|
Today was smaller. Unfortunately. But not unexpected.
Still went back to the Cliffs with DP because I have to ride that board some more. Felt much more comfortable on it today than yesterday, but the surf and the lulls were pretty bad. I paddled out and Dan was out. Said he hadn't caught a wave in the last hour. Not good.
It wasn't very good. Both the NW and SW combo relaxed and there wasn't much of anything left, except to continue to enjoy the conditons and company of familair Cliff's faces.
These two kooks came out on longboards and started trying to chase any bump that moved out there. One guy went for this wave outside of me and Dan and was kicking his feet and pinwheeling his arms and flailing all over the place - trying to catch NOTHING. I mean it was a 1 foot bump. And he goes screaming and splashing by within 6 inches of the nose of DP. I kind of sat there in disbelief as he pulled up from his ferocious attemt at...catching nothing.
Then I yelled at him. Asked him what he thought he was doing. Why did he have to come so close to me. Look! There's an entire break, and you have to come within six inches of my board, the board I'm going to take to Hawaii and rely on the most? Then he started giving me the lip back. His direct quote was: "I had you in my sights, man, I wasn't going to hit you." I told him he had an entire ocean to try and catch waves on, and what the hell was he doing coming so damn close to me at full ramming speed on the log? I mean, there was no reason for it. He basically almost just ploughed straight thru me. What was up with that? Totally unnecessary.
So when he paddled up to me in defiance, I started splashing him. Get away from me, is what I said, get the hell away and stay away because if you do that in two foot surf you'd probably do it in six foot surf and then hurt somebody, and that could be me, so just get out of here. It took some convincing, but he backed off to the inside and to the south where his buddy was.
After which I determined that I was completely bored and didn't need to be. I hadn't caught a wave, and looked like I wasn't going to get one. So I paddled over to Dan and said to him, "Time this."
And I went down on DP and sprint paddled 250 yards directly over to North Garbage, circled two guys, and turned back around and headed back toward South. About half way back to South I rolled off the board and breast stroked, side stroked and crawled back to Dan, who reported that it took me 10 minutes to do the 500 yard round trip. I thought that was pretty good. Actually, I was stunned that it was that fast.
(Photo above: If you look closely, you can see the distance between the two groups
on two different reefs. The south group is about half way up the photo to the far
left, and the north group is easily seen in the sun.)
I did it for a reason, not only to stay warm and active, but to prove to myself that I could paddle that distance without any problem, which is a no brainer. The main part for me is that I hardly ever swim when I'm in the surf. It's been so long since a leash has snapped or a board has broken for me that I just haven't had to deal with a swim. Part of it is maintaining good equipment and the other is luck, I guess.
And going to Hawaii, this was bothering me. What happens if I bust DP in half or get caught by some sneaker set at Sunset Beach and the leash stretches and snaps like a twig and I have to swim in? I had to build up the confidence factor in this regard. So I swam about 150 yards. Not a lot, but more than I have in a couple of years at least. And it really did give a boost to my confidence level. The next time I'm in the water I'm going to do a longer swim right down the middle of the break in the surf zone and take some waves on the head, get to shore, then paddle back out again. My confidence doubled or tripled after that one little swim.
Except it wasn't just a "little swim!"
It was an opportunity for longboard boy to open up to his buddy about me. Dan said the moment I got 20 yards away the guy starting mouthing off about how much of a loser I was or something, and continued to bitch about me. Until of course, he saw me turn around at North, 250 yards away, and start my return trip. Then apparently he stopped talking smack. Then of course he saw me swimming back, too. And I'm betting he thought that I had left the break and wasn't coming back. Surprise surprise. Look! He's coming back! Oh S*&^! You can just imagine, you know, how he felt. Ha.
Dan then told me the above story and said it was bad enough that he kooked out going for the wave but then when I left he started talking smack behind someone's back like that. And surfing is supposed to be simple and enjoyable, right! Then all of a sudden the guy paddles up to me and says he was sorry and that I was right, he came too close to me with no one else around, etc. He apologized a second time and I acknowledged him and said thanks for apologizing. Then he paddled back over to his friend.
Dan was out of there the minute a wave came his way, which was one in two hours. I managed to stay out a while and catch my mandatory three, with the third a no-brainer take-it-as-far-as-you-can-and-leave wave.
The crawl stroke uses the most energy and is the most tiring of strokes, as far as I'm concerned, and this is also probably due to wearing a wetsuit. On the other hand, the side stroke and the breast stroke were very efficient in combination, 10 strokes of this, 10 strokes of that, alternating, and that seemed to propel me through the water very quickly with an endless supply of energy. The side stroke has always been both a favorite and my strongest stroke. Next training will incorporate 10 back strokes, 10 breast strokes and 10 sidestrokes, completely from one break to the other for the full 250 yards, prolly this weekend, or through the middle of the lineup, like I said before.
The two real keys to training for this trip are just straight forward paddling and swimming, without question. I've been to the gym a bunch of times for some strength training. While that's good, there is no comparison to the benefits of training in the water.
- Cliff |