Safely Taking a Beating

Man, life is too short to get into a fight aboot waves. Save it for when some douche bag asks if you need help getting your old lady prego. Lol, I'm just messin with you. I pretty much say that to all my buds that are 'trying' to knock their women up. Not sure if it upset you but it was all in good fun.
We could have smoked a pound last Saturday and it still wouldn't have helped with that crowd.

 

Yankee ... a short fuse ... you don't say? Mine took about a decade to conquer. How did you manage it Yank? Substance abuse? Therapy? Scientology?

If I see 3 people on a wave I won't even paddle out at that spot. There's almost always a little unseen corner somewhere ... & on those rare days that only one spot is barely breaking & some SUP scum is hogging every wave, I will just bodysurf whitewash or go skate.

As far as all this self-medication/professional medication stuff goes .... be it herb, alcohol, etc.... you gotta ask yourself, if I got to surf whenever there were waves, would I really need that stuff?

The weeks where I'm lucky enough to surf 4 days, I'm happy, and I don't even think about drinking, TV, the couch, or my lack of sleep. I'm just good.

Always makes me wonder to what degree substance & prescription medication abuse is just a byproduct of our f*cked up society, where people are tied into jobs they don't truly like, in places they don't truly like, surrounded by people they don't truly like, all so they can purchase things they don't truly need, to share with someone they don't truly love. It's f*cked up.

Man was not meant to sit in a f*cking chair all day. Man was not meant to diddle spreadsheets and ogle photoshopped idolatresses. Millions of years of evolutionary pressure did not give us the tools to thrive in this incarceration.

But people run around proud of it. It boggles my mind. But hey, decades of programming are tough to undo. You grow up learning from people you trust to stay safe & stay home, save money, and buy buy buy. So that you can work work work. Only to buy more sh*t. Work more to pay for your health insurance, so you can afford medication that makes you feel like everything is okay. What a stupid life.

 

[video=youtube;9c8an2XZ3MU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8an2XZ3MU[/video]

 

Took a pass on the pre-frontal lobotomy. Worked things out on my own over time.

 

I went with the, "Bottle in Front of Me."

 

That'll work too. Marshall Tito will keep things in line.

 

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Yeah, I'm pretty happy to be alive and well.I think the memory of how that went is worse than what happened.I still have a bad feeling about that spot. Will not ever paddle out there again even in smaller conditions. Funny how the mind works.

 

I call 'em stray dogs. Had a similar situation last year. Was out by myself, and prob .5 mile from anyone else. SUP noob paddles out right next to me, I turn and paddle away. He follows. I paddle away again. He follows. And tries to start up a conversation with me. I told him "dude, get away from me". He looks at me funny. I say, "look dude, you've got a 10' 35 lb board that's built like a tank. And with a 10' leash you've got a 40' diameter circle around you where you can whack somebody with that missile. you need to stay away from everyone with that thing. not just me, other surfers, kids, swimmers whatever. you can really hurt someone with it."

He moved on down, and seemed to take it to heart. Hopefully it led to him learning a lil more about WTF he's doing in the water before he hurt someone.

 

Thx. Had I been in a better mood that am prob would have just led with that. But I'd had some work stress that week and just wanted to get out by my lonesome and have some surf.

At least he didn't act like a ****e about it.

 

I can vouch for Yank's current mellow demeanor but then again, I didn't know him back more than a few years ago.

As far as taking a beating goes - I think that learning to deal with and safely navigate pounding beach break better prepares you for bigger surf than just about anything. It's much harder to learn to paddle out in head high mid/short period east coast closeouts than it is in OH Hawaiian bombs. And I've done both including 10ft+ Hale'iwa just a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not saying that big(ish)reef or point surf isn't intimidating, because it definitely is and will always be to some degree for me. But that doesn't prevent me from paddling out in it where I feel at least comfortable b/c I know I am in good shape, that I can swim well, am comfortable with my limits and know what it feels like to get pounded.

I was in Todos Santos BCS this past December and surfed what was probably the biggest waves I've been in - solid 15ft on the sets with just so much water moving. But I felt (relatively) comfortable due to a few of the same previously mentioned factors: waves were big but not too critical, there was a channel of sorts, there were others out including a friend of mine, it was long period and it was deep (about 20ft of water over reef). The sets would come every ten minutes or so with 5-7 solid waves so you could pick your spot and time to go which also helped.

Now, I am not going to lie and claim there was no pucker factor, or that I didn't watch several sets roll by from the outside to try to figure out where/when to take one. But I did take several that first day and they were great rides. Even getting blown up was great, after the fact. On one, I got washed a solid 50-75 yards down the beach, in/under the whitewater and while it seemed like forever, it was probably no more than 10-15 seconds. Like with any good wipeout, you realize it wasn't that bad, feel stoked, paddle back out and do it again. That swell remained for three solid days and we went out everyday after that.

One more point: sometimes I don't really feel like I am fully dialed in or committed to a session until I take one on the head. You somehow forget that it's never as bad as you think it's going to be but I almost always surf better after I eff one up and pay some taxes on it.

My 2 cents

 

Wourde Slashdog!