When you have a quiver of like 10 boards to choose from, and you are in bed looking at buoy readings at 12 a.m. planning which board to take with you the next day to match the surf conditions, it’s kind of a big deal, right? Like choosing the right pants, shirt, coat and tie, you just don’t randomly grab and go, right? Well, apparently that’s what happened to me. Some boards in grey bags, some boards in brown bags, some boards naked, some boards in day bags, some boards in travel bags…and at a groggy 6 a.m., I reached for the board I THOUGHT I had dreamed about using six hours later. Flash forward 10 hours to the surf, which was a nice, powerful 5 to 7 foot with some occasional larger bump ups. Almost as good as yesterday. And I’m whipping off that carefully matched business outfit after a day of work, buttons nearly popping off the dress shirt. Whipped into the 4/3 as a set poured on the reef. Grabbed the board, stood it upright and yanked down the JD board bag and I was like, “HUH?” Instead of the ever-reliable paddle monster 7-11, my 7-2 C2 board appeared like an uninvited guest to the party!
With the sun going down, there was no time to “argue” with this, only grab and go! Paddling out I made the mental adjustment. “Remember, when you go down from the 8-6 and the 7-11, your 7-2s ride like rocket sleds,” I said to myself, huffing and puffing and hauling ass outside, which was almost a repeat of yesterday, nearly. I got a wave instantly – and was flying down the line so fast I couldn’t make any turns and nearly got flung off at the end section trying to do a big roundhouse cutback to the whitewater. Then I was too over-amped with sundown approaching and had a bomb left, then chickened out on the left and tried to go right and just completely blew it at the bottom and ate s*&^. Then my third wave – still too amped, wrong position, blew the drop AGAIN. Two wipeouts in a row? That was horrible. So I paddled way outside, and talked myself down from the “ampage.” Calm down, let a set or two go by even if it is getting late, and get a wave or two that you actually do well on. The self-imposed time in the penalty box served me well. I calmed down. The crowd of about 15 thinned out to maybe 7 or 10, and a really great outside wave was heading my way with everyone else paddling to come out and meet it. All I had to do was go down and catch it, which I did, and it was the best wave of the night. I hooked up really high instantly, saw a guy looking at me and about to duck dive, did a little hook turn at the top and raced the lip down to the bottom, screamed into a bottom turn, went way down the line, did a classic roundhouse all the way to the whitewater on the inside section, turned on a dime to go back right, went up high, turned on a dime, went back up high, turned on a dime, went up high, turned on a dime. Each turn was exactly as the last, perfect in its repetition, and then I’m like 250 yards from where I started. As I kicked out, the rest of the set was pouring onto the reef and the whitewater was growling and rumbling toward me in the stillness of the coming night.
There were no other riders on any of the waves. When I got back outside, maybe there were five guys left, and a lot of foam on the surface of the water, including the guy who saw me catch the first wave of the set. “Dude, that was a great wave you had but everything behind it was bigger and was reeling and took us all out.” I only saw the first wave coming toward me – either because I was then so focused on relaxing and catching a good one and doing well, or it was just blind luck that I got the first one and didn’t end up getting plowed by the rest of the set. I think maybe the first reason. Because then I proceeded to get four more really great rights after the one I just caught and found a rhythm on C-1 that was all to familiar. I don’t think I had rode that board in six months, easy. The performance characteristics and differences between my variety of what - four 7-2s – and my step ups (7-11/8-6) is utterly amazing. Turns out though, that C-1 was actually the right board. It was too steep on the takeoffs for the most part for 7-11. So the wrong board turned out to be the right board. Go figure.
- cliff