Do surfers get jaded?

That's the topic I have been thinking about for a while because I have been wondering if I am going down the same path of other surfers that I have met over the years, though I don't event know exactly what this "same path" is. So in this log I would like to explore what that is.

When I started to surf, I have noticed distinctly some characters in surfers that appear to be around for a while. This is especially true around established breaks.

I have noticed that some surfers are continuously cranky and at times they appear to be a bit arrogant towards other surfers. I've noticed that they appear not to be having much fun, when on rare occasions when I caught waves, I enjoyed so much. Of course not all of the surfers are like that, but there always are several. So there always is a chance that I might join one of them. Of course, I know this type of behavior is somewhat reinforced by some exclusivity of surfing breaks and the overall increase in the general surfing population. The question to this though is will I become part of it simply because I participate in the sport for a longer time? I am hoping I would not.

The second issue is that I actually surf with less number of people these days than I used to. When I started, I need to surf with other people because it was not fun just to go out by myself, feeling scared, inadequate etc. So we set up sessions, called around with other people to go out with etc. Going to many different places were actually fun and would take extra energy to get up early or driver much further, set up long weekend trips to So Cal, and go on Surf camps etc.

As time went on, I have found a few people who consistently I surf with and, actually it is more like I go there and other people I know are out there, not specifically setting time or place to surf. Sessions are starting to happen more on "organic" basis. This is really great because I remember when I try to do a session with people it took me quite a bit of energy.

As the part of the second issue is skill related. I am not claiming that I am a really a hot surfer, but on the other hands, but I have started to make differences in where and the type of waves out there. This is where I am actually a bit stuck; I am not good enough with good people to surf with them all the time, and when I take other people out with me to some of the breaks that I think is fun, they would not set their board into the water thinking that it is too challenging to them.

But then I think all of that is coming around, and I have been hopeful of this coming back around.

In the interest of saving time and driving, I have started to go in even when it is kind of small and crappy, a kind of waves that I was happy with when I started out, and try not to always surf outside, but pull inside a bit. Now I take out a board that might be either fun or a bit challenging, and try to get the most out of it. I have realized that that give me a lot of practice too. I still take my Doyle foam board occasionally. It is actually difficult to turn this board, but with that there is an additional challenge of actually making this board turn, and when I do that I actually realize something about turning on performance boards.

But I do need to continue to watch myself out and make sure that I would not become a jaded surfer. I should go back to the first day out every session out!

~ ~ ~
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Technical Update

I think I am over due for my technical progress update section, so this one is just about the technical update.

At some time or another I have mentioned about how waves looks good when a bunch of semi-pros show up on local breaks. I have seen this happen just going to the HMB surfing classic competitions in the past few years. Normally when I go to our local breaks, most people are so-so, even the ones that I surf regularly with, if we compared to some of these professional surfers. When the competition is on, no matter what the condition is some of these competitors know how to make the best out of the condition, and if you watch them surf, you'd not realize how "good" the condition was. Of course, the next day, basically the same condition, same tide, a bunch of "regular" surfers get out again, the surf look just like every-day.

One of the things that I have been paying a lot of attention to lately is about the speed, and if you have the speed, and hence the momentum, you can do a whole lot to your surfing than just plain trimming across the wave or just going straight down, and then stalling. Most of us, and especially me, just stall too quickly but pros do not seem to; they obviously have other skills like picking the right wave and also reading the waves once they are on the waves, but one thing they have is the speed.

Well, one of the issues might be is in the take off period and just a short period after the flick up. This is when I slow down when the pros continue to gain the speed. And that makes it a bit of challenge to me, but here are some things that I am starting to either understand of experiment more.

1. In order to get up on the board, I tend to jump up on the board. This is actually bad in several reasons. First, I am not continuing to transfer my weight on the board, that means that the board, for a short moment, is just floating on its own and not getting much power from the water, and secondly as a result of this the board is not being controlled during this very critical state in stetting up the initial speed. So, to fix this issue, I am trying to transition the posture change more smoothly, and bit slowly. I know I can get up on the board but I think I do that too much in haste.
2. Once I am up on the board I am still not applying the weight to the right place and not set up to the turn number 1 for the proper weight transfer. Turn #1 is usually the bottom turn. I should be working on more determined weight transfer rather than just simply relying on the rail to do the turn. I am setting up for the turn correctly in most cases but the speed is not increasing significantly more after the first bottom turn finishes. This is also bad to the point that I may not have gained enough speed and power to get back up to the wave, and of course, that means that I cannot extract more power out of the wave on the turn number 2 and subsequent ones.

So if you see me struggling to rip next time, that's what I will be working on for the next 10-20 hours in the water. If you spot me, check me out, and let me know if I am missing something.

Thank you!

More Diversions: Fresh Ocean Scent/ Surf Scent

The idea of the fishy and kelpy scent, if it is strong may not be appealing. But if we use a very very small amount of my ocean scent mixture and also mix that with some lavender, and some minty fragrances, or even coconut, pineapple type smell it might actually be quite appealing.

There definitely is the scent of surfing, I have realized while I was paddling out today.

In addition to that fishy and kelpy smell out in the ocean, there is a moderate amount of rubbery neoprene and also whatever they put in the board wax of that tropical fruit scents mixes in. The rubbery and waxy smell is kind of exciting. It is the same scent of walking into surf shops, except that in surf shops add the scent of the fibreglass resin compound mixed in. Perhaps, I can market that as "Fresh Surf Shop Scent" for your car deodorizer.

Fresh Ocean Scent?

I don't know if this is just me or not, but I don't know what the Fresh Ocean Scent is. There are a lot of products from shampoo to soap labeled to have this type of scent. We did buy a few, but none of them smell like the fresh ocean.

In most of the places I hang around the ocean scent changes depending on the time of the year, but in most cases, it does not smell anything like the fresh ocean scent out of a shampoo bottle. If anything the following is the list of things I smell.

- Some types of see weed or kelp.
- Fish market
- Bad Sushi restaurant
- Sea Lion or Penguin section of a zoo (this one is not a very pleasant smell for me).
- Ozone or electrical discharge scent especially when I am inside or near a break

Perhaps, next time I am out, I should grab some floating kelp with can of sardines and put them in the mixer and extract my own version of the real Fresh Ocean Scent.

Going Single-Fin

I have been thinking about taking the side fins off of my Takayama long board for quite some time, but I never really got around to do it. You know, when you get to the beach, the waves are looking good, the only thing in my mind is to get in the water as soon as possible. I often neglect supplying additional coat of wax too.

Also, why long boarding now?

First I admit that there still is some part of me thinking "long board = old surfers." But that idea is crumbling quickly. One thing is that I can ride short boards with some degree of satisfaction these days and another is that I have been watching some classic long board movies and also new people too on Longboard TV on satellite, and I thought that I really should master long boarding too. Some people are really elegant on the board stepping back and forth, and some younger surfers are also doing some really cool moves on it too.

Also whenever I ride long boards, it also teaches me about short boarding too or vise versa. Since I am not a professional surfer, I should be able to enjoy both and I am lucky that I can actually starting to enjoy both. Plus some places are naturally great for long boarding like Santa Cruz and Ventura breaks, or in the winter when the breaks get bigger and starting to break big from way-way outside!

So back to the fins finally this Monday, I took the side fins out of the DT4, and based on what I am experiencing so far, I probably don't need them again on this board.

I only have been out twice without the side fins, so this is something I will be reporting more as I take out this board a lot more. But, for example, I really had this really gradual but smooth and sweet setup to get into the first turn after the take off. Turns are seemingly becoming more "sweeping" instead of needing to "whack the tail, and push the rail and jet the board out" type turns that works with thruster short boards. The turns seem to come more by changing the left-right balance. At least that is my initial impression. I can be totally wrong. From this stand-point, this really is totally a different kind of experience.

If you have a tri-fin setup on your long boards, I really encourage you to try without the side-fins. Whatever it is, the quality of ride changes very significantly that I feel like I got totally different kind of a board.

Also, this week, I was able to step to about 10 inches from the nose, stood there and kept going. I think I will gradually close that gap so I will be standing right at the nose. It will be fun.

More Life Lessons from Surfing

As a part of my own training, I have been trying not to get angry. I have been consciously trying this for more than a year now, and surfing really has helped me in achieving this. Like surfing, I have not perfected it, but I think I am making a bit more progress than before really starting to make an effort.

Looking back at early days when I started to take up the sport, there were many things that frustrated me, hence I got angry. Many of the situations dealt with when it got really difficult to paddle out or go up on the board. Whenever something bad happened, say, I could not make the outside, or cannot catch the waves, that resulted in frustration, and often blamed the surf board, or the condition, or sometimes the people who happened to be around. But now that I have had a bit of time to reflect on all these situations, I have found out the following stuff that happened in my mind.

First, I thought I was not able to control the situation, but I thought I could. The way I thought I could is to find out the source of the issue; something to blame. Now that I am thinking about this, there clearly were time in point I was thinking that the source of the problem was the surf board, or other people or the condition. Of course, if you are reading this now it might all make sense to you, but if you are in the middle of the situation, it is not that easy to make a head and tail out of it.

