3 for 3

Just got back from visiting Nedra in Del Mar. This is the third time I've been down their to visit. First time, we ended up at Pillbox in Solana Beach. Small waves. Second time at 15th Street. Small waves. This time, the third time, at Pipes in Encinitas. Yup. Small waves.

Shape was good, people were friendly, it was amusing to watch Nedra be nice to strangers, so it still was fun. But eh. I'm tired of potential and am waiting for the reality of these supposedly fantastic waves.

Ah what a metaphor.

Back on Cooperfish

I can't seem to stop riding that board. Saturday I didn't surf, but Sunday I went out and had some pretty decent rides. I've only done a real kick-out once, but I'm finishing a wave as much as I can. I hit the lip a few times and on one nice one I was able to hit the lip and stick the landing. All on a heavy 9'7" longboard. I also had a pretty decent left where I didn't grab the rail.

Mama L had a BEAUTIFUL kick-out, though. We were about fifty yards apart and took off on the same wave toward each other. There was no panic, just an acknowledgement that we were both going to have to end this wave before we met in the middle. I was WAY TOO LOW (another bad habit) on the wave to do anything but try to smack the lip and stop the board. As I did that, though, I saw Mama L's board arch way up and over the wave before I fell into the wave. After I resurfaced, I whooped at her and cheered her awesome kick-out.

I love it when my friends get better and find new moves when I'm there to see it. It's almost like I can be there on the wave with them. Living vicariously...

Unremarkable, yet I'm remarking...

I went to OP with two boards in my car: 7-Something and Doc (just in case it was head high and glassy). The conditions weren't good for either board: waves that would roll so I knew I'd just be frustrated on 7-Something which I'm still learning, and sloppy waist-high waves so I knew Doc would feel every bump without the right push. So I went to the Venice Pier.

The shape wasn't so hot, but at least it was bigger and had more push. So I took out Doc just to see what I could see. Steep waves that walled up. I had some fun drops but not enough shoulder to play with. One really exciting left that, yes, I grabbed the rail on but I was speeding along with a split-second decision to either tuck closer to the wave and maybe get a curtain of water dumped on me or turn out and see if there's another section to be made. I'm a chicken, so I stood up and turned out. And of course there was no section.

When will this be over?

Day 2 on the short(er)board. It wasn't horrible... it just wasn't a longboard. When I'm actually on the wave, I'm fine. It's the getting on the wave that is frustrating. I could blame the mushy non-breaking waves, but I prefer to blame my inability to paddle in and pop-up fast enough.

Supposedly a nice swell is supposed to come in this weekend. If it's big and glassy, I'd like to take Doc (9'0" performance board) out, but I also know that I'm only going to get good at a new board if I dig in for two weeks and get smacked a thousand times. Doc may win out, if only for part of a session one day.

Seven-something

Because I'm one of those people who likes to tick things off lists, I took out my friends 7-foot something Mobley surfboard (I think it's 7'4", but he's not sure and I didn't care enough to get out the tape measure). He gave it to me to repair a ding he made (on dry land, in his room when another unused surfboard of his fell on it). I told him I'd repair it if I got to take the board out. Of course, I have a hard time taking anything else but my Cooperfish out in the water because I can't bear the thought of not surfing it. But, like I said, I like to tick things off lists, so I took the Mobley out this morning.

I haven't surfed anything shorter than 9-feet in six months. And that was only for a couple of weeks. Since November, I've really only surfed 9'7". First impression paddling out on 7-something? "Man, why do shortboarders subject themselves to this?! There is absolutely no reason to waste energy paddling out. I miss my longboard!"

Anyway, I caught a right straight-away and was sort of surprised I didn't doink. WOW is it easy to turn a short(er)board! Whip whip whip. Blam on the lip. I don't know if it's easy because longboarding requires some finesse in turning or if it's easy because it's just EASY.

Hardest part for me was knowing when I caught the wave and subsequently popping up fast enough to catch the shoulder. I found myself staring at the nose of the board a lot, which slowed my pop-up. Bad bad bad. I never do this on the Cooperfish (sometimes I don't even look at the board at all, which can create a whole slew of other problems).

Conversely, I found popping to my feet going left was fine. My bad habit of backside railgrabs were not a problem. So I'm locating my fear and bad habits and I'll be on this board for a while so I can break the railgrab habit and get back on the Cooperfish with better style.

I swear I must be the only person who gets on a short(er)board so she can get better on the longboard.

