E's Surf Report: miniature but fun

Maybe the smallest day of 2003 so far. From the great highway conditions looked borderline unsurfable. Lake-like OB with little shin-slappers and playful nothings. A few sandbars up and down the beach catalyzed the formation of mini-bowls and peeling wedges here and there. I noticed one near Rivera and then one at Sloat. I jumped in at Sliz and stroked into about 10 or 12 micro-dumpers. 3 rides into the session my hair was still dry so i duckdove just so it wouldn't blow in my face anymore. i'm talking uber-mellow!! But.. leave it to OB to produce waves even on the smallest itty-bitty days of the year.. and.. sure enough.. a set of three or four waist/shoulder-high waves funnelled through every 5 minutes or so. It was refreshing and calming to have more rides than duckdives at OB. doesn't happen that often.. After watching video of my backside surfing yesterday i realize that i suffer from "over-pigdogging".. i basically pigdog (grabbing outside rail when going backside) when i don't need to. When a wave nears pitching or when negotiating a vertical take-off, pigdogging is the answer. But on a nice steep face, for instance, pigdogging can limit your range of motion and keep you from being able to make turns. So today i tried to minimize my use of the pigdog. On a few fuzzy/mellow/squirty lefts i took off, consciously didn't pigdog.. and noticed an improvement in my ability to bottom-turn and get back up to the lip quick. On smaller, bullshitty days like today i just try to focus on getting back up to the lip.. On my frontside, because most of the waves closed out quickly, getting back to the lip entailed a precise/immediate take off followed by a speed-generating projection down-the-line as i stood up.. kind-of thrusting myself forward while standing up... then basically one-pump and a leap up to the lip as the wave closed. By thinking this way (get back to the lip, whatever you do) i managed to often will myself back up there and in the process refined my take-off to bottom-turn timing. i also managed a few wimpy floaters and slow-motion lip bashes..

anyway.. just some thoughts.

matt sent me an inspiring email last night.. i hope he doesn't mind if i post an excerpt of it here..
"A couple years back a friend - who surfs as good as Slater..seriously, taught me that it all comes down to one thing...YOU GOTTA BELIEVE-it really is that
simple, you gotta believe you can pull that sick pit, floater, mad bash, or
just cruise with style (my personal choice) - a good lession for life in
general as well."

There is a lot to be said about the power of pre-cognition, visualization and confidence. If you see yourself air-dropping into a thick OB freightrain.. then turning hard off the bottom.. then snapping up underneath the lip, dragging your arm and sinking back into the barrel. if you think it and see it and know it and feel it and work and work on your surfing so your really know what those maneuvers mean and feel like... you can do it. just knowing you can do it is more than half the battle in a confidence game such as surfing. I remember learning to thrust myself over the ledge on steep drops and discovering that success directly corresponding to my confidence (or lack-of) as i paddled into the wave..

Commitment. Confidence. Humility. Style.

niceness post-surf brunch this saturday at chez robme.. should be mellow.. come-on by..
10 - noon
4424 Cabrillo St (yellow house)
SF, CA
btwn 45th & 46th

Salsipuedes
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Rob Gilley photography..
barrelled

wouldn't mind being here right about now..
yup

hong kong!
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