Now, several hundred sessions later, it is very clear to me that most of the source of the problem lied within myself, and all of what I was angry at was really not present at that time or even now. I was trying to control the situation where there is nothing I could really control, and hence, the frustration and anger. The fact that I can prove this to myself is that I now have totally different attitude about the situation, because now I am still using similar equipment and going out on similar conditions and with similar crowd as I have been, but I do not get that anger feeling any more. I know how to have fun in crowded situations, they never get me, and I rarely get them, and I know when the board works to let me surf and I know when the board works and when it does not, and when it does not, I know that I can make it work with time and more practices.

And there, I have found much more peace in my mind, and I can really use this to deal with my daily life. I am therefore really glad that surfing is not only helping me stay in shape but also mentally help me grow a bit each day.

Thie Winter of 2005-6, The Fear etc...

I am over due for an update. Oh, what a winter this has been. There has been a lot of things going in my life this winter, not to mention about how difficult it was to find "surfable" surfs and the weather. Then to top this off, the Devil's Slide decides to "slide" at the end of the winter. Things did not stop there, we've also heard about some guy in Oahu who got infected by the "flesh eating disease" because of too much rain and the contaminated water.

Let's see where I left off.

I definitely have been surfing whenever I could. That has not stopped. However, I must say that I have not been getting really satisfactory sessions. Why these sessions were not satisfactory? The main reason is that I feel now need to really become a significantly stronger surfer than ever before. This issue is tangled with dealing with a lot of my own fears about the surfs. Somehow, I have developed this fear of currents this season. The fear is rooted to the fact that I kind of know that I still am not a strong enough surfer to be able to paddle around in situations where I should really want to be; a bit bigger, steeper and faster conditions than I have been accustomed to.

Here is one of the reasons why this fear is not unjustified. I do surf occasionally with people I know are much better than I am. I also try to paddle out in the situations that's a bit beyond I feel is comfortable. For example, when it was like 10 ft at 20 seconds swell hitting the bay. What I have found out in these situation is this.

When I'd paddle out I'd be in one of two situations. Either it is really hard to get out, or I would be swept fast out into the outside. As far as being swept to the outside, I know it is a bonus for most. For me though, if I cannot catch the waves once I am out and want to come back, I know it would be a lot of effort to get back in, and I am not entirely sure yet, if I can come back in. I wish that I knew the answer. So far, there has never been a situation where I could not come back in, because I can always catch some wither water and ride back in. But what happens if the board breaks in half or the leash snaps. I am having a hard time paddling with a board under me, can I really swim back?

The other side of the coin, however, is that I am becoming a bit bored with catching short and small waves on smaller days with easy paddle out. Because I know also that on these occasions when I do get further out on a bit bigger days or places where things tend to be bigger, and when and if I catch some of the waves, the quality of these rides are significantly great. The quality to me means that I can really do a lot on the waves making more types of turns.

So if I really need to cross this "confidence" level threshold so that I know that I can handle more powerful situations. This is a gradual thing, I know, because I also know that I came a long way. I am definitely riding more waves in more powerful situations, and I am out there when most other people are not out there. But I also know that I still have not attained the level to be a true contender in local surf competitions.

~ ~ ~

Coming up on my next few logs, I would like to touch on some angers I had early on.

Greed, Punishment and Rewards

It was the final day of our mini vacation, and we planned to stop by at another spot further up surf and head home. But, we also checked a spot close to where we stayed, and it was breaking in the size and the shape that I like; about shoulder high, good shape and soft enough. On top of that there were only 2-3 people and peaks were happening all over the places so I could have had my own waves.

Well, still determined that we should hit another spot, we got back in the car and headed up to the point about 20 minutes up the road. As we drove up the situation looked more and more bleak. The waves gotten looked smaller, the prevailing wind made the surface more disorganized. Finally we arrived at the spot, and there was nobody on the wave. This is one of the best reef spot in California, but today there was nobody and it was that bad.

We got back in the car and headed back to where we were. By then nobody was surfing but the waves were still about the same; sets coming in every 2-3 minutes interval, and basically I got to own the entire beach to myself for the next hour and half. Caught tons of waves, really relaxed and rode easy but really fun waves, not even minding about techniques, and just free surfed? And that's something that I have forgotten doing for a long time. Just free surf and don't worry about techniques or fighting for the next break with another surfer. Catch a wave, paddle right back out on glassy surface, rest for some good breath, and ready to catch another.

It was really a treat and kind of surfing that I have not done in a long while. I should remember to do that now that I can actually surf the waves, why worry.

Next time the wave looks good (enough), I am not going to look further, I should go in and enjoy.

Please, and please stand by...

I have been taking a bit of rest on this department. I know, I know. And I even know that a lot of people come back to my Blog to share with me about my progresses and defects. But lately I have been thinking a lot about what it is that I am trying to do. I hope you understand. Yeah, it is really easy to write that I went out and say how many waves I caught etc., but somehow I don't think that you are coming back to this spot to find that out. Are you? I think that you want to know a lot more about in-depth what I go through trying to become a better surfer. Of course, what the heck is a "better surfer". Well, I think that's also up to me to define what that is. So, please hang around and hang on. Don't give up on me. I am really giving a lot of thought about how I can make it a more worthwhile sharing and reading experience to you.

Please stand by...

Session 6025-6026

Session 6025: Thursday 2/23: Great day at Montara. Finally get enough courage and encouragement to surf more on the outside breaks.
Session 6026: Friday 2/24: Gentle day at Linda Mar. Still thinking about how to improve this blog, what really to write about.

Feb 22, 2006

Change in WavLOG?

I think that I am now getting to the point that there really is no point for logging each session. It really gets tiresome just to write about each session, and I do think that when I spend time I should write something that adds value, and of course, I have been pondering about that for some time. This is a legacy that hopefully I can leave behind for some time and for that I think that I should at least write something that would be of some value to people.

Also, I would like everyone to know this.

Surfing is a very very high priority in my life. You would not be surprised if I put surfing as higher priority than my family. I do look after people that I am very close to, but surfing comes the top priority, that means, I will write about my surfing experience but I may not respond to your emails or questions. I will try to find time to surf before, after or any time I feel is appropriate. Taking this away from me, you are going to make a very and very unhappy man and I can make you very unhappy person too.

Some people might be mistaken when I say this to you, saying that I am "addicted" to it. That's also far from the truth. I am absolutely not addicted to it. Should I, say, get in a situation where due to a circumstance beyond my control (I repeat beyond MY control, not my friends or even my spouse's or spouse's in law or parents'.) I would be totally in content and peaceful, if I realize that it is no longer possible to surf for a good reason. But presently I am not in that situation, and I choose to go out when and where I feel is appropriate to me. I am no addicted to it because I am in control of the situation. I can stop I and I can do it whenever I can, and I don't even have force it to stop like someone with some addiction therapy. This is why I never ever write my experience associated with an addiction. I would like everyone reading this to stop and think about this for a moment. There really is a clear distinction.

The closest thing (due to a lack of my ability to articulate this) that comes to me is that it is more like a life-time mission, and I cannot even fully explain to you what the mission will accomplish. But in a very shallowest way, I really want to fully understand what it is that I need to do to be good at it, and there is much more for me to understand this as every time I go out, I find out that there is a lot more to find out about this than the last time. Sometimes, or actually more often than not, I feel like I have not mastered anything at all. Then sometimes, I feel like I really have came a long way, but nevertheless, there are more times that I would feel like there is a lot to go to the point that I would feel satisfied.

One of the things that I really like about this sport is that it is a sport that I have to do it by myself. If this was something like Tennis, then I have to have someone else. But this aspect of it, I really like, because all of my life that's the mode I have operated in. Looking back this is really the reflection of how I like to run my life -- independently, and that really resonates with this mission that I have started.

I actually even don't know what I find out from this. But the more I get into it, the more I find out about what I need to find out. From that point of view, may be it is a mission without an actual end, but so be it! I think that's better than, say, one day, I master everything there is to know about that. It is too sad that if that ever happens, I must quit this altogether and go on another mission. Luckily that does not seem to happen yet!

Session 6023

LM DP this morning. Fun.

Session 6022

Linda Mar in the afternoon.

Seesion 6021

Montara today.

Session 6020

Surfed at Linda Mar. Finally some surfable waves at my level.

Session 6019

Surfing continues to be a very difficult sport to learn, and more I do it, the more it seems to get difficult. I have written a log to this effect many times, but I guess even if I write about this 1000 times, it would not be enough to put this point through to my WavLOG readers. Of course, many of you understand this.

This morning, I surfed at Montara with my buddy DH, and today's theme was basically the Wave Selection. Of course if it was not wave selection then it would always be something else that works against me. It is more appropriate to describe that today, wave selection was one of the prominent issues noticed among dozens of other issues that I have to work on. Of course you or anyone might say, why do I have to agonize with all that. Well, I think that ties into the ultimate question of the life in general. If you keep asking that question then you won't be able to answer it even if you had the entire life time of the universe. I do find though, a pleasure in focusing at something, but it is a different kind of focus, it is a kind of focus that I can have without really being bothered by a lot of different thoughts. To some extent, by attaining this type of focus, I feel that I would become more confident in focusing on a lot of other things that I do, or I want to do.

