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Saturday, July 14, 2012

7.14.12 Slightly Bigger Tyson Street w/ Missed-It-Mike


Mike claims he was faithful to me.  He says he hadn't surfed since our last go-out about three weeks ago.  I want to believe him so badly, but I've been hurt before.

We decided to surf Oside, hoping to catch the tail end of the awkwardly-angled Hurricane Emilia.  

Mike and I met at the free lot just before seven.  I presented him with a sick T-shirt from El Salvador which had the word 'Surfing' emblazoned across the corner of the print, upping his core score.

My first wave held a lot of promise.  I was in a great spot and didn't have to paddle all that much for it.  I leapt to my feet and pumped, trying to milk the knee-high wave to extract every last ounce of speed.  I really didn't have much choice.  To surf a knee-high wave well without pumping it with my weight, you have to be an excellent surfer.  I miscalculated what the wave would do and soon ran out of pumping area.  I kicked out.

My second was was a QUICK left.  Within a second of hopping up, I had to smack the oncoming section.  Looking at the footage, I'm pleased at how quickly I was able to react.  But, I made the same mistake I keep making of throwing my arms away from the trajectory of my lower body.

My next wave was a drawn-out repeat of the previous wave, but I varied things up by double-pumping the bottom-turn for a little extra burst of speed (Lord knows I had the time).  Similar, but less close to making it this time.

I caught a left and I descended it straight towards the beach.  This allowed me to swing around towards the wave, and during that time, it allowed the have to develop that much more.  The move worked fine, but the wave allowed me a couple of pumps and nothing more before fizzling.

A SICK wave came and I paddled for it like a madman.  I missed it though.  It without question would have been the wave of the day.

Luckily, about a minute later, another one came that wasn't quite as good but still amazing (when you consider how crappy the waves were).  I did an excellent job of getting in tune with the wave and pumping at the right times.  It felt like I was dancing with the wave and I was leading flawlessly.  I felt a confidence boost creep up and when I bottom-turned to hit the wave, I felt unstoppable.  Apparently it was just a feeling as I awkwardly put too much weight on my front foot.  This can be good for some maneuvers (mainly the fin-free variety), but not for what I was attempting.  I ended up kicking out in the sweetest spot of the wave.  Bummer.

The current got us uncomfortably close to the pier and I caught one in so we could walk south to greener pastures.

I furiously paddled for my next wave and was able to turn that speed into a nice foundation for my ride.  I was able to transfer it and keep it going even after I got to my feet.  This was good because it was such and abrupt wave.  I whacked it, but did something I've never noticed before.  I put a lot of pressure on my front foot to the point where you can see my right knee bearing the majority of my body weight.  There is a time and a place for this weighting, but this was neither.  I flopped onto my back. Wave over.

My last wave was a slow one which I used to perfect my soul arch bottom turn.  There was nothing else to the wave.
 

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