I was wiling away the time until dinner when I decided to go surf. I thought about going skimming because of the high tide, but if the surf is up, that makes little sense.
The waves were bigger than this morning and A LOT less crowded. The wind had had its way with the ocean surface and the waves were pretty choppy, something my little board doesn't do well with (less flex and rocker with which to absorb chop).
I paddled out at Michigan and there was one other guy in my vicinity, a logger who looked soulful, enjoying the day to the fullest.
I caught three waves.
The first was a left that I immediately outran. When I wasn't dodging extremely racy waves, I was pulling back from them, so I entered into my experience with this wave with my foot on the throttle. Oops!
As I was paddling out, a set detonated outside of me. It was maxing out what this place can hold which is a couple of feet overhead. Any bigger and I believe it would have been, as Aaron says, a "big stinkin' closeout".
I caught my second wave after recovering from how far back the big set pushed me. My arms were noodling out from the morning sesh, gym, and then the five minutes of paddling and duckdiving that immediately preceded this wave. I barely made it up, dropped down after having to stomp on my front foot, and was on my way. I felt a burst of speed from my bottom turn and laid into a slash. I wasn't too amped on it, as the section on which I slashed was a little chubby, so I didn't get even a shot at releasing the fins. The wave then slammed shut in front of me and I had very little speed, so I called it a wave.
I paddled back out for one last chance at redemption and sort of got it when I dropped in on an overhead closeout, no small feat on a 5'4". I rode it in to the sand and reflected on the limitations of this board. No crabgrabs. No super steep drops. Iffy on choppy waves. Other than that, I love this board.
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