Back to the topic of wave selection? It is another one of these things that requires both the wave reading skills as well as having enough strength and endurance to go to where it is happening. One without the other won't work very well. This morning, the breaking section was really shifting from one spot to another, and it starts to happen at one spot for a while, and I go there and then where I was starts to happen. If you can paddle fast anywhere then there is no problem, you just go there as soon as you see a particular section of the horizon darkens. For me though, that's too late, by the time I get over there the set is all done with!

So the next best thing is to try to maximize the opportunity by patiently sitting at one spot where I think will happen. That's probably the basic number 1 of wave selection. But that in of itself is difficult because I think I am doing that, and I can see waves breaking nicely both sides of me except where I am sitting at! Obviously, I need to do a much better job at this, and day like this is a good day again to make myself really humble about all sorts of things starting with this, and then other things in life throughout the day.

Hope that your wave selections are good tomorrow, whatever the wave you are happening to be catching.

Session 6015-6018

Session 6015 (Friday)

Finally the swell power subsided, so I stopped by at Linda Mar before hitting the hard surface of the office desk. Morning surfing like this is something I really like to do. One bad part is getting out of the water, especially when the condition is something I like, and even worse, like this morning, when I started out late.

Session 6016 (Saturday)

With further dwindling swell size, my neighborhood beaches gotten pretty flat, so I was intending to go to Montara. What a beautiful place this is, especially when the sun is fully out, even if I don't catch any waves, it is just worthwhile paddling out. The problem was that it was a bit too powerful and too tricky to select good surfable waves. There were better surfers who were doing it, so I had to basically retreat for this session.

Session 6017 (Sunday First Session)

The swell started to build up again in the morning. Originally some forecasts were predicting 20 ft swells, but it turns out to be about 14 ft swells. The only local options, we felt, was to surf at the Jetty. A lot of white water to gets through to the outside. You'd be caught inside? I am paddling, paddling, and paddling, but when looking back, I am still exactly at the same spot as I looked back. Well, as far as the distance to the shore goes. Strong side currents take me towards the direction of Roosevelt.

Again, retreat temporarily and see what happens in the afternoon when the tide goes down.

Session 6018 (Sunday Section Session)

The tide and even swell subsided. After doing some errands, I got a call from a neighbor buddy so it was a perfect chance to get back out. This is when having two wet suits come really handy. I buy a new suit a year, and use two suits at any given time. After two sessions, I retire one suit and get another. Also this way, one suit gets used half the time so the suit lasts two seasons instead of just one. At any rate, now I am back in the Jetty again. Now the tide turned super low, and when bigger sets come in the wave close out at shoulder size on chest high depth water. And I ended up getting a small ding when I had to bail on one of these close outs.

However there were some fun waves and getting out gotten much easier. I went back and got another board out and surfed the rest of the sessions.

Session 6014 (Thusday 2/9)

Session 6014

It is kind of interesting that the same storm swells that caused as big as Mavericks contest are shared by regular surfers like myself, and only just a mile away from where the contest was held. What a contrast and whenever this happens I do get a bit self conscious about it especially at the Jetty where people are looking us catch waves from their cars (and also there actually are not very many spots on California Highway 1 that run within a leash's length to the Pacific Ocean).

At any rate, buddy DH is back in town and it was balmy, sunny and calm, and we had waves. Typically when we have a big wave contest the weather usually does not cooperate, probably because we get affected by the very weather system that caused these big waves in the first place. And the nice weather is continuing towards the rest of the week, and then we get another big set of swells will fill in. It truly has been a one amazing winter surf season. For us, regular surfers, it has been rather difficult to the time between these big swells to paddle out!

Today I felt rather rusty since I have been out of the water for more than a week, and also there were quite a bit of inside white waters to work with. This is when the seer paddling power is much desired. I am not quite there and also not willing to get out too much further out, but the problem is that then I'd be caught inside most of the time, probably wasting more energy than actually get my guts up and get to totally outside. Initially I took out a 6'4 but actually paddling was so hard on it, I was not having much fun, so I got out, and took out a 9'0 and now I can go faster but getting through lots of big white water got difficult too. So it repeatedly shows that short board with duck diving isn't any better than the supposed paddle speed of long board.

When I switched to the long board, I also have realized how different it was to turn the board, and this one probably requires a bit more figuring to do, but it appears that simple weight shifting does not cause the board to turn easily. So I changed the mode a bit so that I would try to stay much further back on the board while initiating the turn, more like pivoting around the tail more and that had much better success. I think I am going to explore these characteristics of the board a bit more in detail next time I take it out. I also should really take the outer fins out, or swap them with much smaller ones, because I think that is making the board wanting to go more straight. I am also going to experiment with the characteristics on taking off on a bit more hollower situation. I am hoping that it would not be a bit more gentle.

Session 6012-6013

As I learn how to surf, I have been learning this on a piece by piece approach. Of course any part of it cannot stand alone of the other, so it has been more like re-enforcing one area of the skill set and then the next.

When I started to understand a bit more about short and long boarding and watched some people, I saw some people pumping board to get more speed. Over pumping does not look very good, but soon I've discovered myself that this pumping action does work sometime. I guess this works because you can channel and squeeze some of the water between the outer fins get some thrust. It probably won't work without the side fins as well as with them.

But I am now starting to realize that if this is combined with a turn, and I can really utilize a bit of the pumping action to set up for the initial turn. I think that I can execute this more, I can increase speeds through turns.

Session 6013

I did go to Jetty on Sunday morning.

Session 6012

I did go on Satuday afternoon

Session 6011

did a DP with neighbors locally this morning. The set waves were "thick" and very far and few in between. But when they came, they were fun. I practiced more take offs, but there were quite a bit of darn back washes. I took off on a few good wave faces, only to find out back washes pushed up right in front of the line and stalled instantly! I know last summer at the HMB classic, the same situation. But when the timing was right, escaping the back washes, there were a couple of really fun rides.

A very good condition is hard to come by, indeed.

Session 6009 and 6010

Finally smaller day with sunny weahter. Both days, I took advantage of the situation and getting faster flick up. On smaller days, it can really get difficult to take off on waves!

Sessions 6007-8

Sessions 6007 (Sat 1/21) - 6008 (Sun 1/22)

It has been an amazingly difficult start of the year, and there are still some locals who have not even caught a wave yet since the close of 2005 until this weekend. Even for me, under the normal type of conditions, today would, and should have been more like session number 6015.

But, having had this type of situation was actually a positive for me, since I have started to think about training from a wider angle this time. Up to now, I only surfed and I did not do any other real conditioning. One area that I think needs a lot of reinforcing is the abdominal area. Surfing gives me good back muscles, but the abdominal part is used less, so I am ending up with fairly unbalanced situation. Other areas, I was told, is that there is not much weight bearing in surfing so it may not help in terms of maintaining healthy bones. Regardless of what the theories are, I think it is time for me to start adding more musculature in other areas, and also do more balance boarding, which has really proven to me a great help in adding more agility to weight shifting on the board.

In terms of surfing, the first day of the weekend was so-so. It was pouring early on that made the start time later, and then the tide was too low making it a bit more effort and time to find the right spot, but nevertheless, I did surf and did have some good results.

But the second day of the weekend was significantly fun. The waves were going close to or above head with a plenty of power on the outside, so when and if I caught these waves, it was really fun in our local favorite beach break. And thanks to these big swells of the past weeks, sand bars are well formed way outside than we experience normally in the summer, and this is actually one of the first times I am treated to these situations. This is something people talked about at surf shop conversation, and I did not believe this actually happens, but here they are.

The current was still horrendous like before, but I anticipated that took a long board out so that I can paddle at more ease. Try to do this in my 6'4 board would take a significantly more effort and time getting out, and so would catch much less waves. I also had to take some major going down the falls. But another thing I did was, I even anticipated that so I took out a soft board. This gave me an additional margin of safety so I could actually take a bit more risk in taking off on the things that I would not normally go for, and when some of the take offs worked nicely, the power and speed and the length of the rides were just not comparable to what I have been doing. I am hoping that in 2006, I will try to make myself an overall stronger surfer. Without this building block in place, I cannot improve other skills such as perfecting cut back turns and attempting and making more tricky moves consistently.

Surf Philosophy: Setting A Goal

Did not surf today, so a bit of philosophy today.

I am reading an introductory book about business accounting (of all of the books) right now. Along the pages, there is a chapter on "Why you were scolded by your boss when you completely sold out your product." Since this is a surfing BLOG, let's say you sold all of the 200 StokeMaster T-Shirts, and you ordered before noon. You might call me and tell me expecting me to give you a word or two of praise. "I sold all of the 200 shirts." To which, I would say, "What? You sold all out that quickly? You idiot!" You might be puzzled why I was angry. Now if you think about it, a bit though, if you have sold all 200 of it by noon, by the store closure for that day, you probably could have sold 300. Suppose that you ordered 350 and the original cost was $7.00 and we are selling it for $15.00 then the profit for selling the 200 is $1600. If you sold 300 so you have netted $2400 and did not sell the 50 of them so you have taken a loss of $350 at that point so the total profit is $2050. Of course, next morning, you will do a Sale and get rid of the rest of the 50 for $12.00 each then you get back $250, so you have basically made $2300.