Syllogism

It's my birthday and I really wanted a good birthday wave. I'm not greedy. I just wanted one great wave. I had an okay left, but I still started the shoulder with a rail grab by my index finger (which is really not any better than doing a rail grab with my whole hand) and an okay right that would have been great if the wave hadn't walled up, causing me to swing the board up early toward the lip so I wouldn't get smashed in the head by the wave.

Most everything else was closed-out or not breaking. I did a lot of paddling chasing my non-existent birthday wave and it just frustrated me. I tried to calm down in the beautiful morning -- sitting lotus-style on the longboard. But mostly I kept waving at the waves and cursing the walls as they came up to me. I felt like John McEnroe cursing into his racket and at the line judge back in his glory days, so that was kind of fun. Then I realized that beginning with such a crappy session could only signal a day that had nowhere to go but up.

So, I'm happier because one of my friends emailed me a birthday greeting with a ridiculous court case attached (here) and I read a surf report that says maybe Friday will be big. And it will be high tide in the morning. So maybe it will be big and mushy and I'll get my great wave on that day.

Surfers are so optimistic.

I haven't been surfing much lately.

(Complete the syllogism.)

bad habits

I will not grab the rail going backside.
I will not grab the rail going backside.
I will not grab the rail going backside.

Well, maybe sometimes, when it's steep...

But I will not grab the rail going backside.

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.

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!

the Blow-up Board

I was down in San Diego/Del Mar and ended up surfing with Nedra in Solana Beach at a spot called Pillbox. I don't know why it's called Pillbox. Anyway, there was no swell, so it was small and the tide was coming up, but still, people were friendly and it was fun.

A guy paddled up to me to say hi and, "Have you ever seen one of these?" It was an inflatable surfboard. I switched boards with him. It was a 6-foot-something fishy twin fin. Really really wide.

http://www.uliboards.com

It was like surfing on an inflatable bed! It paddled into waves easily (because it was so floaty), but because the waves were so small and had no push, this fish kept letting the wave slip out. You really had to force the thing down the small wave in order to stay on the tiny shoulder. In any case, it was fun for a lark and I would consider getting one of these things for guests who visit and want to have the surfing experience without having the near-drowning one.

The boards I love

I went back to my Doc Laush Surf Prescriptions tri-fin performance 9'0" today and what a HUGE difference from a Cooperfish double-glass singlefin 9'7"! I had forgotten how fast Doc was, and this was the first good day that I've been on it with the smaller 7-inch center fin. I traded the 8-inch fin with Chris G. a while ago. I may be remembering Doc differently and my surfing has probably changed because of the honkin' single-fin Cooperfish, but I swear the difference in having a smaller fin is the difference between surfing with a longboard style and surfing with a shortboard style.

Today, on a 9'0" I felt like I had to envision the thing like I would a shortboard. It takes off fast and it turns by driving into the wave rather than by finessing trim. It's quite an aggressive board... and exciting in a whole different way.

I've been on the Cooperfish almost exclusively for the past four months and I'd forgotten how much I used to love Doc. Nice reminder today that a girl should be able to wear diamonds or pearls when she feels like it.

Frank's Corner

I'm going to dispense all that Frank wisdom that trickles down between sets outside and between sips of coffee on the wall.

Two years ago, Frank helped me out when I complained that I always seem to lose the wave even when the shoulder was good (this was after I'd learned how to turn). He made a general motion toward shore and said, "Grace, you want to stay on THAT side of the wave."

Simple advice, but profound to me for some reason. Stay on THAT side of the wave! A-ha! So I have to keep turning this board. I can't just set a direction and go... I have to actively maintain trim to keep on the correct spot on the wave!

And I haven't looked back since.

Yesterday, I was complaining that when Topanga was big it always seemed to kick my ass when it hollowed out suddenly. (Complaining to Frank always elicits good advice from him.) He said, "You have to look really far ahead down the line to see what's coming up so you can plan your moves now." How far? He pointed to a trashcan about 25 feet away, "About at that second trashcan." Yeesh. I mean, I look at the wave, but I look about half that distance.

So, today I tried it on some great shoulders that set up for me and looking that far ahead opened up so many possibilities for me! I realized I'd have to drop lower to make a closing section, but it was possible to get back to a shoulder after it, and I knew way ahead of time where and when I should kick-out because further down the line it was just a big wall that would be no fun.

Woo-hoo! New things to practice!

Thanks, Papa Frank.

find surf here

http://www.livejournal.com/~gracefullee