just jump on it, and
zoom by other surfers with much more mean looking boards at speed catching
basically every wave I go for. There is basically not anything wrong with
this board at all.

Well, I laid my 9'0 Velzy on top of the ST Hi-Performance and looks like
they are made basically from the same template to me. The SofTOP was a bit
heavier, probably because it is wrapped with more industrial strength
materials. Now, don't get me wrong. The Velzy is a fine board, I call it a
"Magic Board" more on this in a moment.

Back to surfing. So today was one of these kind of days that the it was
breaking all nicely all across the outside that we were so spread out so we
found a section that broke about shoulder level and we caught one wave after
another. It was really a lot of fun.

So I asked Arthur if I can swap my Velzy with his SofTOP. Now this is why I
say my Velzy is a Magic board. As soon as he got on the board, he started to
catch one wave after another. Strange though I also kept catching waves with
SofTOP too. Second thing that happens is this. I let others use my board but
almost invaluably, once they get a hold of it, I have to ply their gripping
hands to get it back.

I saw immediate improvement in Arthur's take offs. The magic of the board
worked for him too. After a few of his successful take offs, (I should
have not) said to Arthur, "Do you want to buy it?" and he actually took it
rather seriously, so it actually became serious. Initially I said that he
can use it for a week while I am out of town and if he dings it it is his.

To fix his ding on his Roger Hinds, we stopped at Sonlight and then I
happened to see exactly the next board I wanted. It is a used "9'0 Donald
Takayama DT 4" it has a bit of concave in front and of course, it is an
epoxy board (great for klutz like me where the board design changes with new
concaves and channels created after few sessions). So I asked Arthur, that
he can buy mine, so the deal was established. So now I got this snow-white
board out of the rack and it is sitting in my garage now.

So next time you are looking for me, look for a helmet surfer with a white
board. It is a bit of a reward for me to completing the consecutive days of
surfing project too.

Unless I break a board this will be it for a while.

Session 4065: Great Sunset Surfing Stoke Level 8

I surfed 35 days straight and still two more days I can go for.

 

Arthur and I have surfed together this evening and there were some awesome but gentle overhead peaks we discovered far outside. Today I took out my 9'0 board and it was the right choice as the tide came up, the waves started to break bigger on the outside. Another nice thing is that once you get into the wave, the waves steeps up quickly so we picked up tremendous speed, and board starts to skip over the ripples. I have not had this kind of fast ride in quite a while.

 

Arthur had a really good ride and several more while I also had quite a few rides that were really fun on a nice sunset background. Kind of like a Bruce Brown sort of a day (where did the film crew go?).

 

Because of breaks coming so far outside, we had quite a bit of distance to ride and we rode one right to another and by the time we finished our session, we had to walk quite a bit of distance back north to where we started out.

 

As for myself, I am much more confident in turning so I am altering the line as I see fit, and creating different lines to keep the ride longer and also recovering from errors better now. I am really happy about the progresses I have been making. It was great also that Arthur did not mind getting way way outside, that is something very difficult for me to do (yes, due the fear) without someone else around.

 

We were also accompanied by a curious seal and also a huge dolphin that was blowing the air so high that I can locate them from behind breaking waves.

 

 

 

 

Session 4064 (D34/31): Day 34. Nice Sunny AM. Glassy. Was a Long Board day & place.

Earlier this week some rain was forecasted today. Also the 8 ft 11 second swell did not look that appetizing. But as usual, I just go. If not for anything, to burn some calories, since I really dislike being on any kind of exercising machine, nor wanting to listen to music while I do it.

 

In spite of what the NWS told us, it was a nice pure glassy morning without any wind at all. It is really amazing that when there is no wind the waves, especially looking from the back look as if someone put a giant sheet of Saranwrap over. Sometimes, Sushi restaurants make bunch of California rolls and then wrap them in Saranwrap, dark green texture of Nori and the kind of round with few wrinkles. The waves remind me of such textures.

 

Again, I am shooting myself because I did not get out earlier on a bit lower tide and would have been a bit more fun waves to catch, as the tide was up high and bouncing off the seawalls and cliffs. But I did score a couple of solid rides so that made me happy.

 

This week's theme continues to be catching more solidly and speeding down the slope sooner, and in these couple of rides, I was able to make some very conscious effort to do so. Also today I really felt that I was planted on the tail traction pad, unlike other times I was planted on tangled leash cord!

 

There is one guy that I often see there and he spotted me and told me "Aha! You got a nice board!, I recognize you and your old one." Well, with a helmet I am an easy target, but I am glad he was stoked about my new Fish too!

 

Just three of us towards the end of the session, a friendly, nice Spring surfing. I won't mind if everyday is like today.

 

Also it is great to hear that Jocelyn has been transformed into one of my surfing BORGS and now she says she is going out no matter what (within reason). Good going! I have successfully transforming Other surfers! It will be you next. Resistance is futile!

 

 

Session 4063 (D33/31): Fun AM Surfing

Note: In order to respect all the local surfers and the community, I am no longer going to disclose where I have surfed other than a general location if that is necessary in the context of a report. I would like to avoid people from flocking at any specific breaks because I said something, and since it is on the World-Wide-Web, you know what I mean when I say flocking.

