9/23/20 – Surf Session Log 6

Location: Pismo Beach, CA

Time in the water: 1 hour 11 min

Waves caught: 6

Fun level: 8

I’m logging this the day after my surf session but I wanted to recap the day. The winds were down, the sun was shining and there was a slight southern current. To me, the waves were huge, big barrels, but in all reality, they were only 2-3 feet tall, maybe there was a 4 foot in there, they certainly look bigger than what they were.

I used my new Apple watch in the water tried out the Surfline App, it was super cool to see my progress when I was done – it says 10 waves caught, but really it was 6 – the other 4 were no doubt me either going backwards on my board or tumbling in the water towards the shore.

Lots of turtle rolls, but also I made a concerted effort to get back out behind the white wash quickly so I wasn’t getting beat up by the oncoming waves (there has to be another name for that?) What I noticed the most though is that I kept my feet back towards the end of the board and I did much less nose diving, I felt more in control of the board as well. I missed several waves, but as I was paddling I noticed that I could gain speed the harder I dug in to the water. All of the lessons I’ve taken I’ve heard just how important paddling is, and even when I’m catching these waves, i should keep paddling until I pop up. It really felt good to move, I felt connected with the water.

As with this video, it showed the greater part of what I was doing during my 1 hour 11 min out in the water, but I have to think that the more I do this, the better and more balanced I become on my board.

Lesson: in shallow water, fall back, don’t step off the board, you can really hurt yourself, your ankles and knees. I was told that by my 2nd instructor Ryan, just fall back, don’t step off, it’s really good advice.