31 July 2006

Comment

You know what's so irritating about the fin chop to the nose of my board? It wasn't even crowded. It's not like this guy had nowhere to go. No, that's not the case at all. There was no one to the left of me. There was no one to the right of me. I was just there, standing on some of the submerged rocks, waiting for him to ride by so that I could paddle back out. I knew that if I started paddling back out when I first saw him, I probably would have been in his way. Again, I stood there waiting for him to surf by. But guess what? He didn't surf on by. The wave started closing out in front of him. What did he do? He turned toward me, and then he fell toward me, and then his board shot out . . . AT ME. Since the water was up to my shoulders, I ducked under. Nevertheless, I still heard the thud when his board hit mine. I knew immediately what my board was going to look like. I've heard that sound before. Once I came back up, he was apologizing profusely. His first concern was my safety. He asked if I was okay. I said I was, but my board was not. Then we both looked at the nose. Then he was apologizing even more. Whatever. I'm not happy about the fin chop to the nose of the Tyler. However, I take things like that in stride. It's just a surfboard. I'm glad it wasn't my head. I probably could have cursed him out. But that's not me. Even with my funky mood, it's still not me. I simply got on my board and paddled away. I didn't even get out of the water. I caught a few more waves and then left. I was neither mad nor sad. I kind of chalked the whole thing up to the weird karma I've been dealing with of late. As I type this, the board is sitting at Aqua Tech. Since they were going to fix the fin gouge, I told them—at Soul Brother #1's urging—to fix every crackle on the board. The Tyler will look pretty damn good when I next see it.

How was the session? Well, the place was firing. The problem was the wind. The choppy conditions aren't much fun even when a spot is firing. I got a wave that some might say was the wave of the day (at least in the spot where I was surfing). I didn't think much of the wave. When I paddled back out, people kept talking to me about it. I wish I'd seen it. Oh well.

30 July 2006

No Comment



29 July 2006

That's Gonna Leave a Mark

About a month ago, I chastised Whiff for going to my home break during a SW swell. He reminded me that he went there, in part, to accommodate his kids. The home break has great playgrounds. Thus it's the best place to surf when your spouse accompanies you to the beach with the kids in tow. So now you know why I ended up at the home break today during a SW swell. It wasn't pretty. Closeouts. Big closeouts. Big closeouts in three feet of water. I should have given up and gone home when my board clipped me beneath my calves and on both heels. That hurt like hell. If I weren't black, I'd be bruised already. But since my melanin doth runneth over, I don't bruise easily. Just know that I'll be surfing in pain tomorrow and I deserve to ride all the waves I paddle for alone!! Look for the well-tanned woman with the bandana on her head. Your show of sympathy for my pain will be greatly appreciated.

I'm doing dawn patrol tomorrow. I want some of this swell. I plan to surf for at least three hours. I need it badly. I've been ready to punch someone's face in lately. That's not me. Normally, I just don't care. I get righteously indignant when necessary. I get pissed off on occasion. However, it's rare that I spend days at a time in a state of agitation. For some reason, I took up residence in this state earlier in the week. Perhaps it's the heat. Perhaps it's the job. Perhaps it's the wife/mom thing. Perhaps it's all of the above. The reason is unimportant. What matters is that I bring my vacation in that state to an end and come back home. My goal tomorrow is to surf so hard that I'm punch drunk. When I surf like that, I can live on the endorphin high for days. If you see me out there tomorrow and you see me frowning, remind me to snap out of it. Thank you kindly for your support.

24 July 2006

Dusk Patrol

After yesterday, we (as a family) were sick and tired of this heat. None of us has an air conditioner. We don't need one 99.9% of the time. But this heat starts to eat at you once you've spent several days and nights at home marinating in your own sweat. When Soul Brother #1 asked me what I wanted to do after work, I think he was hoping I'd say we were going to head to the beach. And he got his wish. We even took Soul Grandmother #1 along. She's been marinating too. In yet another first, I did my first evening session. Once again, the wetsuit was but a memory. It was too warm for a wetsuit and the water felt wonderful. The waves were not quite to my liking. It was not a good day to take the Tyler to a beach break. I needed a board with a little more rocker. In fact, I'd planned to take my funboard but decided not to when Pacific Waverider showed the surf as 1-2 and weak. It was neither 1-2 nor weak. It was more like 2-3 and poor. There was power out there. There just wasn't much shape. I still caught a few. More importantly, we got ourselves out of that heat.