 

I had a late start this morning but I managed to surf for about 45 minutes this morning, but it almost never fails that on days like these, it is hard to get out of the water, as the "time-out" comes I usually "finally" find a spot or some nice breaks come in (this is actually a well known psychological phenomenon that you tend to discard "blah" situations and only remember good situations).

 

This morning the beach was fairly wide spread and giving rather soft breaks up to about shoulder size level. Since I have been using my Fish for sometime, and I had some reason to believe that the sets might get a bit bigger, I took out my old-reliable 7'6 out.

 

Today, I set out to understand the mechanism of balance shifts during the take-offs. One of the things that I started to notice this week was that the board slips under me forward while I fall backwards during take-offs, so I have been trying to analyze the reasons why this occurs. In most of these cases, the board does catch the wave and I am on the board momentarily. So last night I was reading my surfing text book and I have reviewed the balancing during the take off. Essentially what the text book said is that most beginners do not shift the weight forward immediately after the take off. This is right. This is exactly what is happening to me! Of course the difficult part is that we all have to put the back weight up as we take off, but immediately after the board is going, you need to weight shift to the front and that is the key to gain the speed in surfing (and not only that to get ready for the bottom turn.)

 

There were two times that the board slipped out, and so I started take a mental note of what has happened and to make more conscious corrective efforts on the forward weighting and I had some better take-offs. It really goes to say how difficult it is.

 

The swells were getting better as the tide started to recede from the max. Alas, the time was up already to head to work.

 

Hope the weather will hold up tomorrow and try more take off refinements!

 

Let's Surf Better Tomorrow!

 

Session 4063: Pretty Poor Condition Today. Day 32 of consecutive surfing.

Should have just gone on a high tide right when I got up. It was just dumping all over the places up to 2 x overhead explosive closeouts before lunch. Practically nobody was catching anything, or if they caught, they all got all wiped out by the white water mess, or waiting forever on the outside. Otherwise it was a very nice warm Spring like weather outside and no fog and no wind to speak of.

 

Stoke 4.

 

 

 

 

Session 4062: Day 31/31 Final Day of 31 Consecutive Sessions Complete!

I was a bit worried about today's condition since the swells have gone done considerably smaller. Also because I wanted to get together with friends after the session. I opted for "after work" session. Well the condition was not all the great, in fact Ed from the Surfrider came all the way to join us but according to him this was one of the "worst conditions" he would have ever surfed in, so instead of going in I got some nice pictures taken by him. So I am sharing these pictures with you in this special edition of my StokeReport. As usual I am fully bundled up for the cold spring upwelling condition, and this is my new SurfTech Fish I have been talking about. Nice isn't it? So I am here at the same location as yesterday, and this was about the only place I saw that there was any breaks.

I was almost going to be surfing alone, but later in the afternoon Nick got up from his Mar's hours and called me that he wanted to join surfing with me, so I was really glad. Because as much as I don't want share the waves (just kidding) I do want someone else to be surfing with me. Especially at this location, it is often barren and very lonesome.

As you can see in Photo 2, the condition was not that great. I must have been saying "Let's get in from here." Though I had one really nice long right on a shoulder level break, so I was really happy about that. Sorry you did not get any picture of me actually catching a long ride, but you can see that I am just about to take off on Photo 3.

Interview with Myself:

Q: So what made you decide to surf 31 consecutive days?
A: Because when other people ask how often I go, I do tell them that I surf "every day." This year I started to actually make a count of how many days I went out. Today I have gone out 62 times. But I actually did not make a conscious effort to actually surf every day. So, I said to myself, what the heck, let's give it a try. I was originally going for 30 days but another buddy of mine, Arthur, told me to why not go for 31. So I said, OK. I also made a commitment to do this by officially announcing to all my friends. This drummed up much mental support that I needed.

Q: So now that you surfed 31 days. How do you feel?
A: Not much different than any old week. Not particularly more fatigued or anything like that. I am going to hit the beach tomorrow for the Day 32, unfortunately at the end of this week I have to "live" in Colorado for a week, so that put some damper on my life style, as you can guess .

Q: What did you discover in your 31 days of surfing?
A: It is actually a challenge to surf (or at least get out) each day for this long of a time, because I had to be both mentally and physically prepared to deal with various conditions. The tide and wind condition change by day and by the hour and of course, I have to shoot for the best period to get the best out of the day's condition. That means I sometimes had to kick myself out of the bed at 5:00 in the morning, and sometimes, I had to tell other people at work at 4:30 that "I have to split, I will pick up the rest later on that night."

I also had to work with a variety of conditions, and for that I picked the right time of the year to try this challenge. There were a few days that the swell were over 15 ft and period was also going close to 20 seconds. At my level, it is out of question to venture out to a 3x zone, but I had to be very careful not to get sucked into these danger zones. Physically I am now in a much better shape than when I started surfing just about 2 years ago (in May it will be exactly 2 years). In fact I had to fight some strong currents in these bigger days. It was also kind of a challenge to surf on conditions where the wind was blowing at 20 knots or more, and some days there were not much to surf on, but overall, I only had a few days that I could not catch any waves. Of course there were several days in this period that I had some of the best surfing done in my entire surfing career, and most of these surfing were right here on my local Half Moon Bay breaks.

