Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sometimes it's just crap

Good things?

The water is warming up - can't say that I've actually been cold all winter though. I have not been out of my summer Billabong (cheapie)but this week saw me loose the rashie and the boots - yippee - like sex without a condom - class. So that was nice!

So there was a couple of evening knee high sessions 'out the front' of Gwithian car park one of which was just one of those 'Hell we are here lets do it' things when normally you just wouldn't go in - part of the sesh saw Steve from Sunset Surf lend his board to a lass who was longboarding. She loved it and her pal was eyeing up her mates progress to the extent that I thought Steve was going to loose his board for an hour. Sooo I lent her mine - 10 minutes and she was doing it - on waves - fantastic. But this meant that I had to ride 'Tinkerbell' for 20 minutes. 'Tinkerbell' was / is a 9'2" x 22" Pink lonboard. Looked so narrow when I got on but suprise suprise first wave I was off - it was so easy. I have not been on a prone surfboard since October. Hell It was fun - Sssshhh don't tell anyone.

I had an early morning (Sunday I think) surf with Gavin)- looked bad - wasn't good but was worth having - and ended up with one of the longest nose rides ok so it was a cheater five but hell I was stoked. Ended up with a three hour session in the morning and almost the same in the evening - Monday I blanked but I was so beat I didn't sleep well. Fantastic.

Bad things?

Sorted my board store out on Monday and F*5&%ing - bl$6dy - sh"7 - Bas7&££ing C8$k s&*king p6££!!!! I found a ding in the rail of my Starboard. God knows whats happening - it seems that I only have to fart in the vicinity of the board and the paint cracks. Might be me but I thrashed about on the Jimmy Lewis for months with hardly a mark.
Heh Ho. If anyone actually reads this and has a sport/tuf/deck/skin/organ/bollox/proper board let me know what they think. Perhaps I'm heavy handed with it but I just use it like any of my other boards.

I also have some foot impresions on the deck - that,s down to me being a fatty though - my ULI gets rammed up the beach without a mark. Am I whinging???

(I thought it prudent to ergh Moderate my rant a bit the board has to be 'dung'!! to be dinged and the fact remains - it's a stunning board plus it looked a bit harsh when I sobered up - apologies)

Family stuff/sh17 happening all for wrong reasons - that's crap as well - surfing suffers along with everything else - priorities. Next few days are not looking particularly fantastic on the wave front.

Come on people engage with this - it helps everyone hungry for information.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so ...i could get a 9-8 sportech shipped to me today or wait like a month for the next container of tufskins to come in. the dealer says the sportech is lighter and stiffer and just plain rides better than the tufskin. otoh, i live in a very rocky environment and make contact with rocks almost every time i go in the water. i bet i know the answer without asking but if you were me, would you wait the month for the tufkin version?
other than durabilty, how are you liking the 9-8? if i get it, i'd be coming off an 11-2. i wish i could demo the shorter board but that's going to be impossible. i'm just having a hard time that, at 180 lbs, i'm going to be as stable on it as people say. is it *really* that stable? could be. 30" wide is wide.
keep up the great blog work. very enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

btw/ i just took a close look at the blown-up picture of the crack. sheesh, i don't believe i've ever seen one like that. it's not a traditional ding but an honest-to-God crack. weird. and unsettling. tufskin here i come????

csx355 said...

Hi thanks for leaving the comment - I was thinking about knocking the blog on the head as I did not want it to become a bore. Stuff like this makes me feel a lot better about it though.

Ref the board - if you are going to bash it at all - I would go for the tufskin - knowing what I know now. I like to think tha I am careful with my boards and I'm getting dings. SOO if you bash the board often the dings will drive you round the twist.

I love the 9'8" and have ridden (briefly) aan Ultimate blend - I thought the 9'8" was easier to get on with - I weigh over 200lbs with my wetty - all muscle of course!!

Anonymous said...

yeah, that crack kind of freaks me out. it'd fry my nerves to see that on my board, esp. if it's for no good reason other than normal wear and tear. my 11-2 is tufskin and i've bonked it around a lot with no issues to speak of. i guess it's heavier than the sportech and not as nimble on the waves but, hell, i'm just starting out, really, and not likely to notice such nuances.

in general, how long did it take you to get comfortable on the 9-8? i weigh less than you by a good bit but i'm balance challenged in certain ways and do a fair amount of falling-off-for-no-reason. doesn't bother me, though, as long as i don't spend all my time in the water. if memory serves, you went from a jimmy11 to the *board. zat right? how was that transition?

csx355 said...

From what you say about bashing the board on rocks and stuff I reckon the tuff skin would be a better bet - I don't tend to (or havn't in the past) had issues with dings so I would probably go Sport Tech again.

Getting off the Jimmy onto the Starboard was not a problem - I had a couple of 'choppy' sessions that were interesting but the random falling off bit seems to have passed (almost). So much so that I have considered the 9'0" - I have riden it and I don't think that it would take much to get comfy on it.

Still learning - still making mistakes - still having a blast.