Monday, May 26, 2008

Bad Habits

It's felt like ages since there has been a decent wave - and I just don't seem to be revved up for flat water stuff at the moment. The forcasts for the week leading up to the bank holiday suggested that a smallish pulse would show up Thursday, BBC weather charts backed this up with a break in the high pressure and rain towards the end of the week.

So Wednesday evening I trotted off to Gwithian to find the tide full and a decent little swell pushing through. I surfed in the corner of the beach by the steps, and was the last man Gwithian side - Godrevy was rammed and some of the guys I spoke to who were coming back from there said that there was almost fighting going on in the line up. Line up!! That's a joke 200 people chasing three peaks - can't see the point of that anymore. There were two guys on mini-mals and myself Gwithian side of the mid beach rock - no hassle, plenty of banter and decent waves although it was a bit fat for the mals to get into.

Thursday saw the return visit after work and the swell had picked up a bit - the later tide meant it had to be Pete's Point. What a session - I pretty much had the place to myself - still no sign of rain in fact it was bloody hot. I surfed on until 9 and then paddled back to The steps at Gwithian - it must have been 9.30 when I got out - still light just knackered.

Friday night it had dropped off a bit plus the later tide did not do me any favours - the waves seem to jack up a bit better and hour after high at Pete's. Still decent little soul session and a good work out.

Things that I need to work on (the bad habits).

Because the SUP is so easy and the rides are sooooo long I am getting greedy and 'hang' on to the wave past it's sell by date instead of kicking out before the wave crumbles. Probebly trying to pull off that ultimate floater - anyway net result is I end up in the white soup with nowhere to go and no control (fins dont bite in foam). This is not a problem other than after a decent ride I end up falling off in Knee high foam and looking like a cock (kook)!! Plus should anyone be inside of me - well best not think about that. So I have to remember kick out on the green - stay standing - paddle away - look cool. (for a fat boy).

Next issue - I have gotten into the habit of changing sides on my last couple of paddle strokes before dropping in to a wave - this usually results in the wave passing me by - I know why I do it and I know how to stop it but it's a habit that is hard to break at the moment. The 9'8" does not have the glide of the JL11 so I tend to drop in a bit later as I cant get up to and maintain the wave speed as easily. Beacause there is more yaw on the 9'8 I tend to paddle parallel to the on coming wave sometimes even slightly towards it and take the last few strokes to turn the board and drop in. Easy. However if the the wind (or the swell) is not behind you I try to correct the last power stroke by changing sides the board slows up a bit and the wave gets away. Lesson to be learnt here is suss out the swell direction and use that to help keep the speed up.

Saturday night - Thai meal and enough beer to convince me to go up the Bucket for more - Sunday - huge hangover - lazy lie in and a text from Gavin - Jimmy Lewis demo day at Gwithian - not at my best - anyway dragged myself up there and met some really nice guys Olaus and his brother - Pete from West Country Watersports - Bill from Satorial - Steve Carter from Sunset - Gary the South African ripping it up on a JL11 plus loads of first timers. The swell was a good size but the chop was making life difficult - managed to get a couple of decent sessions in the better one being late in the day. Didn't manage to get a ride on the Jimmy 10'4 but Olaus offered me a bash on his 10'r sometime. Good day really social - no fighting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Wondered if you had seen the stuff on the forums re heel dents in sportech 9'8"s,
They have started to appear on my board, I weight 76 kilos, and have used the board in surf three times for about 3 hours each time, also some flat water cruising, not at all happy about the responses I have heard so far,
Does your board have them.
Just trying to get an idea of the extent of the "problem"
Thanks
jonysan@sky.com
John Harris

csx355 said...

Hi John - I have seen the various comments on the forums - as I said in my blog I have found some 'shallow' depressions in my deck. I logged it as a matter of concern with my Retailer, 'Tim' and the distributor via John Hibbard. The response was that it should not be a problem but if it became an issue (de-laminating for instance) it would be dealt with. I have to say that I am happy with that. I will check out the deck again and if it becomes a problem will return the board - God knows what I will do then as I can't think of anything that is similar in the UK at the moment. Have not been on it for a week now as I sliced my foot up last session then got it infected. Not Nice.