23 July 2006

Double Dippin'

Is that a surfing term? I don't think so. But it's one I hear quite often from one of the women at the home break. She'll often start out at one break, drive directly to another break, and jump back in the water. There's a first time for everything, right? Well, today was my first time doing the double dip. I started out at RPB. I thought there would be more swell in the water than there was. To my chagrin, one guy told me it had been good at 6 a.m. Damn!! I was up in time to get there that early. I didn't head out because Pacific Waverider said it was 1-2 and weak. Dammit all to hell. By the time I got there around 7, it was small with sets rolling through every once in awhile. I couldn't decide whether to make a break back to my home break and, as usual, time was of the essence. The session wasn't bad. Thank god for huge boards. I caught enough waves to make me happy. Then, all of a sudden, the place just shut down. Boom! Lake RPB. That's when I started thinking I should go see what was going on at the home break. Instead of sitting around waiting for set waves I knew wouldn't come, I got out when I realized RPB was done. The only thing I bothered to do was shed my shortie john. Everything else stayed on. I never even toweled off. I shoved the board in the car—have I ever mentioned that station wagons are a wonderful thing?—and made run for home. Yes!!! There were waves there. It's so damn hot these days that I did something I've never ever done in my short years of surfing: I surfed in only my swimsuit. I was only in the water for about 20 minutes. I didn't have time to get cold. And, yes, it felt damn good. I got a few more waves at the home break, laughed with the crew, and headed home. One of the guys in our crew got on me good today. See, RPB is such a slow wave that I need to be closer to the nose when I paddle for wave. At the home break, I would lie a little further back on the board. Well, I had a little trouble making the switch between breaks. I missed one wave simply because I pearled like a damn kook. And what did I hear from Joey? "Welcome to the harbor!!! Pearl Harbor!" I couldn't help but laugh at that one. The waves were pretty good, totally different from those at RPB. I only stayed out for 20 minutes, yes. It was still worth it.


My surf buddy at work put this magazine on my desk last week. One thing they mention in the "67 Things You Must Do Before Your Last Ride" article is you should never wear booties with a springsuit. How about booties with board shorts? I saw a lot of both out there today at RPB. What the hell are the booties for? This isn't some exotic locale with a sharp reef in between the shore and the lineup. We're just talking about some rocks, people. I cut my foot pretty badly a few weeks ago either on some glass or a shell. I was jacked up, limping around for at least a week. Guess what? I still surfed. All I did was put duct tape at the bottom of my foot so nothing else would jam into the cut (which was deep and seriously painful). Why are people wearing booties in the middle of summer? If you can't stand the rocks, go to the south end and paddle out. Yes, it's a long paddle out from there. I'd rather do that than wear booties . . . IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER WHILE WEARING BOARD SHORTS OR A SPRINGSUIT. Friends don't let friends surf in booties.

22 July 2006

It's Still Hot!!!

A year ago, I was freezing in my springsuit. I remember that distinctly. Granted, I wasn't working full-time so I had less body fat then since I was always working out. But still. I am about to melt. Today I threw caution to the wind and trunked it. And I never got cold! That proves it! It's just too damn hot.

Since there wasn't much of a swell in the water, I took the Tyler out to the home break. The Slick is out of commission. It's not dinged or anything. I stripped off the wax a few weeks ago. Now I refuse to put any new wax on it. That will make me use the other boards in my quiver. I'm about to give the Tyler the same treatment. It's time for me to start paying more attention to my other (i.e., shorter) boards. For some dumb reason, I paddled out today without a leash. I was under the impression that it was small and weak. Once again, I never bothered to take a good look at the waves. I just assumed there was nothing there. There wasn't a lot there, but the home break is a beach break, a fast one. I needed a leash. Those waves tended to close out and I have a hard time knowing when to kick out at a beach break. As a result, I constantly lost my board. I was prepared for that initially. Then, more and more waders entered the water. I then stopped going for waves. Thankfully, Mike and I switched boards. He rides a 7'0" swallowtail. I figured today was as good a day as any to start trying a smaller board. I didn't catch anything. I came close to catching two waves. I don't know what happened on the first one. I remember my back foot slipping off the board on the second one. Mike took my board in because he had to feed the meter. When he came back, he had a leash, my leash, the one that I'd left in the car. As it turns out, Soul Brother #1 passed through to watch for awhile and Mike told him I needed my leash. (Why I didn't get my happy ass out of the water and go get it myself I'll never know.) It was perfect timing. When Mike paddled back out, we both wanted our boards back. (He never surfs longboards.) The leash allowed me to start going for waves again. It was a good session, albeit a crowded one. Who are all of these people on surfboards these days? They aren't there during the winter months. They aren't there in the spring. They need to stay home during the summer too. It's way too crowded out there.

