SPEED: TUE 11.09.2010 MORN

SPEED:  TUE 11.09.2010 MORN

    My alarm was set for 5:30 A.M., but who was I kidding?  I snoozed for another hour.  It was too hard to get out of bed.  It was a chilly night.  Despite the brightening blue sky outside the crack of my blinds, my bed was so warm; it was nice and snuggly.  I can see why people can’t get into surfing.  Fighting the body’s natural tendency to stay warm, cozy, and relaxed is hard.

    I already felt like I had a late start, so I made some coffee and ate an apple.  I hoped that a little sustenance would help me in the line up.  I was looking forward to a redeeming sesh and one where I would walk away with something new.  Before I started my trek I thought about the duck diving videos I watched last night.  I also reread a text that my brother sent me when I told him I had trouble getting spray on the front side.  He wrote:

    Sprays are the result of carves, quick snaps, or cracks off the top.  Having a solid bottom turn comes first, though.  That gives you speed and projection up the lip.  Then you need to time your top turn.  Watch your surf porn and see how they “crouch” off their bottom turns.  Work on that first.  Bottom turn, go up the face, then coming down.  Work on trimming with your knees to gain speed.  I don’t see that in your surfing.  Trimming and good bottom turns should be your focus.

    Until recently, I didn’t even know the difference between carving and trimming.  Actually, I didn’t even really know what the hell a trim was.  My barney ass had to look it up!  With my brother’s advice in mind, I realized that I can definitely carve going back hand, at least set myself up in the pocket to get speed up the face; I can also top turn off the lip going back hand.  Going front side, I definitely have a weak carve, and I’m more of a trimmer in that direction.  I had a huge “to do” list for this morning.

    I got free parking on 27th right above the metered lots.  I really wanted to surf Porto, but I just can’t deal with paying for parking if I can avoid it.  Since the sun is up earlier, I will probably start paddling out right at 6:00 A.M. if I choose Porto.  From my car I could see that, compared to Sunday, there was barely anyone out.  I felt the guilt, the guilt that I didn’t surf yesterday and the guilt that I should have woke up earlier.  I’ve seen hundreds of beautiful mornings in the South Bay, and today another jewel in the treasure chest:  the low morning haze by P.V.,  the mountains, and the bright beige sand under the sun’s penetrating beam.  The waves seemed better on Sunday, but today it was about four feet high with random peaks, and it was consistent.

    I took my time warming up.  It was a long paddle out because of the tide.  I tried to work on my duck dive to no avail.  I practiced on the white water on the inside.  I just can’t get the leverage.  It seems that when I push on the nose, I have no gravity to push down on my tail with my foot.  I tried.  I should have had this down a long time ago.  I’m still a newb.  If I could duck dive correctly I would have more energy to catch more waves instead of getting pounded.  I’m just gonna have to work on it; that’s all I can do.

    The waves were a little walled.  There were shoulders, but they were really fast.  About a half hour into the session the tide rose, and it made the waves more workable with easier drops and shoulders to paddle into.  I got a lot of lefts this morning.  I had the easiest pop ups ever with my nose already pointed towards the open face.  I had my knees bent and did a lot of deep trims.  I say deep trims because I don’t think I was officially “carving.”  The waves were still a little fast.  I chose my lines, went high, varied at mid level, trimmed the lip again, and got a little a spray.  It doesn’t sound magnificent, but it felt like it.  Normally my ride would’ve been over fast, but every time the wave seemed like it was going to close, I was able to stay ahead of it, and it just kept going.  My knees were nice and springy, like shock absorbers.  I tried to carve the lip, but then I’d lose speed.  I’d shift my weight by leaning to reenter, but it didn’t work all the time.  I think I actually need to move up on the board, but what I’m missing is more speed.  I didn’t get any good bottom turns on the front, but it was a start.

    I spotted Shan as soon as he walked by the tower.  It’s funny how I spotted him so quick.  He didn’t even know where I was.  All I did was giving him one wave, and we saw each other.  I was happy he was there, especially since I blew a perfect left and a right before he got there.  I was frustrated up until that moment, then when he paddled up to me the mood was positive again.

    I caught at least three perfect rides after he showed up.  I caught this long left that was really fast.  There was no way I could’ve carved it because I was barely keeping up by just trimming.  Deep trimming turned to pumping; I think I might actually be pumping my board correctly.  It’s been a while since I’ve had really long rides.  I didn’t care about snaps or sprays; I was just caught in the moment.  I went over the lip unscathed and paddled back to Shan.

    There was a south current that took us to the next tower down.  The tide got higher, and the surf became a little more inconsistent.  We called it at 9:20 A.M.  We looked back and still saw some nice peaks A-framing towards 26th and 33rd.  The morning crowd was leaving.

    This morning was another reminder that there is still so much to learn, but that’s okay as long as your still having fun along the way.