Now That's More Like It!!

The repair on the Slick came out better than I thought it would. When I went to pick it up at Aqua Tech, the guy who worked on it came out to see what I thought of his repair job. He did such a good job that it took me a few seconds to locate the site of the fin chop. The best way for me to express my gratitude for a job well done was to give him a hug (in addition to paying for the repair).

Today's session at home was wonderful. Since I was finally back at my home break, I was completely relaxed. Since it's a wave I know well, I was also completely dialed in. The worst thing about surfing places like Sunset and Malibu is that I always have my back to the wave. So when I got to our funky little beach break today, I went for every left that came my way. I didn't just surf the lefts. I jumped on the lefts and worked them for all they were worth. I think having spent much of the last month surfing other breaks has helped my surfing in ways I can't yet quantify. When I surf my home break, I'm at a place that is hardly unpredictable. I know what to expect from the waves there. But lately I've been surfing Sunset, Malibu, and sometimes the South Bay. That means I've been forced to learn new waves, new beaches, new crowd patterns, new everything. I guess I've had to spend a lot of time watching and learning, something you don't necessarily do or have to do when you surf the same break every day. It's also helped to see so many good surfers. I mean, it's not like those of us on longboards at my break have a lot of good surfers to learn from. There's Greg. He's a classic longboard surfer whom I consider my sensei. There's Jonas. He's, in my opinion, more of a progressive longboarder with a lot of classic style. Finally, there's Joey. He's got his own style, one that I think is almost impossible to emulate. I'm someone who learns visually. I need to see how a thing is done. In order to improve my skills on a longboard, I need to see people on longboards doing the things I want to do on a longboard. I won't see them at my break often. That means I have to go elsewhere to learn. The Sunset wave, when it's firing, is a good place for me to work on my skills and my confidence. But if I want to see good longboarding, I have to go to places like Malibu and The Cove. So, yes, you'll be seeing me in Malibu again (even if all I'm doing is sitting in the sand and watching—it's not like you can see much other than the top halves of people's bodies from the lineup).