Non-surfing highlight of the day: We walked by a little Hawaiian hole-in-the-wall restaurant after going to a nearby restaurant for fish tacos. Once I spotted those Hawaiian shaved ice treats, I had to have one. Mmmmmmm. That's what I'm talkin' about. Fish tacos and shaved ice. Sweet.

21 July 2006

Look What I Found


It's a picture of me paddling for a wave during the Doo Dah thang. Note the helmet, sunglasses and gloves. Surfing in that stuff took mad skills, homies. I'll have you know I caught a bunch of waves that day. I still haven't found a picture of me up and riding, but this is close enough.

17 July 2006

Time To Vote

The Doo Dah Surf site has posted pictures of many of the folks who participated. I'm not in the photos because I never bothered to get my picture taken. But CYT is in there. And so are a couple of my friends from the home break. In fact, two of them are finalists in the voting for the best costume. Go take a look and cast your vote. Vote here.

15 July 2006

I Did the Doo . . .

Dah Surf today at RPB. What a kick that was! It was by far the most fun I've ever had on a surfboard. I even ran into Bean Counting Surfer. I knew he'd be there, but had no idea what his costume would be. Well, it didn't really matter. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was one of my fellow bloggers. (By the way, he was a human-sized can of Lite Beer from Miller.) He's a very good surfer, one who's relaxed and smooth. I'm sure we'll see each other again. Frankly, there are no words that can do this event justice. You just had to be there. And as if the fun weren't enough, we were also blessed with warm water and decent waves. I didn't expect to do much surfing today. I thought I'd simply be sitting on my board enjoying the spectacle. Forget that!! I was on my board paddling for chest-high, sometimes head high, waves. Man, it was fun. Somehow I was able to catch quite a few of them even though I was in a cycling helmet, sunglasses, gloves, bibs (cycling shorts with built in suspenders), a cycling jersey, and cycling arm warmers. The most amazing thing was that I never once lost the sunglasses.

The funniest thing I saw today was the woman in the Viking gear. She was a Viking from head to toe. She also had a blond wig with two long ponytails. She's the reason why I almost drowned . . . from laughing so hard. She caught this wave and was right in the pocket. Someone else tried to drop in on her. She then whipped out a knife from her waistband and started waving it in his face . . . while she was still surfing that wave. Hilarious!!


I stole this picture from the Santa Monica report on Swell Magnet. This is Kevin, one of my buds from the home break, surfing tandem with a blow-up doll he bought last night at a sex shop. Had I not seen him and this doll with my own two eyes, I would not have believed it.

When pictures of the surf are posted on the Doo Dah Surf site, I'll provide a link. Again, you had to see it to believe it. Aloha!

UPDATE

I read over my first entry about the Doo Dah Surf and found a comment from the Bean Counting Surfer in which he told me what he'd be wearing. I'd forgotten about that comment, but it's no wonder I was able to spot him immediately.

I found some pictures from the website for RPB. Can you spot me in the photos?




14 July 2006

How Sweet It Is

This place never ceases to amaze me. When you look up the word "unpredictable" in the Webster's, I'm certain you will see a picture of Malibu's famous surf beach.

Yesterday was a day for ruminations (yes, it's a word you don't hear every day . . . look it up). I knew a swell was on the way and that it was supposed to arrive today. I kept thinking about it and talking about it with my surf buddy in the cubicle across from me. Before we knew it, we'd launched into a discussion about taking Friday off. Should we or shouldn't we? My concern was that I have accrued no vacation. Thus I was left with either a personal day or a sick day. If I take a sick day, how will I fake the sickness? Will I have to call in and speak to my boss to say I'm not coming in? And how can I do that if I'm in the water? If I take a personal day, all I'm left with are sick days. I was going around and around, not knowing how I should work this, especially since it's been a good seven years since I worked at a full-time job and didn't know if my absences (and, yes, there will be more of them when swells hit—even if I have to take days off without pay) will later come back to haunt me when it's time for my yearly review. Finally, I decided I'd go ahead and ask for the day. But I was giving my surf buddy the chance to ask first, knowing they probably wouldn't let us both have a day off (since he and I do jobs that no one else in the company can do). Well, he told me, even dared me, to ask first. And I did. I did all of the work that was on my desk or outside my cubicle waiting for my attention. I essentially ensured that there would be no work for me on Friday. Then I asked for the day off. Ha!! Success! A couple of hours later, my surf buddy got around to asking for the day off. Ho!! Failure! The big boss said no. So let this be a lesson to you: you better ask for the day off before the other surfers at your job do.

