Spank My Wookie

I'm still working on fishing the fishy. I'm getting more comfortable on it and the speed that thing generates is way fun! I'm even thinking about going a bit smaller later on next year; perhaps something like a 5'10" twin keel?! That would be wicked cool! Anyhoo, I grabbed a handful of session starting on Wednesday, the day before Gobble Gobble day. I remember getting a bunch of rides that day and started going backside. But I look pretty dorky doing that and don't really know what to do on the wave.

Friday, I met up with some surf buddies and surfed the local break again. I got some nice right handers before the tide and the wind killed it.

Saturday was brutal. The swell was fading, but the wind was picking up. I paddled out to head high sets and it was a bitch to get out. I still can't duck dive the 4 fin as it is really thick. The water was extremely cold and the wind was putting a damper on things. The waves I went for were true wind swell waves. I managed to pearl the nose of my fish. I don't think thats an easy feat. Anyways...I pretty much kooked it out. I looked kooky paddling out, especially getting hammered by the sets coming through. I looked kooky taking off and crouching on mushy closeouts. It doesn't get any better than this!

Posted by Baldwin at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So what has been going on in Surf Land. I don't even remember the last time I blogged about it. If anyone actually reads this blog, I haven't updated it in a while. But I think I am just talking to myself at this point.

So for a period of two weeks or so, I only got mediocre sessions in. That translate to me kooking out on everything, or not heading out with the right board, or just not getting in the water enough. Two weeks back, I felt the stress of being landlocked. Such hardship to not get in and play. Oh well, enough of that.

I finally strung together a 3 day run, and hoping to get out for more. Last week, I finally started to get comfortable on the fishy. I mean, 6'9" is not a lot to work with, considering I've been on a longboard the past two years. But a few months of switching over to the short board has paid off. I can actually ride the quad now! Great?, probably not, but well enough to have a lot of fun on it. Last week, I got my first ride where I turned off the top, and strung together a few bottom turns that left me stoked to have pulled it off.

I went down to S.C. on Saturday, but on the drive down, I found a few spots I will be keeping an eye on should the universe align, and produce the kinds of peelers I would love to slide down. Anyways, S.C. was crowded as usual. That is nothing surprising. The swell didn't really show through. So as a consolation prize, I decided to surf leashless! What a feat. Well, it wasn't really a feat, since it was only breaking about waist high. I did manage to loose my board once, but held on during the other times. It was a fun session. Warm, glassy, and through it all, the crowd was pretty mellow. I did have to paddle hard to avoid the oncoming party wavers.

Today I got beat up. Well, the beating wasn't too bad. The crowd was out. And the swell was running about head high+. Did I just say that?! I was out surfing a moderate sized swell and didn't even feel uncomfortable. Taking set waves on the head was unpleasant, partly because I couldn't really duck dive well. Need to keep working on that. But with almost 3 inches of foam, it's still a feat.

I got rides where I was able to bottom and top turn. Though I did stumble and fall off a few. It was all in good fun. I recognized a boat load of people today and it was all smiles all around! Not a bad way to start a short week! My last wave was a head high peeler that I got some turning in and it was a blast to go down the face on a 4 fin. The speed is unbelievable! Hopefully I'll have another update tomorrow! Swell should still be lingering around and it doesn't look like it will be raining!

Posted by Baldwin at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't remember. I know I've been out there, but it's all a blur now. Can't remember my last wave, can't remember the last trashing I took, can't remember the pearling I did, and can't remember the last good wave either.

I do remember how to surf though. I think? I did some pics of myself on waves. That was stokey! What else happened? I've been really used to the Egg now. Then I log on the weekends and when it was flat. Then I switched back to the fish this past weekend. It took a while to get back to such a small board. It was fun and snappy and loose. It's still a very different ride then anything else i've been on. I still need to be very loose on my feet and more relaxed. I think I will be surfing this board for the next month. Hopefully I can get more use to it.

Posted by Baldwin at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)