December 27, 2008 Saturday

Stinson Beach	Out front from the showers
10:00 am to 11:30 am	4', sets to 5'
High tide - 6.1 ft	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny	So -so session

My New Board

Today was my first session with my new board: a Doug Haut, 9’ 2”, tri-fin. I picked it up yesterday from Nate and crew at the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley and spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing wax on it. I was anxious to try it out.

Kevin and I headed to Stinson first to check it out. It looked ok. I insisted that we look at Bolinas, which was flat due to the high tide. We ran into Professor Steve exiting the water from his morning exercise paddle. We headed back to Stinson. We ran into Nate, who sold me my board, and a friend just getting out. Lots of closeouts was Nate’s assessment of the waves.

Due to the high tide the waves pushed up the berm of the beach and broke close to shore. Most were walls with a couple with shape. Kevin entered the water and started paddling. A set came in and he had to duck-dive three waves before getting out. I waited for a lull, pushed into the water, jumped on my new board and cruised out to the line up only touching white water once. My board paddles fast, much faster than my old one.

On my first wave I went right, it closed out ahead of me and I straightened out. Not much of a ride. The next wave was same thing. Later a left wave came through and I got a decent angle down the face of a four-foot wave before having to straighten out again. Despite my sore arm from rubbing wax on my new board yesterday, it wasn’t enough. The board was slippery. Whenever I turned from a sitting position and leaned forward to begin paddling, the board slipped right out of my hands and I would be hanging onto the tail block. When I would stand up, the surface was slippery and I would very tentatively step up to retain my balance. Coming down a sizable wall I stepped back to keep the nose of the board from knifing into the water and slipped right off the back. The board shot forward, my feet went straight into the air and I landed tail first in the water. Next I misjudged a wave; I was too late, the fast paddling board got me too far in front of the wave, it broke on my back, the nose pearl dived straight down, I went to the bottom and the board shot high into the air, so Kevin told me. On my last wave, I came down a four-foot wall, coasted out in front of the white water, the wave bounced, knocked me off and the board continued with the surge of the white water. Underwater, I felt the tug of the leash on my ankle, and then it went flat and my board continued up to the beach. The knot of the line that connects the leash to the board pulled undone and there I was with an empty leash strapped to my ankle and my board washing around in the shore break.

That was enough for the first day, not a great success but a start. “It takes awhile to get accustomed to a new board,” I said to myself. It was a so-so session but I knew I had a good board that I would soon master.