Q: Are you are better surfer as a result of this?
A: As a high school student who got an "C-" in the Judo classes, I am not particularly an athletic person to start with, so my progress on any athletic activities are usually 2 to 3 times slower than even most average person who would get into the sport. However, there were a couple of breakthroughs during this period. One significant one is that I am now riding the shortest board (6'6) I have ever ridden and somewhat successful with doing so with take offs and turns becoming more solid. This year's goal is to master a "roundhouse cutback" and I now can start to physically feel the mechanism of how that is executed, instead of just knowing how from some of the text books I have been reading up on. I always thought it was kind of funny that I can read the same sentences in the surfing text books over and over and over, and then one day, I finally understood what they meant by actually feeling it. Unless that time arrives, essentially the text and the real world are not communicating through my brain. I am sure many people had this type of experience in surfing of other situations. I have also found out that watching professional surfing DVDs of Rob Machado or Andy Irons have been extremely helpful as I can analyze how these guys are doing what they are doing using slow motions etc., and relate that to how I am feeling.


Q: Would you go for a longer period of days?
A: My "day job" does not allow me to do that. I do have to travel sometimes, and also I do need to visit my parents and brother in Japan frequently, so about a month straight at a time is the best I can do. My hats off to anybody who can surf 10,000 straight days.

Q: Thank you very much!
A: You are welcome!

Session 4061: Day 30/31 Stoke 8 at ?

Today the swell condition was rather mellow. On the days like these, I
venture out to the areas that I do not normally surf. This one was a bit
"out of the way" beach compared to the other ones I surf regularly. In these
locations when the condition is right, I really get stoked. Today was great
because the shoulder-level size sets were coming one after another and
because there was no other surfers around, I had the entire mile of the line
all to myself.

I think that my new Fish board has accepted me as a friend this week, and
especially I made very little errors in taking off at this session,
something like 4 out of 5 tries, I was up and riding the board and making.
Part of the success I am getting is because I am consciously trying to be on
the board sooner than I used to do. And because I am on the wave sooner, I
am getting a lot more fun out of turning as I am starting to realize how
quickly these boards turn so I might be back on track to master the
roundhouse cutback later this year. I now can see (and feel) the clearer
picture of how to get there compared to even how I was in January. The major
difference I realized now is that the I need to work on controlling the
board with much more frequency and intentions. To do that I should make the
knees and the board the integral part of the surfing mechanism with my feet
solidly planted on the board processing the millisecond to millisecond
feedback of the sole pressure.

The "Getting Out" technique has gotten more natural like ducking and
turtling, as they are becoming more of reflex and autonomic activities. Now
I hardly have to think hard about every step to choose and execute them.
Various separate elements I have been learning through the year are
gradually piecing together as a part of one sport.

Sounds like I made a lot of progress, but I was just watching Andy Irons
surfing on a DVD and I know I still got a lot to go to even be able to do
10% of what he does. But I know I made quite a bit of progress since May of
2002 when I started surfing when I could not even get out past the white
waters in Linda Mar.

So I give today the overall stoke of 8!

Session 4060: Day 29/31 Sweet & Mellow 38th + Need To Get Up The Board Faster!

The most waves were up to hip high today at the 38th, so it was a very mellow kind of a day. But Clio, Mark and I had a lot of fun today. Also went to "Aloha Grill" on the 17th@Portola afterwards and I had Khalua Pig and Mark ordered a SPAM sushi, which was kind of strange, but edible.

This week I am continued to be obsessed with riding the Fish even though a long board would have been much more appropriate.

In small waves with a short board, everything need move much faster when long boarders have relaxing 5-10 seconds setup, I have to paddle, take off, get in the wave in a matter of 2 seconds. If I can consistently do that I can enjoy this and wider variety of conditions. The Fish can take off on theses mellow hip-highs, not a problem in that area.

Stoke 6. Two more days to go!

Session 4059: Day 28/31 Fogged In... 3 More Sessions togo!

DST plus longer day means that I have a better choice of time to surf. The
tide was really low this morning but the higher tide in the afternoon, so I
chose to surf in the afternoon. The beach was fogged in almost completely.
Funny that just across the hill, it got really hot.

Overall the condition today was softer and actually kind of fun... a perfect
condition for me to try out the Fish. Today, I got a more substantial rides
out of this board. Definitely the board demands a different style riding as
the place you can stand on is very much smaller than anything I have been
used to. Whether it is the right thing to do or not on the 7'6, I can still
have a room to change the stance after taking off.

Also it is much more sensitive to the weight sifts so even just a bit of
shift in the weight will cause the move to steer, stall or speed up etc. One
funny take-off I had was that I was pushing the tail down so hard that the
tail was carving the water and I was going down rather fast. But this has
given me a confidence that I can try to take off on even steeper waves.

All of that summed up to be rather challenging but a lot of fun.

There were several shortboarders out some of them were quite good, and it is
always good to see how these people are handing the waves.

Also I was glad to see Arthur joining me. We were kind of surfing at
different zones. By the time he arrived though all the good waves were gone!

Session 4058: Day 27/31 Big Day but not surfable!

