Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Look where you're going?

Ever since I learned how to bottom turn and top turn, I've always looked in the direction I've wanted to go. Today, though, I got a little ahead of myself on one wave.... a beautiful chest-high wave that set up nicely. I popped up at the top and started the drop, confident in my ability to do a frontside bottom turn just by touch. I looked toward the shoulder to find my line and make sure the shortboarder wouldn't drop in. Then I felt my giant board get loose -- not a good loose, it was the bad "wave is hollowing and I'm not on the tail" loose. So I tore my eyes away from the shoulder and looked at the nose of my giant board become a diving board.

I was too late to scramble back to the tail. So, slam! The wall came up, flicked the tail up, and slammed my nose down into the flats. I let out a yell before I drowned, mostly to tell the shortboarder to go ahead and take the nice wave.

He did and when he paddled back up to me after the wave, I asked him if he was glad that I totally messed that wave up so he could take it. He was pretty stoked about the conditions today.

Other than that wave, I had a great day. No other swan dives off the board happened. And I had a lot of fun scrambling back and forth on the deck of my board to get speed and turn. I love turning my Cooperfish from the top half of the board. It always amazes me that I'm able to do that because the board drives faster when I'm up there.

No comments: