Aerodynamic

Is this what love feels like? This giddy lightness that floats you above the ground?

I bought the Prius because my 13-year-old oil-leaking, oil-burning car was starting to make me nervous. It's been a week of driving bliss, and I didn't think it could get better... until surfsister gave me a board bag so I could see if my 9'7" Cooperfish would fit inside the car.

This morning, after an unremarkable session, after shimmying the boardbag over the big board, after folding down the back seat and the front passenger seat, I hefted the monster glassed-on single-fin in through the hatchback and over the front dash! There are inches to spare!

You know what this means? I can get a bigger board.

Accidents do happen

A week ago Sunday, the water was Santa Cruz cold in L.A. I could feel the cold through the neoprene of my stinky booties in my first step into the ocean. But I stayed out for over two hours. Why? I was having a fantastic session! I did a cheater 5! An honest-to-goodness cheater 5! I held up there for about two seconds before I just sunk the board. I never got back up there again, but I was hanging out in the front part of my board on a lot of waves, feeling how loose the board was and trying to keep my balance while turning from the front.

Then, this past Friday, I did real kick-out! Not just a lame floop over the wave, no, I did a REAL WHOMPING ARCING kick-out! It's that Sensei J and Joey kick-out. They make it look SOOOOOOO easy. Anyway, on Friday, the board arced straight up toward the sky and over the wave and I was lying on the board ready to paddle back out toward the horizon before I knew what had happened. THIS, honestly, was more exciting than the cheater 5. I haven't been able to do it again, but I'm encouraged.

chop chop chop

What a desperate people we surfers are to go out in conditions we had today. It's been so flat for so long and I was so tired of running that I was happy to see some size on the water... even if it was choppy wind-swell in 54-degree water with a good 13 mph cold wind. At least it was sunny.

The rides I got were pretty decent, but I was back on the ocean-liner (the 9'7" Cooperfish) and trying to paddle against the current to keep from ending up in Venice was making me sea-sick. I started hallucinating that my board was talking to me, "You fixed me and waited so long just so you could take me out in THIS?" I started to feel guilty.

On the plus side, though, I could really feel the flex on this board as I paddled through every single nausea-inducing ripple. I love how the board sounds and how the board gives -- kinda like really good shocks. It takes big smacks of water and dissipates it through the entire length of the board so that it kinda vibrates and hums pleasantly underneath you.

I'm talking about a surfboard. Don't let your mind go to the gutter place!