Managed to get out of the bed by 6:15 to meet up with my SRF buddies this
morning. Checked the swells and was already 11-15 ft range with 20 seconds.
I know it is going to be really big.
Called Ed on the way to "a" spot and was told that they have given up
because it was just too big. So I checked out the Jetty for a few minutes.
It is amazing that this swell did not get in there very much. Looked flat
and calm. So I headed to the North. The Montra looked awful; massive 3 times
or even 4 times, I could not tell, closeouts going. Finally arrived in Linda
Mar and the north end looked like it was breaking at least double. There
were only two other surfers I could see in the vicinity of the S end where I
entered. The whole place was pretty junky. It was so soupy that I could not
find my way out, and the S to N current was so strong that I had even hard
time standing in one spot. I was a bit scared of being swept away to the
North where the big waves were waiting.

So it would have been better at the Jetty.

Since I have to surf for 31 consecutive days, I did go, caught a few
white-water rides, disgusted and got out. Then I saw Nick holding his little
girl Sophia. I showed him my "new" fish that I got and he was stoked about
it, so I somehow got back into a cheerful mode.

The swells are going to get even bigger in the afternoon, so that will be
something to see.

Session 4057: Day 26/31 Storm Surfing

Because of low tide in the morning, I decided to surf in the afternoon at
5:00. The PM surfing plan did not work out all that well either. While the
wind was not bad at all, the water was just a bunch of agitated mess.
Shoulder level chops were all over the seascape and I was actually amazed
myself that I could even managed to get to outside.

I did go out. I did score a few rides but they all abruptly stalled each
time over a popping waves right in front. If it was not for the 31 days of
surfing, I probably stayed out.

On the other hands, it gave me more paddling practice over this kind of
conditions. Stoke 4 today.

You did not miss anything today!

Session 4056: Day 25/31 Stoke 9 at the Jetty over lunch!

Phenomenal day at the Jetty. I think I wrote in my last spring's WavLog that
sometimes I would not surf anywhere else but the Jetty. It can get so good.
As for the condition it was not optimum but so many things went right that I
am giving a Stoke 9 today. It is a stoke 9 because;
a.. There was no crowd. Only one another woman surfer and me. She trusted
my judgment and followed me around for almost the entire session. She had
problems taking off though, sorry.
b.. More gentle sand-bar breaks today.
c.. Nice and Sunny
d.. Caught 8 or 9 waves in a short hour session, one after another.
A few negatives;
a.. The wind really picked up towards the end of the session.
b.. The water was only 50 F today.
c.. Many rides ended up in big shore breaks
Initially when I got in, I stayed in front of the storm drains. Swells were
coming in but all were too mushy and also fizzling out. But I saw some
sand-bar breaks to the south so I decided to paddle out there. For a while,
this area looked mushy too but then there was a period of time there were
7-8 ft wave faces breaking. They were easy paddle in rights and so it was a
blast to take off on them. My backhand turns are getting a bit more
confident and powerful so I can keep (but not yet increase) the speed. In
the past week, the bottom right turn has really started to take noticeable
shape, and now it is possible to gain some speed. The backhand turns can
also be more confident and actually do turn as opposed to not turning at all
and wiping out. So on typical rights it would start on a quick right turn as
I get up, then a backhand to go down the slope more straight then the bottom
right again. Previously, I mess up the first backhand but that's where I am
getting a bit better.

Though at the end the waves built up to a shoulder-high beach breaks with no
way of getting around (I guess that good people would pull out earlier
before the waves get to that stage). Nevertheless, because there is nobody
around, I just jump off the board to the other side of the break, and I'd be
all safe. Some times, I do get sucked in by the leash, but in just a few
seconds I can pop up.

Not related to surfing but yesterday, I started to see the first set of
"By-The-Wind Sailor Jelly" arriving at our beaches. So it is now a real
Spring time!

Session 4055: Day 24/31 Windy Junky, Sucky, Low Tidy, Stoke 3

You sometime win and sometime lose. Should have gone to the Jetty this
morning. All the conditions conspired to be a very poor day today. To start
things off there was a strong onshore wind going probably at 15 MPH, then to
top that off, we got low tide and lots of far-shore wind activity causing
lots of agitation. I scored a couple of white-water rides but that was about
it. So that is the extent of the report today. Stoke 3. What a difference a
day makes.

The place was barren, but even on these days there was someone at the beach
I know. I was spotted by Patricia.

One more week to go for 31 consecutive sessions! So, what happens after
31-days? I can go up to 37 days, but then I have to fly to Colorado Springs
for a business trip then stay dry for a week!

Session 4054: Day 23/31 LM: Stoke 8

I was waiting for Arthur to join the lineup at the Pumps and we warmed up
there for a bit. After a while we both got frustrated for not catching
anything significantly, so I said to him. "Do you want to get a humbling
experience" and asked him to follow me. As we paddled further North, soon
enough, the sets were getting higher and higher and we were steering to the
outside to prevent us from being eaten up by the sets. With no wind, it was
a smooth paddling out to the Roundhouse.

