Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Cutbacks or Flying Leaps

March 29, 2001

O'ahu, Southshore
waves: 1-3 (H'wn)
wind: slight, beautiful day

We have just been so lucky this spring -- nice, nice early season swells; I have been out so much I am hardly doing anything else. (Read newsgroup or surf? hmmmm...)

Today I was so eager to get out there. I could see some nice rides going off as I paddled out. For the first hour I found I wasn't catching nearly what I wanted; just a few slushy rides -- and, worse yet, was finding myself getting pushed too far inside. That long trek around the breaks over the reef (and the alternative harsh 'punch out') was really giving me a work out.

I have been having some really nice sessions in the past few weeks; nothing big, but so nicely formed that I could try out some new techniques. I am finally getting my cutbacks down! What a differnce that makes; don't know why I didn't learn that sooner ... And ... I don't know why I didn't try learning some cutbacks going right! Turns out I could have used that skill today.

I was in the middle of the pack and the perfect wave was rolling in (looked like it was going to peak at about chest/head high). I jumped into position -- realizing I was going to have to take a right to avoid the crowd. It was a great takeoff. The face was sheer, sleek and just peeling in front of me -- I felt just a little cocky hugging onto the wall like that. What the heck ... I suddenly decided to cut up the wall (forgetting I had never done this even on a small wave going right!) ... Unfortunately, the wave peaked and I found myself high up and face to face with a curling lip -- the wall had curved away from me! Somehow in that split second I reasoned that I was better off in the air than over the falls and under the full impact (with about a foot of water over the reef in that spot!) -- I quickly twisted and soared outward -- then took the four foot air drop and landed just inside the the wash of the wave. The rest of the 'ragdoll' ride was just fine, considering the alternatives!

One of the usually quiet old timers was paddling out and saw me ... a little later he sort of scolded me ("eh, you watch dat reef ovah deah!"), but I felt giddy just the same. God I love this stuff!

Süs

( ... um yum! )