I had no intention of going to Malibu today. I wasn't even thinking about that place. It was CYT who chose Malibu. She was on the road before I was, so she was on the cellphone giving me a commentary every time she passed breaks on the coast. I guess I assumed she'd choose to surf RPB. What's that old saying? Never assume because you make an "ass" of "u" and "me". I was not happy when she said Malibu. I had knots in my stomach as I headed up PCH. I'm not even sure why. I guess after all that I went through surfing there last summer, I tend to expect the worst from that place. Once again, I was wrong. The only complaint I have about today's session was the fog. I missed many waves simply because I couldn't see. I won't even complain about the fog since it probably kept quite a few people out of the water. The vibe out there today was mainly positive. One old-timer gave me a wave. I told him to come with me and we'd surf it together. He told me to go ahead and take it. What happened? I had the whole wave to myself! I dropped into another wave later, knowing I was far enough in front of the folks who were on it to ride it with them (before you start flaming me about dropping in, remember I'm talking about Malibu and crowded surf). There was another old-timer leading the pack on that one. When I got on the wave, he cheered me on, telling me to get onto the wave with them and then telling me to stay there. I was so surprised by his generosity and aloha spirit that I did the obvious thing . . . got flustered and kicked out. When I saw him again, I told him I wasn't used to such wonderful treatment at Malibu and that, as a result, I lost my concentration and had to kick out. For some reason, people around us found that funny and laughed. But it was true. I did have a run-in with one guy on a shortboard. But it's not the kind of run-in you're thinking. It was literally a run-in. With the foggy conditions, it was a bit hard to see clearly. I was up on the wave one minute. The next minute, I was thrashing about in the water, wondering what hit me. As it turns out, another surfer hit me. But there were no unkind words. He reached out for me, making sure I was okay. After spitting out my mouthful of water, I said I was fine and asked if he was hurt. He was fine too. I then patted him on the shoulder, got back on my board, and paddled away. When we saw one another again, we both smiled. That's how surfing should always be. Neither of us was at fault. We obviously didn't see one another and we both worried about the other's well-being. There was no yelling, no stink eye.

This session was well worth the talking to I may receive from my boss on Monday. (He wasn't there yesterday and I was forced to ask his boss for the day off.) Malibu was firing. The set waves were certainly head high at times. No wonder there were shortboards and longboards out there tearing it up. I was on my Tyler, the board I hardly ride anymore. Man, that thing is big and perfect. It loves that Malibu wave. My first wave was a bit shaky as I couldn't quite find my center on the board. My subsequent waves got better and better. I never did walk the board even though today was perfect for that. It never even crossed my mind. At some point, I'll start to relax a little more at Malibu (like I do at RPB) and I'll be more inclined to try more things. I'm ready to go back there again, but the next time I take a day off I'm going to head to San O. Thanks again, Malibu locals (especially the old-timers). I respect your break and I have much respect for all of you.

11 July 2006

Cool Picture

09 July 2006

Wedding at the Home Break

Yes, you read that right—AT the home break. As in right on the sand. Zach and Rachel went and got themselves hitched. How cool is that? Some people attended the wedding in their board shorts. Others surfed first, then went home and changed. I'm sure the attendees who aren't surfers were a little confused by the motley crew of surfers who were there. Guess what? I've got pictures!!! (Well, at least try to act excited for the sake of the blog.)
Would you believe I was worried we wouldn't immediately spot the wedding location once we arrived at the beach?

The bride walked down an aisle of flip flops.

Some of the locals took a break from surfing to help set up.

Both of these women surf. One got out of the water in time to attend the wedding. I love that!

Would you believe that all but one of these people is a surfer?

Who needs a church or courthouse when you can get married at the beach with your homies?

My mom had the nerve to worry that she was under-dressed.

Surf Bloggers of the World: Unite!!