Then, I had one of the most phenomenal rides of this year today, so as for
that ride goes it was a Stoke 10. I had one phenomenal ride this morning.
The reason I say so is because I managed to do a perfect cut-back in the
middle of the ride to stay on the ride and also kept the speed. I usually
stall at this point. It was also a lot of work on my kneed to stay on the
ride to push the speed up and when I finished the ride, I had to catch some
breath so I got out to rest.

Several more excellent rides after that though I could not top the ride.

A day like this is so rewarding that all the bad sessions I had last week I
can forgive and forget. I know and I look forward to many more days like
this.

Arthur: I really am impressed with your latest turns! Lock your rail in to
the face more quickly upon take-off!

You should have been here surfing with us!

Session 4053: Day 22/31 Pleasure

I planned to meet up our friends at the Hook this afternoon, but about 5
miles south of The 1, there was a huge accident and the traffic came to a
complete stand-still. But I took my binoculars out and look under the cliff
and there was a dude surfing out there. I don't know how he got there,
probably paddled out from areas near Davenport.

Some people turning around told us that it would be 2 hours before they are
going to open the highway up.

As far as meeting with my friends on time, it became out of question so I
turn the car around, because on the way, I saw N. Waddel making some nice
gentle rollers so I called Clio up and said, we are going to give it up and
I will head back to Waddel and surf there for a bit and heave back to HMB.

Then I saw Swanton Road by the Big Creek Lumbar. I totally forgot about that
road, but I remembered (from my Motorcycle touring days) that I can get
through to Davenport. Turns out it was the right answer, so we completely
bypassed the accident and were back on the way to SC.

Lately I have been really stoked about surfing at the 38th and the peaks at
Pleasure Point. There were some concerns that the waves would be too flat
there, but this place always seems to have something going. Joined by Arthur
and Laura it was really fun to warm up inside then once we were all set we
paddled out all the way to the outside. There was a small competition going
but people were sharing the waves fairly well. Also great to look these hot
women surfers.

Even though the place is still crowded, I had a chance to score a few
overheads today and that made me so happy. There was also a family of Otters
including a fairly young looking one playing in the water right at the
lineup.

Nice sunny day, a bit of wind and chops, but otherwise a nice sunny surfing
afternoon!

Stoke 8 today (would be 9 if there were more swells).

Session 4052: Day 21 of 31. The Battle with Appliance Continues!

My battle with the nature continues this week. I pull up to the parking lot
and I hear a lot of wind, so I was almost hesitant to open the door. It is a
kind of a day when you put a board on top of a car, you need to keep it
pressed down so that it won't start flying all over the places. After all
the composite materials like epoxy and fiberglass were design for aircraft
materials, they want to fly.

The spring "upwelling" is also starting causing the water to be much more
salty to taste and solidify fingers and balls at (52 F). I've surfed last
spring at 49 F so this is a preview of what is coming in the next few weeks.
After this is over and water come back up to 56 F, we will start to get into
the dreaded solid summer pattern with fogs, onshores, and mellow waves. A
nice 30 minutes hot bath after a session would be nice on a session like
this.

In the water, it was like being in an appliance store with the demonstration
of powerful fan and washing machine going at the same time, with the surface
agitated up to shoulder levels. Should this have been more agitated, I might
get sea-sick just paddling around.

I am willing to bet that the dozen or so surfers outside had to come here
because of surfing, but because they probably missed being in the water for
the poor conditions in the past few days kept them completely dry.

However, today I was able to catch a couple of short rides so this is a sign
of things improving a bit. The strong current of yesterday has subsided
today too. The main problem was that there are so many waves popping all
over the places that as soon as I caught one, a huge mound of wave just
forms in front of my course and just prohibit me from keep going.

You might all be wondering whether it would have been worthwhile today, but
one thing I got out of it is a lot of exercise and lot of practice getting
out over and under the waves.

The wind is supposed to mellow down a bit this weekend, so I am hopeful.

Session 4051: Day 20 of 31. Unsurfable Today!

A challenge of going out every day is that there are days that you
absolutely cannot surf. Today has been one of them. Driving up north from my
home in downtown Half Moon Bay...

- The Jetty - Too flat and windy.
- Montara - Massive closeout (this is usually a hopeful sign)
- Gray Whale Cove - Even if this place looks great from the cliff top, when
you get there it is usually very agitating and mushy, either that or
massively closed out.

I ended up at Linda Mar (as usual). Interestingly enough there was no wind
here and the sky was perfectly sunny and clear with no sign of fog.

Since I should be surfing every day I did go out today at Linda Mar and
there was nothing to surf. I hunted for waves both N and S. In addition
there was a massive current going from the S end to the N end. It was almost
difficult to just holding on to the board as I was being side-swept to the N
side. I was at the creek and start to paddle out. By the time I thought I
got out far enough, I was already in front of Taco Bell and then continuing
to move North. The water was just simply agitated but not breaking in any
sort of surfable breaks.

Should this not have been these local wind blowing a few miles out, it would
have been some "fair" day.

No catch today, but I did definitely made an effort!

Session 4050: Day 19 of 31. The Jetty Again. Not good this AM.

I was carried away with some work related programming stuff last night that
I did not get to the bed until past midnight telling myself; "What the heck,
I will get up in the morning!"

