Re-Surfing
Swinging on a mooring some 200k away my Folkie has more of a mental presence than a real one. Although I think of her daily, my efforts to reach my goal are directed in roundabout ways.
Some are more obvious, like today, a large package adorned with Rolly Tasked Sails packing tape arrived - a brand new suit of storm sails now sits in my loungeroom. That's a very sailorly act.
But some are a bit "oh yeah sure". One of these is improving my fitness. Every morning I rise early to meditate and exercise. The exercises are typically just stretching, actual yoga, resistance exercises or walking. And although I have to actually guard against stressing myself too much, I also need to push on gently. Lately, I've noticed that my morning exercises and sensible eating are providing good results. I feel muscularly firm in my core and have good energy levels. So I decided to test myself in the surf, not just swimming, real surfing. Being midweek and with a forecast of an early afternoon storm, should translate to fewer surfers out. That's good for two reasons, I get the pick of the waves and won't feel pressured.
From the sand it was difficult to determine a good spot. The waves were about 3 or 4 feet and were breaking all along the beach. So, good enough to pick off the odd wave, but hard enough so's I could blame the co editions if I had a shocker. But really, I wanted to go well and catch at least one nice wave. I knew how to feed off the power of a wave and cruise, I just needed to paddle well and get my balance. At age 63 and having not surfed for several years, there are no guarantees.
My first wave was wobbly and brief. I'd done well paddling out, I copped a few on the head, buty breathing and power remained great. So I get myself into a four footer, as I get up face drops out and I try not to fall for the rooky error of doing a massive nose plough, lean back and she rises neatly, phew. But being too focussedvon that, I had neglected to turn across the face and the board took off skimming from under me. Well, that was dumb. My next two waves were brief, one a left, my backhand, that felt very rusty, the other a right that faded out but gavecme time to get the feel of the board and the conditions. I twigged that despite there being a good few rights, the gentle south going tow made the lefts a better option.
I pull a sizable left, hardly manage a bottom turn due to the power of the wave and my wonky lacking confidence surfing. But something was startingvto click, I was puffing like a steam train and my brain was strategising. A little right, just enough wave to ride while focussing on my stance, balance and cruising. I needed to actually restrain myself, years ago I would have ripped these little waves apart and my masculine brain thinks I can still do it. But I can't, I need to cruise more, like an old guy.
Then, a large left looms that even my worn out eyes detected. A littlecbit of double wave unites nicely and I'm into it. Lesson learned on wave one heeded, I angle left, raise the nose and gently scream through a bowly take off. Its going to close out because of its size, but not yet. I hook off the bottom and soar up to the lip, lean heavy right and turning off the lip, quickly settle to turn off the bottom again and cruise for a second. She's starting to shut down, but there's a wee bit of face left, we turn off the bottom, raise the nose to collide then glide up over the oncoming foam, crank it back towards the beach and stand tall and glide angling along the beach towards the sand. That was a hoot! I so rode that well, a good one to finish on.
Rather than feel exhausted, I felt energised! Yes I can go hard-ish still at 63, there's still some sailing in the ageing dog yet. Hoot le toot!
Some are more obvious, like today, a large package adorned with Rolly Tasked Sails packing tape arrived - a brand new suit of storm sails now sits in my loungeroom. That's a very sailorly act.
But some are a bit "oh yeah sure". One of these is improving my fitness. Every morning I rise early to meditate and exercise. The exercises are typically just stretching, actual yoga, resistance exercises or walking. And although I have to actually guard against stressing myself too much, I also need to push on gently. Lately, I've noticed that my morning exercises and sensible eating are providing good results. I feel muscularly firm in my core and have good energy levels. So I decided to test myself in the surf, not just swimming, real surfing. Being midweek and with a forecast of an early afternoon storm, should translate to fewer surfers out. That's good for two reasons, I get the pick of the waves and won't feel pressured.
From the sand it was difficult to determine a good spot. The waves were about 3 or 4 feet and were breaking all along the beach. So, good enough to pick off the odd wave, but hard enough so's I could blame the co editions if I had a shocker. But really, I wanted to go well and catch at least one nice wave. I knew how to feed off the power of a wave and cruise, I just needed to paddle well and get my balance. At age 63 and having not surfed for several years, there are no guarantees.
My first wave was wobbly and brief. I'd done well paddling out, I copped a few on the head, buty breathing and power remained great. So I get myself into a four footer, as I get up face drops out and I try not to fall for the rooky error of doing a massive nose plough, lean back and she rises neatly, phew. But being too focussedvon that, I had neglected to turn across the face and the board took off skimming from under me. Well, that was dumb. My next two waves were brief, one a left, my backhand, that felt very rusty, the other a right that faded out but gavecme time to get the feel of the board and the conditions. I twigged that despite there being a good few rights, the gentle south going tow made the lefts a better option.
I pull a sizable left, hardly manage a bottom turn due to the power of the wave and my wonky lacking confidence surfing. But something was startingvto click, I was puffing like a steam train and my brain was strategising. A little right, just enough wave to ride while focussing on my stance, balance and cruising. I needed to actually restrain myself, years ago I would have ripped these little waves apart and my masculine brain thinks I can still do it. But I can't, I need to cruise more, like an old guy.
Then, a large left looms that even my worn out eyes detected. A littlecbit of double wave unites nicely and I'm into it. Lesson learned on wave one heeded, I angle left, raise the nose and gently scream through a bowly take off. Its going to close out because of its size, but not yet. I hook off the bottom and soar up to the lip, lean heavy right and turning off the lip, quickly settle to turn off the bottom again and cruise for a second. She's starting to shut down, but there's a wee bit of face left, we turn off the bottom, raise the nose to collide then glide up over the oncoming foam, crank it back towards the beach and stand tall and glide angling along the beach towards the sand. That was a hoot! I so rode that well, a good one to finish on.
Rather than feel exhausted, I felt energised! Yes I can go hard-ish still at 63, there's still some sailing in the ageing dog yet. Hoot le toot!
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