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Saturday was pretty fun.
It offered up a bit of an interesting, crossed up SW/NW combo with the SW being the more
active/predominant swell in the water. It was nice to be out with about a half dozen of the
regulars and nice to follow Dan into the lineup at about the same time. Conditions
were close to perfection or pristine, what with the Santa Ana in its third day, on land temps
in the 80s (in November), and the water cooling to probably about 62.
Not only were some of the regulars in the water, Jade also surprised me and came out
of his Black's Only hiding place and paddled out shortly after I did. I introduced him to Dan after
a while, or after Dan noticed that Jade was paddling the break from side to side, inside to outside,
and all around. And getting some waves. It wasn't much better than three foot.
But the thing is, I was on DP. I had to take that board. While I was in my living room I was just
dying to take my fish out, but I just HAD to take DP. I'm going to be riding that board almost
every day in HI I think, or maybe most days, and it takes some serious adjustment time
to get back in the groove riding that board. So it's MANDATORY that I continue to ride
that board until the day I leave. I can pick up where I left off on any shortboard, but
stepping up to an 8-6 true pintail requires hours of acclimation. So in the back of the truck
it went and out into the lineup we paddled.
Felt like I was paddling a toothpick. Try going from shapes that are 19 3/4ths and 22 inches wide down to
a true 18 inch wide board. Whew. I made my first wave and when I tried to turn I dug a rail and
fell. See, that's what I'm talking about. We can't have that happening in 10 foot surf. So I had to keep
going until I started to feel some of the DP love coming back, which I did, despite how spread out
the sets were.
Two hours passed by pretty quickly. To kill some of the time I was using Dan as an outside buoy to
paddle around to get some extra sprint paddling exercise done. And of course to get used to paddling
the board. On of the biggest factors of change with DP has always been "timing."
By timing, I mean it takes much more time to turn this board shoreward and go down and paddle, which
is one of the most critical things in general. I missed the first wave I went for because it went
underneath me while I was STILL turning the board shoreward. But I adjusted to this immediately
and sat with it more parallel to the beach, rather than pointing westward. Same thing with getting
to my feet. The board catches the wave much earlier and thus you have to stand up earlier.
Since it was pretty slow, Jade and Dan caught their waves in. Couple more people paddled out, including
Keith. I begged Jade to stay out now that the tide was starting to turn around, but he didn't stay. Almost
from the moment the two left, we had a series of five sets or so on the pushing incoming tide that
made staying out worthwhile. Keith and I rode a wave together, then we rode a second wave
together, which was unquestionably the wave of the day.
I dropped in on him on a left with plenty of room to spare - he was about 15 yards to my right - and kept DP up really high on the face, just
skirting along right under the lip, almost like a speeding longboard at Malibu or something. We passed
by a couple people, Keith was trying to catch up and pigdogging a backside rail grab, and we both
kicked out at about the same place. It was a fun ride to say the least. It was also a ride
where me and DP kind of came together and it felt like I gained a lot of confidence and control over
the board. Try surfing a 6-8 fish, a 6-10 shortboard and a 7-2 shortboard for eight months
and then try and ride an 8-6 Hawaiian shape 18" wide true pintail gun.
When I got back outside with Keith, Ed says, "Cliff's already making a name for himself early
in the season, he's Drop in Cliff."
I thought about it for a moment, sitting in the innocent little 3 foot stuff, and then said, "Well, it was
too good of a wave to let him have to himself!" and I started laughing pretty hard and everyone
kind of smiled and said it looked good seeing both of us on the wave, and that it was indeed
a crowd pleaser. Even Ed got a little chuckle out of it. Heck, there were only five of us left
out there, and as the lone sponger out with us said, "It doesn't really happen that often," so we
were all pretty satisfied and relaxed.
I talked to Keith a bit and let loose about my trip. He turned out to be very nice and helpful, as
he always seems to be. He has a bit of a surf shop in his garage, with probably 20 boards,
blanks (he started shaping a couple of years ago), and all kinds of travel stuff. And a 60 gallon plastic container full of booties, hoods,
wetsuits and things rubber. I couldn't believe how much crap he had in that garage.
After our first Cliffs Sesh of the Year, we went over to his
house to check out some board bags for my trip and came up with an 8-6 FCS double that
might do the trick. We'll see how that works out.
Overall I would not say that it was opening day, but it was semi-close. Opening day
has to have that nice long period, six foot plus groundswell coming in, and not a damn
place to park for 1/2 mile within the break. - Cliff
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