Well, I briefly woke up at 5:00 but then I was really still sleepy so I went
back to sleep. When I decided to get out of the bed, it was already 6:30. I
was a bit reluctant to leave the comfort of a bed and get myself in the
frigid water first thing in the morning.

Earlier this week, I was concerned that the weather would crap out and
prevent me from even having an idea of getting out. Once I was wide awake, I
did not hear any gust of wind outside, so that got me stoked a bit, and I
was also originally thinking that I cannot go today too. So I put on my
wetsuit and hop into the car. Really sunny nice morning.

Hoping to get some more actions at the Jetty and also not hoping any better
conditions elsewhere, I went back there. This morning was not great for me
as it was closing out inside and totally not breaking outside... a poor
condition overall with a lot of agitating waves.

At least, though, on the 6'6 board, getting through them to get outside
wasn't much of an issue. I remember a year or more ago that I could not get
out at all and wondering how others were lined up way way outside on the
days like this. Now I think I can join these people. That is all about the
extent of the stokes I could report to you. It remind me of being on boogie
board days. Unlike on being a longer board, I have many options for getting
out, from standard ducking to "throw the board to the other side and jump
on" maneuver.

Well, you did not miss much this morning. Hope for better tomorrow!

Session 4049: Day 18 of 31. The Jetty This Morning

Even though I don't go to The Jetty that often, I do drive by there every
morning. Usually not much going on but once in a while I see the waves I
want to (or can) ride. This was one of the mornings like that. Also
apparently from Jocelyn who was at the Linda Mar, it was pretty bad, so
sometimes the Jetty is a good stand-by to remember to check.

The water was fairly flat between the sets so it was a nice relaxing time
between the sets, but there were some great rolling stuff coming in every so
often, once in a while up to shoulder +.

The morning commute time is an interesting time as the S bound on The 1 gets
very congested, so I get lot of eye contacts with drivers and kids from
yellow busses checking me out as I change. I think that many people are
actually very stoked with the idea of surfing before work.

Interestingly enough, when I am crossing the road, many drivers are so
oblivious that they continue driving at 2 MPH, even if I am looking at them
directly in their eyes! No sharing of any stokes there! One of these days,
my SurfTech might be sticking through their broken windshield (just a
thought).

As I was getting ready, Jason from Surfrider found me and decided to join,
so first there were just 3 of us, then a few more started to arrive and the
place became rather competitive as these others were rather good, the take
off zone only being able to hold 3-4 at a time, and just catching and
paddling out quickly.

The "new" 6'6 Fish worked good, did have one successful "diagonal" take off,
and so I think the board is accepting me as a friend.

On the way out Rick checked out my new board too.

The rain and wind started to kick in as I left the beach.

Stoke 7

OK! On to Day 19.

LC:JT:5F:11S:MOT:NNW:10K:F66

Session 4048: Day 17 of 31. Cristened the new 6'6 Fish.

It was a good day to try the my recent quiver acquisition -- a 6'6 French
Fish board this morning. I think that now I have a complete set of boards to
choose from for various places and conditions. This morning the waves were
coming in 8 ft at 11 sec on a medium tide and so it was just the right
condition for trying out a new board... not so big and not so small.

This is actually the shortest board that I have ever be on. Up to this
purchase, the shortest was the 7'0. Surprisingly though the board was just
as comfortably paddling as the 7'6 hybrid that I normally ride. So I think I
am going to leave the 7'6 at home for a while and try to get used to this
board. The 7'6 also acquired a de-lamination on the top surface in the back
of the board where there is some good paint job, so I am going to take time
and figure out how to fix this.

The fish is a SurfTech epoxy construction so it is light, stiff and more
shutter proof than my fiberglass boards. At my stage of development, I feel
that a board being durable is the top reason for the choice because I know I
will put it though situations that experts won't. Plus I was very pleased
with the durability of the SurfTech 9'0. It still have not gotten any rail
dings.

But why I got this particular one? Because last summer I watched a group of
good people who were constantly catching and doing great maneuvers "inside"
and they all were on this type of board on smaller summer waves. For a short
board, it is extremely wide (21 inches in the middle), and chubby looking
and it is basically wide all the way to the tail. For me, I would prefer to
be a bit inside and catch a lot of small waves and practice than waiting for
a long long time for bigger waves outside.

Of course when I go to SC, I will bring my 9'0.

I am sure that I will be writing a lot more about it on upcoming wave logs.
But I got on a few waves but it is a strange feeling that the board takes
off rather gently... like almost being on a long board.

I cannot wait for tomorrow morning.

Session 4047: Day 16 of 31. Stoke 8 again at the 38th.

So, today, I loaned my magic Velzy 9.0 to Ren and she had a blast (but I am sure she will not get the same Epoxy Velzy 9'0 :-) Of course, she had a lot of fun with it because it is a magic board. It is a board that catch any size waves and also let you turn on any wave face.

In the meantime, I tried her famed RH 7'8, and I enjoyed it too. I was actually a bit "surfed out" as on Saturday, I really had a lot of great waves, and as I wrote about SC on a good day, I hate SC on a good day because I have to paddle so far back out again. Anyhow, her 7'8 is an excellent board, and it works like a long board, so if anyone is eyeing on this board, I would recommend it.

