Kick-out!

Needing to surf, no matter how unappealing the waves were, I trundled out with Doc III. The waves were better than they looked.

Short rides with a bottom, a top turn, and then a good launch off the bottom again to KICK OUT. (Frontside, of course.) It was all about the kick-out today.

My last wave had me a little befuddled. Frontside turn and I found wave that was going to jack up and pitch. I ended up high on the wave caught between thinking I should kick-out and thinking I could actually make a top turn and see where the wave went.

In the end, I did neither and chickened out of what probably would have been a cover-up. Instead, the wave took the board on a heavy rotation and I leaned back deciding I'd rather swim than get clobbered by the rail of the board. Curious. I actually realized that if I'd had more courage and derring-do, I'd have stepped forward and leaned into the rail that was wave-side so my board might not start pitching, and I might actually have gotten barreled. I wouldn't have made it out and I probably would have gotten a black eye, but I might actually have gotten barreled if I had just known what to do.

It's one of those a-ha! moments I treasure about surfing even if I sucked and didn't go with the epiphany.