Why I am telling you all these.

Well the whole point of this is that by setting a goal a bit higher, you might actually end up gaining more than you've originally bargained for.

So goes with setting your goal in anything, and for surfing too. It is worth setting your surfing goal a bit higher and work towards it. Even if you did not get quite there in the end, you may have gotten a bit better than if you would your set to the level of "what you can do comfortably." And what you might think initially is a risky loss is well offset by a bit of additional progress you've made. I don't think this has nothing to do with being overly competitive, but it has a lot to do with getting to the opportunity you are actually entitled to.

It really struck in my head clearly this time, why setting a bit higher goal is often needed.

Session 6006 ****

One way of making a progress in surfing is to surf with people who are much better than you. Yes, I have touched his subject a lot, but this means that you might need to abandon some of your other surfing buddies if temporarily. As for my buddy Dog House goes, yes, he is just 2 or 3 notches above what I can manage.

I surfed with him this morning again, and it was kind of a condition that I was at the very edge of being "out of league" In fact I was most of the time. But then I was able to tell that I was close to the cross roads of being in such a situation.
So, you might ask, what it means to be "being" in an out of a league situation. At least for today, it has a lot to do with paddling out. With these storms we have gotten, we are now having sand bars forming way and way outside. And these winter type swells are washing a lot of water to our shores, so there was a moderate amount of side-currents. There was definitely nice sand-bar out to get there, first, we all need to start from a channel. This is all fine. We now all know where the channel is, but then to get to where the sand bar is, it was quite a bit of paddling required. I was marking a washed up tree stamp on the beach as a marker. I was paddling, paddling and paddling towards where the sweet break was happening but I could not get there. My arm muscles are asking me to take it easier, but I have not even yet reached straight line with the stamp. In the meantime, 3 locals show up and they seemed to have no problem getting where the break was. And here is why I would say I am at the blink of getting there, because I finally got there.

In terms of catching the waves, I could not catch as many because each time I catch a wave, it took me a long time to get back to where the break was. To make the matter worse, there was also a very strong onshore current too, so in no time, I get washed too close to the shore.
But there was one really gratifying moment. As usual with me, I tend to sit inside and catch the wave that I know are very well formed already. But it was one of the waves of the lifetime situation and instead of the wave breaking up, it started to form a nice pocket (and at this place this happens a lot of the times). I was frantically paddling and kicking to catch it, and I tried hard to steer towards left. In the meantime, a nice left pocketty crest forms on top of the wave, which pushed me right onto the face of the wave. I got up successfully without a hesitation and at that moment the wave started to build up further up in the size. I was fully up on the board and the I got a tremendous speed immediately, probably the fastest I have ever experienced being on a short board. The wave continued to build right in front of me as I progressed forward. I was trying not to go too far ahead by trying to ride the top side of the wave through going down and cutting back up. The ride lasted so long, and it was so smooth.

So even though I only really had one ride out of a session that was well worth the trouble and this has made me feel like I have gotten a bit closer to many of my better surfer friends today than other times.

Session 6005 ****

I was in kind of mood to go surf by myself, and that's what I did this morning. I just wanted to get a quick session in, come home, do some chores then I promised to go check out the new De Young museum. The morning was crisp and cold after a clear night. I also have decided to take a long board as well as my new JC 6'4, so I can decide which way to go. I was not sure about the condition with the W swell coming in. Now that I live so close to the Jetty though, I am now starting to get in a habit of taking time and check out here. And when I went there, the set waves were well spread out and breaking further out. This is the kind of a day makes the Jetty fun. Usually the break is very close to the shore or at a limited spot by the breakwater. It is definitely a good treat we don't usually get here.

So I went in.

Paddling out was not easy as there was just one front of white water after another, and with a strong side current it was easy for me to get washed further and further into the impact zone. When this happens, I usually walk the beach back to the spot where a channel forms, wait until the set subsides a bit and then paddle as fast as possible to get out of the inside mess. Unlike the first few years, now I can do this with a small smile on my face, and I am now paddling out faster than anyone paddling out at the same time. Once I am out of the inside zone though it is amazing how quickly the things calm down, and with the help of the moderately strong rip current today, it was not so tiring to get out.

But I also situated a bit inside and tried to catch many more waves and possible. This also worked well because all the inside waves quickly reformed allowing me to climb back up on the face after a straight down take off, and being on a long board it was easy to catch waves, gave me very satisfying long rides on some of the waves. These past few weeks, I was re-discovering the fun of long boarding. It really give me more time to do more things on the board as a result, it has been a very good cross training for short boarding too as I was exploring more about using the whole length of the board? getting thrusts when I get slower, and gaining more speed at the front of the board, and perfecting the weight to back and forth to set up and following through turns. And when I execute them on a long board, they are really smooth and the board and the knee can really feel the large amount of the water that I am shifting against to get these turns going, just like on a water ski but using only the wave's power and my own weight. Come to think hard about it, it is really amazing something like this is actually possible!
And to top that off, my last ride took me exactly where I wanted to get out of the beach. Everything worked out really great this morning!

Session 6004 ****

Winter surfing certainly has different set of challenges than summer surfing in this area. During the summer, we have longer days, but then we have a lot of onshore wind and smaller waves and mainly NW waves to deal with. On the other hands in the winter we definitely have better choices of the swell directions where waves can either come more from the W or bigger waves coming from NW, both cases we will get wider options opening up if they are not too big. Of course in the past month the swells were just really too big for me and most of us, especially this year. We had to carefully select "in between" days where the surf condition is "doable." I am not just talking about a beginner like me, but my local friends all agree that this has been one of the hardest seasons to find surfable waves.

Though between wind and rain, this morning was just a bit of a respite from these powerful conditions and increment weathers we have had. The wind stopped in HMB and even though the morning surfing meant to surf in a very high tide, there was enough power in the swells that there were some really fun wave to surf, and not just there hefty closing out kinds.
When I got to the Jetty with my neighbor buddy, this morning, he was not all up for it, but I really wanted to go there. He said he would check another place, but as soon as he headed down to another place, I got a call from him that he actually wanted to surf the Jetty. Great idea! There was nobody but us and there was a wide spread break all over the places, anywhere from the break water to what we know as the Turkey's. It was glassy and easy to get out (for this place that is). A few duck diving by the shore was all that was needed, and there also was a bit of a channel too.

For a good hour and a half session, there was just me, my neighbor buddy and during the middle of the session my friend Dog House showed up. But that was the lineup.
I was on my favorite 6'6 board and I had a real blast and very long ride. Also today is definitely the first time that at the end of a ride I could pull out consistently. This was not the case before. I think that this is attributed to the fact that I really had good speed and also the final bottom turn up and out through the waves worked. This was something that I was working on but it never materialized until now. Come to think of it, through, I have started additional conditioning exercise with Indo Board. So I really now think that I am thankful for having being able to do more balance practice out of the water. I really suggest a lot of my friends start to do this.

The difficulty in pulling out right is that if I don't have a sufficient speed to do this, then the wave closes out before I get to the very tail end of the lip. But today, everything worked out to the extent that I had enough speed to start with and with that speed I can gain the final speed at the last bottom turn back up to aim for getting to the back of the wave. Now, though, when I get to the back of the wave, I cannot get back on the board and paddle out right back. But I think that I am not too far from it. All these is attributed to being able to do more powerful bottom turn when I can transfer a lot of my own weight to the board.

Sessions 6002-6003

Session 6002: Santa Cruz East Side Saturday 7
Session 6003: HMB Jetty, Sunday 8
Conditions: Good winter W swells. Sunny and no wind.

Great many of you might think that I have gone to the deeper ends when I write about surfing on a foam board. Not only I surf it, I actually own one among a bunch of short boards and also a Takayama shaped long board too. So this log is all about my long boarding experience this past weekend.

For Saturday, I called a "Board Meeting" in Santa Cruz East Side, with five of my friends. Thinking that this can be fairly "big" and also very crowded, I have taken my 6'6 and also the 9'0 Doyle Foamy. I know a lot of you will probably cringe when I talk about this board, but this is the thing with me. On numerous occasions, I have seen many great surfers surfing with it, especially in Santa Cruz. And on Sunday I switched to 9'0 Takayama DT4 so on this report I am going to write about these two boards that I own.

So on Saturday, the condition was a bit challenging than, say a summer day, but it was just perfect for me because the waves were just strong and big enough and I could really take advantage of the situation with the condition and the board. One of the things that I am really starting to realize is, definitely, the performance of the board. It is really true when someone says that the foamy sucks in terms of the performance. One major drawback of this setup is that everything takes an extra effort outside of paddling. But even paddling isn't all that easy, and in fact my DT4 actually glides much better. The whole point of this is that I am now at the point that I understand better about the performance of something.

So what exactly are wrong with this setup? The first one is the sheer weight of the thing. It is much heavier than any surf boards that I know of at this size and length. While it floats fine, this seems to cause a lot of problem in take offs. The second issue with this is that turning takes a lot more effort. This is good and bad. It is good that the board won't slip away underneath you as easily, and you have to make an extra effort to make the board respond. This is also good in a sense that it really teach you what you should really do to the board to make the turn happen. The next day when I got on to the DT4, turning was so crisp, but I would not say it is easy, but definitely a board like DT4 the response and sensitivity to what you do on the board is like a night and a day. The DT4 also gets into the glide significantly better than the foamy board.
Another significant change in these two sessions is that I have not been riding longer boards for a while mainly because I have been just too lazy to load a long board. Two short boards fit between the driver and the passenger seat but when fitting a long board inside, that will take up the whole passenger side.

But I have made re-discoveries in long boarding. I can take off on a lot more different kinds of waves with it, than trying to position right with a short board. And when I take off, with the power and the speed, I can ride longer extracting every bit of the power the waves have to offer, and also with an added speed connecting among sections is much more possible.
The take home message from these two days is that I still deserve to learn a lot from both foam and hard boards, and I will continue to be practicing on both and that kind of things are really fun!

Session 6001

Oh what a winter surf season this has been. I have started to surf in May of 2002, this is absolutely the worst winter I have experienced. First the swell size was consistently big for couple of weeks, and then wind and rain poured on top. Usually we don't get both of these magnitudes at the same time. On the New Years, we have experienced a power failure that lasted all night and into a good part of the day.

So this is already the 5th and finally I got the first session of 2006. Both Dog Haus and I felt that we got rusty from not surfing. I tried to keep my hips and knees in shape by riding the Indo board during this time, which, by the way, is extremely helpful and I really should use it all the time regardless of I am surfing or not.

Oh, but it was so nice this morning! We had blue skies, and breaks were not much bigger than shoulder, and to top that off, it was glassy and offshore. So it was a nice welcome back introduction. As usual both of us caught a lot of waves. As with me and as usual, I sat inside and waited for either closeout reforms when big sets are passing through and when smaller sets builds up inside, I practiced a lot of ups and downs. My favorite Surftech 6'6 just worked perfectly especially on small but good shaped waves on the inside. Everything from getting out to taking off right into the face worked out nicely and I had some short but sweet drop downs, nice long rides as well as some fun recoveries after the waves closed out on some take offs.
I am looking forward to more fun and improvement in my surfing skills this year!

Session 5239

This was another day of quick surfing session while I interweave remainder of Christmas activities. In spite of a few thunder and rain last night, we woke up with sunshine and not much wind to speak of. Got the gear together, suited up and then drove over to the Jetty, but it was just a real messy looking with only one person trying to surf. Gone up north and saw Montara breaking really big, so that was out of question. The last hope was to surf at Linda Mar. The AM low tide did not help but at least here there were some, I thought to be, surfable waves, but as it turned out, I only caught one wave in one hour session, so it was not that great.

The frustrating part about the condition like today is that I would think that a set comes in, hoping the wave to take on a shape, but once I take off, it just crushes and closes down and there was no way for me to surf. There were several of those. So I decided to switch the program and tried to surf the inside, but that did not work out too well either. While the crowd was fairly thin given this was still a holiday for most, added with a fairly small take-off spots we were competing on, it made difficult for me to take some good rides.

But it was good to get out, at the end of the session; I felt like I have burned off a lot of the food that I ate in the past few days, and even felt hungry, ready for more food!

The surf is going to get really huge this week and also the weather getting messy again, this could be the last session of 2005? we will see, but 239 sessions isn't too bad given many adversities I had to bear this year. The year seemed to have gone quickly, and felt that I had work hard to find time to surf, especially in the second half of this year.

Hopefully, next year will bring all of us more quality stokes!

Session 5238

A bit late on my WavLOG report, but on Saturday morning, I did go and it was super fun at the Jetty. It has gotten significantly warm and the waves were breaking wide and on top of that I basically kept my own wave for the entire session, while many others crowded by the breakwater. I had numerous and long rides packed in two hours session among other holiday "obligations" and also rebuilding of the new StokeMaster.COM web site on my new platform.

Session 5237 (Friday Session)

Today I am going to be a bit technical. You might all wonder why these things are coming out from me, like the WavLOG on the Blogger and the StokeMaster StokePORTAL (http://www.stokemaster.com).

One of the things that you notice when you enter the site is current conditions panel on the site on the left. This is something that I am actually rather proud of. When I started to surf, I used to rely on free web sites like Pacific Waverider and also STORMSURF.

Oh man, when I first found about STORMSURF, I was so intimidated! Listen to the sound of it, STORM and SURF. I thought that real surfers only go out when it is really stormy out to catch huge waves. What am I getting into? In fact, back then every time I went out basically it felt like Storm Surfing, I could not barely paddle out, and that was on luckier days. On some unlucky days, I was taken out by rip current, and now I was ten times more scared about getting back since my arms are already numb from paddling. But turned out this site was the site got me going to understand a whole lot about the ocean and the wave, the tutorial section on this web site is so much detailed and helpful.

Back to web sites, so I found myself going to various web sites to find out the information about today's condition, and also soon learned that I can get more accurate information directly from NOAA web sites than relying on the interpretations of each of the web sites. So that was the start of the Stoke Console product that I created which is basically an engine to pull all of these government web sites into one page, so I don't have to open multiple windows. This worked out good. But I also wanted to get a summary of current condition, that's when I developed the SM2005 product which is the engine behind the current conditions panel you see on the home page. It actually gathers numerical metrological data every hour then performs trending computation for up and down trends. I am hoping to improve this further.

So I decided to do two things, one is to share to others what I know, and instead of just telling what I know, I have decided to structure the information so that people and even I would know the process of how I have acquired the entire "learn to surf" experience. Hence the start of the Blogging.

So that basically sets the tone for this blog and web sites. Part of the purpose of all this is that I am actually trying to expose all of the ignorant things I do, I think, I assume, and my struggles as I try to understand all of this.

What end up happening though is that when you strip away all of the technicalities for the weather and surfing technique, is basically a personal dialog for my quest for life, and I think that you will find that popping up between the paragraphs I write.

I surfed the Jetty on Friday morning on a real full tide and looked like the swell was going but too much water basically killed the waves. I had a few waves. But it was really good to paddle in the morning.

Session 5236: Only less than a week before the Winter Sostice!

Since I started surfing, I think I have really got in much more in touch with the nature. Especially the areas that I got a lot more keen into are astronomical and metrological part of the nature. I even admit that I am not (yet) into animals and creatures in the sea, even then I have surfed to close with the whales, dolphins, otters, and know a lot more about the birds.

So the idea of the Winter Solstice really stokes me quite a bit. It is the shortest day of the year, but with that notion comes the idea of renewal, spring, birth and the stuff like that. It is also believed that Christmas is basically derived from pagan ceremonies that surrounds the winter solstice, and I am fairy certain that back then people were much more in touch with the nature that they actually experienced these celestial events, say compared to most people who always have roof on their head, being at home, driving, or in the office. And being a surfer means at least some part of my day, I am either being outside influenced directly by these events, or if not I am thinking a lot about it, like, a farmer would.

With the server down notification at 5:30 this morning, the plan to do a DP was shot, and I was rather aggravated by this because nobody else was really interested in helping me taking care of the issue. So I just put on work clothes over rash guard and headed to the office right away. But it turned out to be good. As I was driving past all the beaches I hang around (they are all lined up on the way to my office near San Francisco), the swell was considerably up and with the minus tide going on (due to the full moon) all places look rather not fun.

So I decided to cut the office early and surfed at the Jetty this afternoon for an hour before setting winter solstice sun. I have been doing these low light surfing in the past several sessions.

One paddle out was really beautiful as the waves started to break right in front of me, the setting sun was shining through the lip of the wave like I was in a deep green cathedral in the late afternoon where stained-glass with some pieces with sun shining through.

There is not much I can report on the rides because the waves were not just holding up due probably to the negative tide. Some small lefts and rights were just fun to take off on but not creating any real rides.

Session 5235 (****)

Well, I promised to talk about how I am managing my leg cramps rather nicely these days. For more information on this or want to discuss further, please visit my StokeFORUM at

SotkeForum.COM

From this topic I researched a bit about how to prevent getting the cramps. When I started out surfing and up until a few years ago, I often got a very severe calf cramps. Early on, I had it almost every session, but now I only get it rarely.

I don't know if this will work out for everyone, but there are two things I do that are really helpful for my situation.

The first thing is that I do a reasonable amount of pre-session stretch incorporating a lot of Yoga type move. One of the things I think is very helpful is that I hold the stretch for a longer period of time with a deep exhaling action followed by a relaxed deep inhaling action. I try to stretch all the muscles in the lower leg. One nice bonus for me along this line is that I have become a bit more limber than I have ever been in my entire life!

The second thing I think is also very important is that I dink a lot of liquid before entering the water. Usually at least two cups of water or more. Some people might have an issue with substituting that amount with coffee but as far as I can tell both seems to work fine.

By keeping these two things I have been able to avoid a cramping issue quite a bit. If you have similar situation as I have, you may want to try.