It was a great fun weekend with Ren, Heidi and Amanda all joining us on the camp. Too bad that Amanda's dog got really ill and she had to cut surfing.

Also, I sold my Nor-Cal 7'6 Egg to Mark on Thursday and for the same price I bought a Randall French 6'6' Fish (Surf Tech, of course), so additional review is upcoming. It is a coinquidink that there is another person on my message board that got a new Fish, but I have been eyeing on this 6'6 Fish for quite sometime as I actually prefer to be on smaller waves but wanting to practice a lot of turning (plus ducking in the summer wind-swells around here).

Session 4046: Day 15. Stoke 10 at the inside 38th!

We were originally going to go straight to our first Manresa camping
(actually ended up only being able to get the Sunset site.) but from the Hwy
1 driving, all the open beach locations looked like a huge mess, so we
decided to check out the 38th, and that was the right answer. Great
condition just right for my skill level. Not too crowded (in SC standards)
and also great shoulder level gentle sets for every 5-10 minutes. Enough
time to paddle out and rest, then there was a plenty of space for everyone
to take off. I am now capable of scoring very long rides at this location on
the days like this. My Velzy 9'0 continues to perform very well, allow me to
push the edge against the face and gentle cut backs are no problems to keep
the ride going.

I still think that SC folks got it really good when I have to deal with
massive closeouts on a daily basis. But they should watch out because I will
continue to work on these "next to impossible" conditions.

The Sunset Beach state park was a bit further down and most of the camp
sites were not as close to the beach as they are in the Manresa State. One
advantage of this location is that you can actually drive the car right up
to the site whereas the Manresa, you have to go to a drop off site with a
limited parking time then go park the car in the main lot. They were a bit
disorganized and did not assign us a location clearly, with a fear other
mix-ups, we had to move our sites. That was a bit of a hassle, but with a
bit of teamwork, it worked out fine, as we split up to the camp logistics
and the administrative teams and we took care of both dealing with the state
and the local issues.

Session 4045: Day 14.

A clear morning is sometimes the hardest morning to get out. When I open the
garage door and get out, it was so cold almost making me wish that I just go
back, take a warm shower and get back into bed. Then that first shot of
water seeping into the suit is a bit painful. But all that is taken care of
then it is all fine and comfortable. I like my new titanium coated rashguard
I got last week. I think this keeps me warmer than the sweater kind.

Almost half way there for a month of consecutive surfing! 11 ft 13 seconds
on W swells and low tide. Getting out was not much of an issue, but sets
continue to close out a considerable amount of power. Today I had one of the
longest body surfing I have ever done after being caught in the white water.
I kept moving with the water.

Another so-so condition day, but appreciated the lack of people on the beach
where no one person is taking over the lineup and spread out. More close
outs and I have heard some dudes talking about being pounded to the bottom
and colliding with his buddies etc.

Wish I could wait until the tide gotten higher.

Session 4044: The Day 13. Heavy Closeouts But Tubes on the South End

Interesting seascape this morning at 6:00 AM. On the North end the there
were huge 2 to 3 x overhead sets closing out. In the middle was a strong
channel current going out but very rough. Then to the South was overhead
sets throwing out tubular shape closeouts. There were a couple of short
boarders trying to catch those, but were just dumping so fast and ending
that not getting much in the way of the rides. I think that should the tide
be a bit higher, it would have been better, but like yesterday, I was in the
lowest of the low tide time. Towards the start of the session, I was in the
middle section and trying to catch reforms after these huge sets crumbled.
There was so much more water pushing today, the outgoing current was also
stronger and so getting out was kind of fun. Once I was out, though I was
still not sure whether I will be positioned right or would be pounded right
under the curling "C".

For those surfers flaked out this morning, even though on days like this
there bounds to be a few in the size and speed that I can go for. Scored 2
rides. Stoke 6.

LC:LMS:W:10F:14S:LT:NW:7K:A7.6

Session 4043: Day 12 of 31 Consecutive Days of Surfing + Transformation to a Sea Animal

Well, I think I am now on a mission to surf 31 consecutive days. Today is
the Day 12. See if I can make it!

Starting this past weekend there is some change in my attitude with the
ocean. I am feeling much more at ease with it than ever. One thing that I
noticed more clearly is that the rhythm of movement is so much different in
the water compared to being on the land. On the land, I can move my arms
freely and fast through the air, but in the water, I have to tune my
movement to the liquid medium. For example when paddling out. It was a
mistake to think that I move the arms just as fast as I would do on land to
go faster. The viscosity of the water, the dimension of the board and my own
weight requires a total tuning of the movement.

The wave also moves in kind of a speed that is not like something that
people experience on land. Even though we talk about waves big and fast, we
are only talking about 5-15 MPH movement that builds up. For example, the
timing of duck diving. It is a 5-6 second motion... more like a Tai Chi
movement than a Karate movement.

Once I became aware of it, I am founding a much more confidence and comfort
in the water. I am sure this is the start of the awareness, but I know
something has changed. It might sound obvious to you. It was to me on paper,
but now my body is feeling it, that's why I say I am transforming to a sea
animal.