And that's what we did. Okay, okay. That's what two of us did. I don't always get a chance to check the other surf blogs on a daily basis. On Friday night, I just happened to head over to Acme Instant Boulder Kit to see if they'd posted anything new. What's this? Jefferey is going to be in L.A. this weekend? And he's wondering if the L.A. posse will meet up with him for a session? I really didn't think he'd see my comment. Then I was certain we'd play email tag and never find one another. But I was wrong. We emailed cell phone numbers back and forth. At 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, I found him at Venice Pier. I cannot believe I've finally met another surf blogger! I've met Whiff, but as far as I'm concerned that session didn't count since RPB was flat and I was in a bad mood. Now let me tell you about Jefferey. He is a character! I think I spent most of the session laughing. A couple of times he had me laughing so hard that I missed waves—no, wait! I missed a closeouts—and sat on my board shaking with laughter. Nice guy. We went leashless for some odd reason. It's not like the conditions were conducive to that. All I did was swim and run . . . after my wayward board. Even when I held onto my board after a ride, another wave would dump on top of me and the board would fly out of my hands. I thought I was being the consummate kook until I noticed he was chasing his board too. At one point, I was heading to the shore to get my board. I saw him catch a nice (wanna be) wave and then get dumped. His 5000 pound Tyler was heading my way. I decided I would grab it and prevent him from making a long swim. Then I realized that the board wasn't just heading my way, it was hurtling at me at breakneck speed. Hmmmm, I thought. Make a grab for the board or get out of the way. Since I did live to type this entry, I think we all know what ended up happening? I dove under and he had to make a swim. The session was great. The waves were terrible, yes, but it was nice to meet and surf with a fellow blogger and damn good surfer.
I would like to have stayed in the water longer, but I had a wedding to attend!

05 July 2006

Moon Over Malibu


I'd call what CYT and I did on Independence Day a dawn patrol surf if it hadn't involved waking up before dawn in order to be in the water before the sun came up. When CYT and I surfed together on Saturday, she paddled up to me at one point and whispered something about doing Malibu on the 4th of July. My first reaction: this girl's on crack. Then she said we'd need to be early. How early? Early. You mean 5 a.m.? Yeah. I'm there! On Tuesday morning at 4:42 a.m., the clock radio woke me up. (I decided 5:30 was a better time to be at the 'bu since the sun wouldn't rise until about that time.) At a little after 5, I was heading to Malibu. Mind you, I managed to get dressed, fill the Bullys tank with hot water, and load the board in the car in the span of about 15 minutes. This was one of those occasions when you're thankful you're a morning person. Getting up early is easy. Staying up late, conversely, is torture. I pulled up at Malibu before 5:30. CYT was already there. You know what's a real trip? People were already in the water! My first reaction: they must be on crack too. As is our habit, CYT and I stood there staring at the water. She talked about making a run to another break. I wasn't thinking about doing that. The whole point of being at Malibu at that hour was to get in and get out before the zoo officially opened for business.

The session was fine. I'd been wanting to do another surf at Malibu, but I could not face that place on a weekend. So when CYT suggested an early morning session on the 4th, I was ready. There was no serious swell in the water. Nonetheless, it wasn't completely flat. The set waves made the trip worthwhile, as did the fact that the sun was out and the crowd was light for several hours. I caught the first wave I paddled for—I was going to write "for which I paddled", but that sounded idiotic—and got a bunch of waves to myself during the session. I swear I hit the lip on one. Every once in awhile, I can emulate the surfers I see in videos. I've often noted how some longboarders can climb up a wave just as it's about to close out, slowly hit the lip, and then ride out the closeout before kicking out. Well, that opportunity presented itself yesterday. I saw the wave about to shut itself down. I drove hard to the bottom so I could pick up speed to climb up the wave. (Okay, we're talking about a three or four foot wave here, yes. Don't forget I was on a single fin longboard and that getting that thing up to speed for this takes some work.) Then I threw my body around with all the power I could muster. The board tapped off the lip and I rode the wave straight toward shore. I must have done something right. A guy was watching me as he paddled back out. When I did that maneuver, his eyes got wide. Now, mind you, in my mind, I hit the lip with a loud "BAP!!!!!" (I'm talking about the sound my board made) that could be heard all the way in El Porto. I'm sure that in reality, it was more like a muffled "bip" that probably didn't even disturb the fish directly beneath me. No matter. I'm happy to hold onto my delusions of grandeur for today.

