"I took the wooden fish out for the maiden voyage this morning.2.5 ft hightide waves at Winkipop, slight SE onshore but still very rideable... if you have a wooden board!
Legrope attached, a light rub with some cool water sex wax, a pre surf photo and I was out there.
I spent the first 5 minutes adjusting to the extra width and weight (6.4kg), but it paddled well and was still easy to duck dive.
A shoulder height set wave comes at 'uppers', I was a bit too deep and late and managed to nose dive, albeit in a graceful renaissance-retro wooden board kind of way.
Next wave I was in peak position, took off and....FLEW.
Mowing through sections the 2 guys on regular shortboards were struggling with. The full-speed trim all down the line and ended up at 'lowers' a good 150m away.
I spent another hour trading waves with one of the older regulars, feeling my way through the characteristics of the board. Any surface bumps were made negligible and before too long i had made a few tentative off -the-top manouvers. I think it will loosen up in turns once I can get a better feel for the extra weight-induced momentum of the board
The only time I thought I had pushed it too far was midway through an end section closeout floater.
Thinking to myself. Did Jensen design the board for this kind of stuff ?? And quietly praying I wasn't going to put my feet through the deck on landing, it air dropped off the lip onto the flats without missing a beat.
So I celebrated with a post surf photo, a coffee from Swell Cafe and am hoping to make a paulownia mini-simmons 5'5" sometime over summer."
Hope you guys are getting waves.
Cheers
Mark