~~

This morning's session was really fun, as I was actually being able to maintain the ride with more power in turns, which is a building-up on the stuff that I have done yesterday. One thing I am really pleased about is that the ups and down actions are becoming more vertical in nature than ever before. In other words on the "ups" I feel that I am more like going up on the wave than just maintaining the same "altitude", which was just perfectly fine on long board trimming action, but for short boarding, by being able to go back up higher in the wave, I can extract more power and speed. Of course, I am talking and writing about this in a relative term with respect to me. If you are watching me from the shore, you might say "What vertical you are taking about!" Also the power of the ride has been on an increase a bit too. By this what I mean is that I feel more pressure on my knees and feet throughout a ride, and this tend to mean that the power is ON longer, and that connects to being able to do things with more speed. More speed is actually nice because the speed tends to open up a lot more options, from going up the line or use that credit to power through the next turn be it in the bottom or on top. So I am sure to be refining that stuff for a while, but I must say that starting the session yesterday, I think I broke off from one phase to another, in more of a consistent manner than before.

Session 5234 *****

This morning's session was a short but sweet! First of all the waves were not that big today than I have anticipated, though, as usual there were some close out sets but between them were nice glassy paddle outs. I surfed with a friend, with our recent move, is now actually a neighbor.

First, I must talk about the approach of the Winter Solstice. Winter solstice always is one of the time of the year that I am very stoked, the opposite of it, the Summer Solstice is one of more, should I say, "sad" time. Winter solstice is where I start to look for longer days, the spring, and then towards "surf until 9 PM" in the summer, and all the good waves that I will be hitting in the rest of the winter too!

Winter surfing is fun, but in order to put in good surfing before work gets really needs a lot more quick action as even at 7:00 it is not completely bright, especially when it is cloudy in the morning and then I have to put in a much shorter session to show up at the office on time! And if and when it is raining, which usually means stormy the waves are just a mess, it really makes me feel a bit depressed.

Well, back to this morning, though, I really thought that everything worked out really nicely with the shape and the size of the wave and finally I thought that I have extracted a lot more speed out of the ride and the turns were really clean and crisp, and every move of what I wanted worked out too.

After I switched over to the JC 6'4 board, I have not had a chance to get a long ride, instead, I was either left behind by the waves or when I took off, I stalled out rather quickly. I was actually starting to be discouraged a bit, but two rides I had this morning cleared all of the concerns I had. It is always more thrilling to take off into a situation where I was pushing my own limit, thinking that I would not take off, but then when I took off, I had much more speed and also the control. The pressure on both my feet and the knee was pleasantly strong and the pressure was thrusting the board at a very good speed, and I was first able to build the initial speed going back up from the turn 1, then execute a cut back turn that against the high part of the wave more a bit more like ideal snapping type turn. As the other side of the wave became got into my field of view, I found out that the wave continued on the other side and then I just kept going on and found another change to do the same on the other side. And to top that off, I did almost the exact repeat of again on a next take off!

It was so much rewarding, and I must say, these kind of rewarding sessions are still extremely far apart and a few in between too. This is kind of random reward system is kind of similar to how a gambler might get hooked into the games. Obviously, I now have to go back and see if there is a repeat performance! And that's part of the stoke!

Session 5233

Session 5233

Sunshine week continues with a good power in the swell and not much wind. If there is anything to be said about the winter season, one of the things is that we don't get the summer onshore wind, which can be horrendous at times. But then, looking back, I really had a lot of fun this summer, and I was thinking about what's so bad about the summer? Sure there is a lot of onshore flow, but with that we do get these summer Cape Mendocino wind swells that are just perfect in size and shape for my level of surfing. There are a lot of people who say "Winter is the best." Yes, definitely for those who can handle 15 seconds 15 ft waves, but it is not for me, and frankly is it for most casual surfers? I had a lot of fun on 8 sec 5 ft days in the summer, and when the swells are hitting 12 seconds or more, I am starting to have more limit of the places where I can really have *fun* surfing.

Since I have started surfing, I really became skeptical of other web sites and press about all these "great" conditions, and even reading posts from various web sites and the like always talk about these conditions, but I am really convinced that mostly that most people don't admit that these conditions are totally out of their claims. Case in point, I have been out when it was cranking at 20 seconds at 5-6 ft (nothing to write home about from professional standards). Did I see you out there? I would say no, because I was with the people I knew who could handle these and there was just us, and I was struggling like a hell to get back to the shore on the first set that rolled in. Surfing the waves was totally out of question. A few things saved my life were, I knew how to catch the white water and that I could belly ride back in, and also I knew that I should make sure to relax if I was pummeled until I would surface. Plus other buddies were still out having "fun."

I am hoping that eventually, or actually soon, I would be working in the realm where I would look for a 20 second 6 ft days, but until then I would be contining to struggle to rip as I have been in the past 3-4 years.

Session 5232

This morning, the session continues locally. Thanks to more westward swells, a lot of local beaches are firing up, and even with some offshore wind flow. There were some really nice tubular waves forming, and if you were good you could get tubed a bit (of course, I am not there, so I just was looking from the shore and saying that.)

Have you ever been on a lineup on offshore wind? I am sure many of you have, but I always notice this. When the wave start to life up the air around the wave moves really fast and makes this kind of noise. "Hooooffff!" And another thing is that should this have been onshore, the waves have already broken off, but in this case, the waves do not break, but when it does, the waves make a kind of special shape that I'd think that I won't take off into it, but then I can. And if I do, the surface is smooth but wrapped up. I think it would break into while water mess but it does not, often it does not and I can actually ride that smooth surface, especially when I am really lucky and I was situated where the lip of the wave is just about to cave in, and I just paddle a few stroked and I am up and going exactly diagonally on the surface of the wave exactly how the wave pushes me into, and when that happens, then I think there really isn't any other feeling that I can even explain with the combination of words that I can create.

Session 5231

It is Friday and it is sunny and the swells are not big. I headed up north, stopped by at a beach on the way to work. I thought that the beach was empty and I was hesitant to go in, but then I saw a head of a lone surfer in the lineup; I was really relieved because I really d not like to surf totally alone, especially here, as this beach does lose at least one person a year, never a surfer but always some casual visitor, or in the case of last winter, some swimmer. No matter how many times I head into the ocean, there always is a fear of it.

There was a guy parked next to me and he was looking at the ocean as the background was getting orange to the daylight hue. He said, "Hey, go, man, go." I asked, "Hey, are you going in?" I was hoping the he would too, so at least there were some more company. He said he did not surf. I said, "Ok, it is kind a small but, I need to go. It is a free gym membership for me.", He said, as I was putting in my booties in, "That's the way to go. God bless you, man."

I started to paddle out and got one wave and paddled back out, by then the other surfer decided to get out. Now I am all alone. It is a very strange thing but I really dislike being crowded by then I really don't like to surf all alone. At least, at a distance further at the north end there was another surfer out there, which gave me a bit of comfort. The rare offshore breeze was getting a bit stronger and throwing some spindrift sweeping back.

The new JC 9'4 this morning performed very well, except that at one wipeout, I was sure glad that I was wearing a helmet, as after a wipeout, I thought that the board was just behind me, as I was looking for it, I did not find it anywhere. I thought I may have lost the board, but at the moment that I started to start to swim toward the shore in search of the board? .Whack! The board hit the helmet very hard. I was knocked back in the water.

"What the hell!"

The wind lifted the board up sky high and then finally came down only to hit right smack on top of my head. Should I not have been wearing a helmet, I would have either had a stitch on my head or a few days of painful sore on my head. You know this kind of thing is very rare to happen, especially these days, but it does happen, and I was sure glad that I was still maintaining the surf nerd mode today.

Session 5230

Well, I was almost not going to surf this morning, but when I checked the email, I got a message from a long time surfing friend, part of which that said.

Still, as always, the three cardinal rules are -
1. Never give up
2. Never give up
3.Never give up.

That was timely because I should continue to surf "no matter what." Of course when I say that I mean it is within reason? I would not go out if I determine it is life-threatening if I screw up.

But I think about this, I came to the conclusion that a lot of real give-ups happen because we make a bunch of small give-ups. Like this morning, I may have given it up this morning and then may be tomorrow, I might also become lazy, and one day by one day, and before you know I won't remember how long ago I surfed the last time. Luckily, today my problem is other way around? I go so much that I don't know if I often can't remember off the top of my head where I surfed yesterday, like, if someone asks me what I had for lunch on last Tuesday.

And I was really glad that I did not give up because when hit the Jetty this morning, it was really nice, as the waves were not big but starting to the famous pocketty right breaks right by the break water. It is usually so crowded there that I usually stay far south at the Turkeys but this morning, I was able to taste a few of those, and with my JC 6'4 Ugly Stik it was fun to catch those.

