You Surf Like a . . . Shortboarder?

On my best wave yesterday, I was actually surfing like a shortboarder. What on earth was I thinking? I arrived at the home break with both the Slick and the funboard (which is a Con). After asking around about the conditions, I decided it was a funboard day. The waves seemed somewhat large and walled up. I thought the funboard would be perfect. Of course, after I got in the tide started going out, the waves got smaller, and I probably would have been happier on the longboard but I decided to stay on the funboard nonetheless. Silly me assumed that one previous, successful session on the funboard meant that all other sessions on that board would be easy. Silly me was wrong. I couldn't quite find my rhythm on that board. I was popping up too early on waves. I was standing in the wrong spot once I popped up. You know what I'm talking about—I was having quite a few kook moments. After about half an hour I found my rhythm or at least what was left of it. I took off on a nice left with a good amount of shoulder. Once again, I noticed that upon popping up, everything was perfect. I could feel that I was in the right spot on both the wave and the board. I took off on this wave and before I knew it, my left arm (i.e., trail arm) was pumping up and down, I was picking up speed, and I literally tore that wave up. Well, I tore it up as much as you can on a big-ass funboard. But I could tell I'd just ridden that wave as if I was on a shortboard. It was a good long, fast ride. When it ended, a shortboarder on the shore hooted to me and threw up the shaka sign. Other than that, the session was uneventful. It was good to be back at the home break. I love it there. I really do.


Our garage is virtually empty now that we no longer own a motorcycle. And yet, my boards—all four of them—are still in the house. What's that about? The Tyler is the big one in the silver board bag. The Slick is in the Hawaiian print bag. The Con funboard, the board many people have been asking me to post a picture of, is sans bag in this picture. The Channel Islands is in the bedroom.