You know what's irritating? A kid trying to call you off of waves. WTF? Part of the reason why yesterday's session was good was the fact that everyone was mellow. No one yelled. No one ran anyone over. We all just surfed. And then, here's this kid, not even old enough to . . . I'm not going to go there since what I was going to say may be offensive. Aw hell, he wasn't even old enough to get a girl pregnant, and here he is trying to call grown folks off of waves. I wasn't the only one he irritated. CYT said she said something to him, as did someone else. I don't even know why this kid bothered. No one got out of his way. He tried to call me off while I was right next to him. Naw, little brudda, we gonna ride this thing together with everyone else. The vibe in the water was relaxed. We gave up waves when we could and shared waves when we couldn't. We all understood each other . . . except for that little gnat. And it's not like he was that good. He was no better or worse a surfer than anyone else in the water. Perhaps he learned a lesson yesterday. Leave the calling off to the locals. If they're not calling people off waves, why are you doing it?

04 July 2006

Big Assed Puerto Escondido

My homie Dave from the home break is a director. I've not seen much of him of late. Turns out he's been south of the border filming for Rip Curl. While he was down there, he got some footage of Puerto Escondido firing hard. And when that place is firing like that, people start towing in. Click here to watch the video (which will take awhile to load).

Heatwave

I know, I know. I'm way behind in my posts. I never did get around to talking about my session on Sunday. Somehow, many of us decided to hit up the home break. Why? Why did we do that? The place is a great big closeout when a south swell hits. We'd just surfed RPB the previous day so we knew what we'd find at home. Well, I take that back. Word had gotten out that the home break had been fun the previous day. Still, it couldn't have been as good as a point break—and it wasn't. The waves, obviously, were nothing special. You'd see a shoulder appear in the distance. You'd start to paddle. Then you'd find that the shoulder quietly morphed into a closeout that was steadily bearing down on you. I took a few of the drops. We all did. I made some. I got pummelled on others. No matter though. It was not a bad session. Once again, I got to surf with Gracefullee. That made it two days in a row. It was also damn hot. That meant I got a chance to surf in my shorty john. Hallelujah! I don't know that it will ever get hot enough for me to bareback it. I'm happy to be in the shorty john and let some of my skin see the sun. (Yes, I put on sunscreen on my face and shoulders.) I was also happily surprised to once again see that Soul Brother #2 preferred playing in the water to going to the playground. I want him to be drawn to the water and to be able to say that he grew up happily spending way too much time at the beach. Truthfully, how many black people have you heard say that?

01 July 2006

Now I've Seen Everything



Not only was Marlon out at RPB today with his dog, but he was out with a dog that was sporting some kind of wetsuit and flotation device. I swear to you it was worth the paddle out just to see this duo tearing it up. The dog isn't as big as the one pictured. That made him all the more cute in his get-up. If the dog was scared, you certainly couldn't tell. And Marlon looked like a proud dad showing off his first born. I'm sorry I didn't have a waterproof camera with me.

Today's session was a fun one for me. Part of the reason for that was that Gracefullee pulled up right after I did. I love surfing with her. When we first arrived at the break, we were both indecisive about whether to stay. So we stood there. Looking. It didn't look great. But then again, I always remind myself you rarely find "great" when staring at your local breaks. Finally, I asked the guy a few feet away from us what he was going to do. He'd been looking too. He said he was going. As usual, that was good enough for me. As it turns out, the session was good enough for me too. The waves were fine. I got my share of them. I felt stronger than usual today. I'm not sure why that was. As a result, I paddled harder than I normally do and ended up getting more waves than I might during a normal RPB session.

A funny thing happened today. I finally found out why CYT seems to have boundless energy while I'm always complaining about being tired. Since CYT is on a new epoxy board, I insisted that we switch boards. I don't like epoxy at all, but I'm still anxious to try other boards whenever I can. The first thing CYT said after catching a wave and paddling back was that my board was not forgiving and that paddling it made her shoulder hurt. We talked about the situation awhile. Finally, we realized that her longboards are thick ones that provide a good deal of flotation. The Slick is thin. It isn't as easy to paddle as a big, honkin' longboard. We quickly switched back. I caught stuff on her board. I wasn't impressed though. Epoxy just doesn't do it for me. It feels dead. But at least I now know why I need a little time to recover from a hard effort when I'm surfing the Slick. And now I don't feel like such damn slacker.