I won't and cannot comment too much yet on this board, but so far, I think I might actually end up preferring this board over the Rusty Piranha 6'3 board in wider range of situations. One thing that I have noticed so far is that the tail end of the Rusty's tail flutters and drifts left and right when the speed increases, and sometimes it is difficult to control it. The JC, so far, seems to stay solid over a variety of speeds. I don't know whether it is the surfer or the fins that are on the board. Actually I am using a bit smaller and softer 4.0 flex Future VFYU red fins on the JC. I also got 4.5 vector too so I think I would switch between them and see if there are any differences. Probably though, you are all LOL thinking what the heck I am taking about. I am willing to agree. But discoveries or process of discovering things like this is definitely a lot of fun.

Session 5229

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

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

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

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

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

LC:M

Session 5228

I am thinking that I need a new direction in the WavLOG. I have talked about that on and off, but lately I have just describing the conditions due to a lack of my own creativity and to some extent motivation. To same extent I am getting a "blogger's" block, I guess.

So perhaps, rather than trying to log every session, I am thinking that I would gear this BLOG into more of an essay in terms of the progress and as a story of my surfing lifestyle in general.

Another thing, that I need to apologize to many StokeMasters and WavLOG fans is that my surfing lifestyle has changed so much and gone are the days we get people together and surf.

So perhaps I should touch on that topic now.

Looking back, I needed a lot of peer support to get my surfing going. Part of the reasons why I started my web site was to get to know with the people who are struggling at similar level and share the struggles and the excitements that goes with it with others (and also to encourage other people to get themselves together as they enter the sport).

One of the things started to happen in the past year or so is that the opening up of a lot more options to surf in terms of time, places and to some extent the skills needed to be there. This actually has started to cause a problem, because what I thought would be an easy surf out session turns out to be challenging to my friends. I am starting to have a difficulty knowing what's easier and what's hard for people. This is different from saying that I don't surf at beginner breaks, I do and I actually still like to, but on the other hands, if faced with a condition, I am starting to get an attitude that would say "Yeah, no problem, I can handle it so you can!" Of course I have an added advantage of living by the coast so I can and I do get out a lot more than other friends who can only find time to get out on weekends. Very fortunately through, I have anticipated this occurrence, so that's the reason why I have documented in "live" as I have climbed up the steps from almost the very start. So even if I forget what it was like we can all go back into the document (this blog and the web site) and re-live that again.

So, with a bit wider option to surf and also with the location where I am living, the way I do surfing is quite different now. It is now incorporated into my daily routine, just like some people jog or go to a gym on a regular basis, I go surfing several times a week, and when I do, I don't want to have an exact plan as to where and when. Also there are a couple of other locals, to mean they also live by the coast, that I surf regularly with, but typically how these sessions materialize is that we have a couple of "regular" spots that we frequent and we just call each other "Hey, it looks good at so and so, I am going to surf here." And about 2-3 waves later the buddy will be paddling up. We largely surf separately really spread apart too so that we don't get into each others ways. Again, though it is different from planning things out several days in ahead, sessions happens in real time and location choices also happen in real time. So even if I pre-announce where I might be there is about 50-50 chance that I would be elsewhere; whichever happens to be the "best" at the time with the wind, tide and the swell.

So you might ask why I do check into the conditions a lot? The answer is that forecasts do help as to when and where I would like to surf in advance. This allows me to shuffle work or other appointments with a reasonable accuracy, but then when it comes to actually picking when and where to do it, I still do go to the break and make the final decision.

On my next installment, I would like to touch on a subject of sticks, and how I am relating to them now that I have over 6 boards to choose from. I also want to go more into detail about what "wider options" really mean.

Session 5226 (Sat) - 5227 (Sun)

Fun surfing locally with all local friends. Amazingly great condition, offshore wind too and sunny!

Session 5224

Fun, sunny day.
Lack of time to write a lot of report... 

Session 5223

Session 5223

I will be back to Japan for about a week after tomorrow, so I wanted to have a good session this morning. I got a chance to surf with another close local friend of mine. I have not surfed with him for quite some time, but it was nice to surf with him. We decided to meet up at a local break at 7:00 this morning. I decided to head out to the beach, took care of some phone calls, then still had some more time so I decided to get down to the beach and took some extra time to stretch. It is really nice to be able to do that, just all by myself with the ocean in front and just relax and work out the muscles before getting in the water!

Surf size has gotten a bit smaller than yesterday, so it was more fun for what I liked, and with that added confidence I was able to work the waves better than yesterday. I am just still a bit overwhelmed when bigger sets come, and definitely the fall and winter waves can bring decent powered sets. And a good part of working these types of waves is to have good strength, and especially in the paddling strength department where I feel that really need to paddle harder, stronger, and a bit longer to match the power of the waves. This is part of my plan to re-work every aspect of how I am surfing. It is very important for me to get back to the basics and re-look at everything I do and make small improvements in each part. I can equate a lot of this to learning how to play a musical instrument. I have been in music for quite a number of years, I can play fairly decent. It is often good to challenge some new charts and I would break down each part, play slower and work out technique. It is sure fun to just play freely but sometimes I don't make a good progress, so in surfing too, I can surf somewhat OK, but now I need to do similar technique, and build up another layer of experience upon what I already have.

Session 5222

Session 5222

I like it when the session number "rhymes" with the date. Today is the 222th session of my surfing this year. The surf and the weather continues to be great with the sunny sky and not too big waves where I can play in.

In the last few sessions, I was thinking about why my progress have not been so visibly improving lately. One of the things is that I am now need to push my self to the next level or I would be stuck in current level. The next level that I am thinking about is actually challenging a bit bigger waves so that I can have more time on the waves.

The reason why I think this is an issue is because I have been in several sessions where better surfers were catching bigger waves and getting much better rides. Should I been able to take off like them, I could start practicing more riding technique.

But from my level to the next seems to be a bit of gap that I need to cross. One key issue is that I need to be able to deal with bigger and stronger situation, and to do that I need to really build up more strength to do that.

I have not decided to take that route yet. I can still continue to enjoy the size of waves and work with them, refining technique, but to catch wider variety of waves, then I think I really need more strength all around.

Session 5218 ~ 5221

Sessions
5218: FRI 11/18
5219: SAT 11/19
5220: SUN 11/20
5221: SAT 11/21

Obviously, I have not been good at writing lately. Lots of personal tasks outside of working with computer has kept me away from writing WaveLOGs. I know there are many people reading my BS for all these years, so I first apologize for disappointing people. The majority to the time consumption is due to our move, and we still have many boxes in our home that need to be sorted out. The garage is still a mess, but most importantly, I have not quite gotten the system down to get set up for surfing and cleanup after surfing. My wife no longer allows me to use the bathroom to hang my wetsuit so it is like starting all over again. It is very interesting how a move can disrupt the surfing routines!

What a phenomenal week we had in HMB! We got continuous warm sunshine and no wind plus some good swell in the water! I am almost running out of the sun block!

In terms of surfing, Friday morning, I had the Jetty all to myself, but very embarrassingly I did not catch any waves. I was just positioned now right and the waves were breaking at wrong places or dumping right when I took off. This is my version of Zero Wave. I must really looked like a fool from the highway! I should have hit further north as I found out later on.

Saturday and Sunday I have avoided all crowded local breaks and picked a spot further. With the dwindling swell period, we were hopeful. Saturday, two of my long time friends came over from the East Bay, and I apologize for putting you in the situation, as the current was so strong and there were some periods with huge close outs. But again, my buddy Dog Haus showed up in the middle of the session, and he was ripping so it is not the waves, but it is my abilities. Plus I discovered that the rail had developed a crack and water was seeping though creating a stress-line type issue on my Rusty 6'3 board, so I was a bit bummed. The size of this is big enough that I think I am going to pay to have this fixed instead of fixing it by myself. Fixing dings can be fun, but with all these stuff going around me, it would be better to pay for it and save some time (to spend more time in the water).

Finally this is Monday and I did a quick session at LM because spots in between looked rather gnarly when I went down and taken weekly water samples for the Surfriders. But I had to pass by these spots and in just an hour or so time, the sets have really calmed down. But it seems to always be the case, the waves always look good from high up.

I am back in some period of not making much significant technical progress and on this Thanksgiving I will be flying back to Japan and be back on mid 29th. Surfing, as usual, is very difficult sport to learn and there are some periods I just feel that I am just moving backwards and feeling like being such a dork.

Hopefully I can surf next two days, and then on the 30th, that will put me to 225 sessions before December, I am hoping that I can put in 240 sessions before the New Years this year.

Session 5217

A message indicator of my cell phone on my desk was blinking in the pre-down darkness of the room. At this time of the day, that usually means a friend has sent me a text message telling me they are going to be out. I gathered up the gear, and put on the wet suit and started to head to the ocean. It was unusually warm and sunny morning with a local weather reading indicating light offshore wind and not only that the swells are winding down for a more fun level surfs that I like to surf in. As I passed by the Devil's Slide, I stared to check the swell line directions and the size to gauge today's surf. The full moon has not set yet, instead I saw it was shining on calm ocean, its long line of light casted in the middle of the ocean with purple dawn color background. Surfing really is not just all about getting in the water, but the anticipation of getting in the water, and checking out the ocean but things like experiencing ever changing seasonal climate is actually a part of the whole experience!