Surfing this morning also was really really enjoyable. Though the tide was
too low and the waves were closing out a lot of times, there was a ride that
just made me so happy. I did a deliberate very late start into a bigger
closing out set, and the board has caught the wave, but I was surrounded by
lots of white water. But the base started to reform back up and I gained
some speed, that gave me a chance to emerge from the soup, and execute a
sharp right bottom turn and was back up in the wave. That started to close
to left, and so I actually was able to cut back, pushed the knee out that
that gave me some speed. As I did it another bump popped up in front, but I
had enough speed to climb that one up, and then back in the down slope
again.

It was so much work that after the ride was over, I laughed so hard, then I
had to catch some breath before paddling back out.

I want do that again soon!

Session 4042: The Jetty. Not Much

Today the buoy report were indicating swells from W 6-8 Ft at 8 seconds. Typical summer like pattern including the 20 MPH side wind... OK, except for the fog. Deep swells are also very small only 2-3 Ft max. So I did not expect that much in terms of getting good rides, but this month, I am on a mission to surf every day except for the 12th that I missed, so I did go during a lunch break. Nice weather and so forth, but a typical kind of crappy Jetty day where the breaks were happening on waist high shallows. I really did not feel like breaking the board so I just paddled around for about an hour and came back. Not much else today, but I will see I can break my own record.

Session 4041: Brought Manrea with me to Lindy, Reflections - Need Focus

Back to weekly routine of stopping by at LM and surf before hitting the desk. The condition was kind of junky with lots of small agitations (it has been kind of a theme for the last week or so). Negotiating for a "getting out" meant that I looked like a small fishing boat in northern Hokkaido in the deep of the water, just being agitated and not moving much. As small mounds of water pops and break in small bits, I turn left and right to avoid and find the valley through which to get out. Actually this seems to happen a lot when I am in a rip tide, so I was hopeful that I get free rides.

When I first got on my 7'6 last April, I was tipping over all over the places, but as far as that goes, I came a long way, now I am paddling out even in that kind of situation without grabbing the board, so it was kind of fun getting out.

Like many times I encountered this week, and even at Manresa yesterday, weves were breaking in very small sections so I actually had a bit of fun finding and chasing these peaklettes. Again if I was one of these guys ripping on these types of waves on short boards, I would have done the same, but it is still a way to go.

Lately, I think I am lacking the focus on both surfing and the life in general, and so I am starting to think more in terms of getting focus. So after getting out of the water, I went back to work and tried not to be distracted so much. Part of a help I got is an ISP outage that essentially stopped all the flow of e-mail messages....

Session 4040: Return to Manresa North

I was hoping that we can do some decent surfing this weekend, but that was shuttered. First the nature did not cooperate did not send me good swells and second if there were some good swells, there was a Kayack contest at the Lane, that means surfing on the West side was out of question. So, we decided to go back Manresa. Last time I was there was probably sometime in August last year! This means that the Spring surfing is upon us!

I was joined by Mark, Clio and Amanda. Amanda was injured so she did not surf but did came with us to show her support! Turned out it was a bit of fun as we had gentle breaks as the tide started to go down, and finally it just became just rough agitating mess as the wind picked up and the tide went down completely. Nevertheless, a nice sunny afternoon in Manresa brought back a lot of good memory about the last year's surfing struggles and adventures with friends, and hope for many more waves to catch with both old and new friends that I have yet to meet!

In terms of surfing, there were some young dudes ripping even in these small coniditions. So it was both frustrating and inspring as usual.

Session 4039: SAT Morning Session

Nice weather (no fog) continued in the morning and then later on some fogs in HMB. Continue to work on take-offs but the beach was very crowded and conitnues to make it difficult. Almost not worthwhile to go out on weekends, but on the other hands it is great to get out and see my frinds surf and improving their gigs.

Session 4038: Pacifica Pier/ Sharp Park

Since we did not have a plan to hook up with people in the PM, I tried
Pacifica Pier and Sharp Park this afternoon. As far as today goes that was
not a good choice... strong shore break and just a lot of agitation getting
out. The in-shore current was so strong that no matter how hard I paddled
out, I could not get out much further out. Had a couple of short rides but
not much to speak of. No wonder not many people surf here.

Session 4037: Starting to show some wear. Only missed a day this month!

I was looking back my Wave Log and this month, I only missed Friday 12th,
and all the other days, I surfed. That's good, but on the other hands my
arms are becoming a bit fatigued. Also this morning was a bit chilly and I
forgot to zip up the back. I can tell when I do that because as soon as I
duck through a wave, the whole sleeves balloons up.

Surfing on the other hands, continues to be fun this morning. The waves were
a bit more on close-out side and size were getting smaller than yesterday. I
know because the period is considerably shorter today.

Going into the beach 15 minutes before the sun-rise was great. Basically
there are nobody yet, and just Ren and myself can grab any sections we
wanted. But there was a section that was about chest-shoulder high that
looked most appropriate for us so we just stayed in that section for a good
part of the session.

Even though I do all these paddling all these days, taking off is still a
lot of work with the hybrid so I tend to go inside a bit and try to take off
a bit later and let the waves help me take off rather than paddling early to
catch, but I think I should now focus more on putting more power during the
take-off to prepare for learning taking off on more steeper and hollow
conditions.

Obviously, and needless to say, there is still a lot to learn.