The previous day, I'd walked this beach with my in-laws and it looked downright scrumptious. I immediately dialed Missed-It Mike who missed my call (to this day, I'm still waiting for a call back...). I left him a message that we should surf here Sunday morning.
True to my word, I rolled up around seven in the morning. It didn't look nearly as good as the previous day. It was also a little crowded, but I saw a left go unridden south of the pack and I was ready to go.
I suited up and got OUT THAR.
The only wave of note was a long one on which I attempted a roundhouse cutty. For those of you not familiar with the maneuver, it involves doing a sideways figure eight/infinity symbol. After going out on to the face, a tight 180 turn, which leads the rider back towards the curl to a decisive smack. It is usually done when the wave is a bit slow, but looks incredible when done into a closeout section.
For the vast majority of surfers, this maneuver causes a loss of speed. For rippers, they maintain their speed throughout. For the elite of the elite, they can gain speed from it and set up for a sick second turn of the sequence.
I did some things right. I started the turn at about the right spot on the wave, height-wise. I pivoted my upper body towards where I wanted to go.
What did I do wrong?
I waited too long to start the turn. You want to do this with some steepness to the face so you can use the slope to keep your speed up.
I didn't lean heard enough, as is evident by my hand not touching the water's surface. More compression of the right kind leads to more efficiency and, every surfer's best friend, more speed.
I didn't come up vertically enough on the re-entry portion of the maneuver.
Combine the three and I was left out the back starving for speed.
There were some mackers out there but I just seemed to be in the wrong spot every time. To quote Bugs Bunny, "I zigged when I should've zagged".
The wind came up ten minutes later, leaving me with a session less than a half hour long!
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