No matter how early I try to head out, though there already are people who are out already. You hear the familiar sound of a long boarder waxing her board, and some cheerful voice of surfers getting ready in the parking lot. There really are dedicated few that are willing to do this, and I still like to tell people that I get up at 5:30 in the morning, and get in the ocean year around. Needless to say, you get various reactions, but in most cases, there is always an element of surprise and also a relief on their part that they are not forced to do what I do.

But it I really learned to love the dawn patrol. Sure enough, it is really cold when I first dip in the water and then getting over or through the first wave, but once that part is done, then I feel that I am more of a part of the water world!

Something I have noticed recently is that how much warmer I get once I start to paddle a lot, and from that standpoint, so long as I paddle and ride a lot, I can stay warm.

In terms of surfing, it was a bit crowded this morning, but it was just an excellent chance for me to learn a lot more about efficient turning and extracting more power from the waves. Smaller waves and days are really fun that way because I can often ride longer distance as waves tend not close out into just white water mess.

Session 5216 - Sunny Glassy Fun Mid Morning

I was originally going to do a DP, but then there was a request for a phone call from the Netherlands this morning, so I had to stay home and work out some issues, followed by a few follow up emails to the team, I decided to just stick around at home for a bit longer and got rid of few other outstanding work items for the day. The day, however, was gorgeously sunny and finally I was able to get in the water with my buddy Dog Haus in one of our favorite local spot.

As usual, I still need to be ready to take the similar type of waves like him and all other of his local friends can do, but it is always good to be around much better surfers. I also did not fare too badly. I had some great long rides. One thing that I really like my 6'6 board with a tri-fin set up is that I can ride it rail-to-rail fashion as well as executing tighter turns through the tail of the board too in tight pockets that if I happen to catch a good wave then it can get really fun.

So, I meant to write about making waves.

Have you been to see local surf competitions held at the spots that you normally surf? Of course most of you have had (and if you have not, you should.) Up to more recently, I was wondering why on competition days, waves tend to look so much better.

Then it dawned on me that it is actually not the condition, but the surfer that make the waves look so much better than the regular time. During regular days, the number of good surfers is few and far in between, but during the competition, you are basically seeing about 80-90% of the surfers on the wave who are really good. So they all go at the waves, obviously waves look much better.

So, this basically means that better surfers know how to extract the best out of the waves, and therefore they are more like making the waves than waves making them to surf. I am, still, at the stage where the waves have to let me surf. This is gradually changing; for example, I am starting to catch more waves and scoring longer rides than most people on a line up on normal days. So that's a kind of reward for paying some dues getting up early in the morning, surfing as many days as possible etc. But now that I know this, it looks like there is much more dues to be paid, and at this rate, I don't know whey I can pay all the dues!

Session 5215

A few sessions ago, I have broken off a Rusty fin out of my 6'6 board. So I decided to some modern design fin this weekend. The fin I have chosen is a 4.5 Future Vector Fin which the inside surface of outside fins have some contours.

This morning, I took out another set of the Rusty #6 fins out of the Rusty 6'3 board then put on the new set of fins. Dalyn at the Board Shop told me how the fins makes turns much faster., but as I was doing this, I was still skeptical as to whether this will really make any differences. Once the fins are on the board, I have also realized how softer these fins are, and also they are thinner.

This morning the condition was actually really good and fun. It was just sufficiently challenging but not too big. The last time I surfed this type of condition was at Del Mar on a South swell. It is kind of unusual to have this type of condition out here, and then of course I only surfed Del Mar once so I cannot say anything about it either.

There was a professional looking person already catching a lot of waves. I am going to describe that one on my next WavLOG under "Making Waves" so look for it.

On my first ride I was surprised that the board had a totally different feel, but I wiped out. The next few rides were really fun. The board has gotten noticablly faster and definitely the turns felt smoother too.

I think that I am not taking advantage of all of what the board and the fin can show, but I think that I did notice the difference and I think that there is quite a bit of room for me to explore more in this combination.

Upcoming log:

- Wamrth
- Making Waves

Session 5214

I was originally going to skip this morning, but as you all know two days of non-surfing, and I am already eager to get back in the water no matter what the condition was. So I did hit the water early this morning. Due to the high wind that must have been blowing since yesterday or what, the waves were a bit junky. But the crowd was thin this being Monday morning, I was happy to be out and caught some fun waves.

I am continuing to experiment with the speed building using mainly the tail of the board. Speaking of which, I got the Future Vector fins 4.5 high with a Rusty template on Saturday. I have not put them on yet, but I will try them soon. The inside of the outside fins are not flat like the classic thruster setup, but there is a bit of concavity inside. I am not sure if I can feel the difference, especially at my skill levels, but I am sure to report you if I find out anything.

Session 5213

Back doing a DP again before hitting the office. I was a bit aggravated as I paddled up and tried to see what the session start time was? No watch! I forgot to put it on, or may have even dropped it. One aspect of doing a DP is that I tend to operate in much more competitive mode than, say, a nice sunny lazy afternoon at the "inside 38th" I am thinking in terms of how many more minutes left, just like in competition where I only got 15 to 20 minute heat, and only the best 3 counts. I am not saying that it is stressful, but I tend to work things out to get the best I can both from the aspect of getting most exercise and as a reward for the paddle outs, I get to ride as many waves as possible. So, speaking of "as many waves as possible" I am a still bit puzzled to know that many surfers tend to line up way far too outside, and then when the waves come, they just cannot paddle into them at all. The waves leave them behind one wave after another. Then every once in a while even bigger set or two come and they just jack up so fast that even if they tried to take off, they just wipe out immediately. In the meantime, I just paddle where the most waves are breaking in the inside and I try to catch as many waves as possible. It sounds rather stupid, but it may not be so, because I also have figured that people tend to paddle out where they see people actually riding the waves. I do my best to avoid them, but sometimes they are just paddling out right exactly down the time where the sweet spot would be. Then there is another surfer that just follow me around too, and I don't like that either. I do my best to get out of his way, but the moment I paddle away from this surfer he's just come to my way. I was sealing my mouth shut as I was looking at this. This type of individual is also very annoying that any bump on the wave, he'd start paddling in to catch, and 2 out of 3 he screws up. So when this sort of thing happens, I'd just wait for the first set, wait him to wipe out and take the second set. The third set is often not easy to take because he would be at it by then. The point I guess I am trying to make here is that I can usually spot a danger that is coming, and I try not to take off around these types of individuals, and also try to make as much room as possible.

The interesting thing of this might be is that I was probably operating in that mode for some time as I was getting up to speed. I think that the problem is of being oblivious to the surrounding than anything. In a good lineup, admittedly I am in the lowest of in the pecking order, somehow, things tend to work out much better, for example if I am paddling out, I duck through and the surfer on the wave just do some turn and get by, and also if I take off first they know how to kick out.

Sorry about some negativity in this log, but I am a regular surfer with a mind of an average person, and sometimes, I ought to report honestly what exactly goes in my mind rather than always so being either too easy going or too uptight.

Session 5212

Another very busy week is just about to go by, and this is the first time I got in the water since last Saturday. We had to move our home and that took a bulk of the weekend and the rest of this week to settle in, plus I had several last-minute items that had to be moved which did not let me keep my boards inside the car all week. Finally though last night, I put all the normal surfing gear back in the car and put a board inside too to go surfing, and this morning I did go. October and the start of November was not good for surfing for me due to a relatively sudden trip to Japan, struck by a fairly severe illness soon after I returned and then the move. Changes in my routine impacts quite a bit in surfing! Also during the last session, I broke off one of my fins on the 6'6 board so I am now using the 6'3 Rusty board today. Just there are a lot of changes happening, and hopefully that goes with the improvement in my surfing skills.

So let's get right down to this morning's session. I had short session due to a meeting at 9:00 a.m. Don't we all hate when someone requests a meeting at 9:00, especially in the winter when the morning is shorter and it is getting shorter by day too! But the part that is even worse is that when I cut the session short and rush to work and only to find that the meeting was cancelled, and of course, that's exactly what usually end up happening.

Oppps! I have diverged again.

The sets this morning was just right size for me, and on the "fun" range. Just about above shoulder on bigger sets. But as typical of our local beach breaks when some big sets get in they all close out not letting us surf. So on a condition like this, I just have to sit inside and hopefully these bigger sets won't come as often, and if they do, I'd paddle crazy to hit the outside and hopefully I can duck through them, which, of course I would, sometimes, be agitated in the mess of white water.

But there were some good inside sets that built up nicely. Sometimes I am a bit too far in, but I catch them anyways.

In past several sessions, I have been focusing a lot more on extracting the power out of the wave, and by which I mean to surf with building up speed, which requires a bit different in the way than I have been surfing, and the more I try this I know it will be a bit longer before I can master that part. What I am realizing is though; I had to do what I did up to now in order to get to the next phase. In other words, moving forward there is more need to refine all of what I have learned BEFORE I can actually move significantly forward. A lot of actions like take offs, flick ups, setting up and following through turns need much more refinement both in the agility of actions and also more pronounced weight shifting.

The good news is that I am willing to go through this, and even more than ever, I am realizing how difficult to master the art of surfing and how it require iterative means of building skills upon skills.