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Messages - OkiWild

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256
Sessions / Drop and Pop
« on: April 18, 2019, 08:02:55 AM »
Short, fast, steep bowling wave on the east side of Okinawa (same tiny spot as last week on the race board). Steep drop, especially when it gets overhead, then empties into a channel where the wave goes flat, and you can give it a little pop with a small snap or cutback. Sets this day were double overhead on the face, but unmakable as the inside section would close out (not enough water). So a few of these are just a couple of feet overhead. Had a serious case of spaghetti-legs today...just one of those off days. Super fun, though. Hooking up with my buddy Carl (prone surfer who paddles over the wave in front of me), who I haven't seen in 20 years. Also met up with a Japanese guy I was a team rider with for a local brand...also about 20 years ago...LOL.  Three of us on the peak having a blast.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNRkIJUe3rE

257
SUP General / Re: Start of trial of Surfer assaulted by paddle boarder
« on: April 17, 2019, 06:03:48 PM »
Would really suck if the guy in the SUP was railroaded...

Just some observations from the bench... The article is severely biased, painting the surfer as a local sweetheart, and not a word about the guy on the SUP. At several points it also goes out of the way to make a distinction between SUP and prone... e.g. "used his hands to paddle his board towards the offender." Also note the use of the word "offender." Hyperbole abounds: "While Eslinger was lying flat on his board, the paddleboard cut across his path and the back end of the larger board came toward his head, he said." Please... It goes on and on; utter trash that casts doubt on the whole thing.

An entire article written from the words of only one of the two parties. Once we remove the obvious bias, the he-said, she-said, and land on the facts, only one person was injured, and only after admittedly seeking confrontation.

In my experience, confrontation that escalates to violence (and I've seen my share) is almost never one sided. There's a very good chance that the guy on the SUP was being an ass, but don't ask me to believe that the surfer paddled towards the SUP to have a calm, polite discussion about manners in the line up. Even in well mannered, polite Japan, that's a laugh.   

258
Gear Talk / Re: Longboard Style SUP: Yes, but wich one?
« on: April 15, 2019, 09:31:54 PM »
That's amazing. I'm a big fan of bulletproof boards these days. One of the first surfing SUP's I bought was a Focus Carbon Classic 9' long board. Great shape, but absolute garbage where build quality is concerned...been chasing leaks from day one. Cost substantially more than the Gong, too...   

259
Sessions / Re: Surfing Myanmar biggest tidal bore of the year
« on: April 13, 2019, 07:54:55 PM »
That was awesome. Did you spend much time in those standing waves?

260
Sessions / Re: Warm Spring day_4_6_19
« on: April 07, 2019, 05:19:01 PM »
I may be posting too much

No such thing with surf videos. I love watching people's vids from all over the world. Never get tired of it.

261
Sessions / Re: Glassy mushy morning_4_7_19
« on: April 07, 2019, 05:00:36 PM »
Man, that looks like so much fun. Being a pronie all my life, I hated "mushy" conditions. Now I love them. The guy I normally surf with is in Lombok right now, sending me pictures of "mushy" crumbling waves that are double overhead+ every day...   

262
Sessions / Re: Raceboard Days Are Here
« on: April 07, 2019, 04:33:36 PM »
Where abouts on the east side is that spot?

https://goo.gl/maps/BJrAe88iX7C2

Wow, that was cool!  I’m impressed how well you maneuver that 12’6!  Also liked seeing the reef and the far away landscape.

Thanks! This board was my first SUP, and the first SUP I ever stood on...LOL  Bought for down winding (rookie mistake LOL) and exercise, quickly figured out how awesome it was on waves I could never surf. It's what really got me hooked, as there were so many days where I'd go check the surf, and go home because it was too small. This board made surfing possible almost 365 here.

263
Sessions / Raceboard Days Are Here
« on: April 07, 2019, 05:03:12 AM »
Spring is when we go flat. Between winter storm swell from up north and typhoon swell in the summer/fall. Today was about as small as it gets on the east side (.7meters @ 8 sec.) as the Pacific does it's thing. Far away storms will push it up overhead once in a while, but for the most part...this is spring. So with the wind switching more west, out come the raceboards.

Today was about waist high, with a deep tide, which has the waves rolling across the reef mostly without breaking. Sets up for pretty long silent glides. Couple of other SUP's out, but they were struggling :-) I picked off probably 30 waves on this small peak by myself. Same wave yesterday, but I brought a 10'x28" long board SUP. Not nearly as effortless as a 12'6"x27" displacement race board. 

POV, with some annoying looking left and right... part of the challenge of surfing this stuff is staying in the wave as the peak behind you dies, and it reforms to the right or left.   


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF3qFMQ0hdQ

264
Sessions / Re: Winter Sessions- January 2019
« on: April 05, 2019, 07:36:25 PM »
I don't know how you guys do it...

This morning was 68°F, the water temp was 72°F, and I was in a 3/2 full suit...   

265
Sessions / Re: Few sliders before work_4-4-19
« on: April 05, 2019, 07:27:08 PM »

Oki, I’m not sure where the CA reference is?  LB stands for Long Branch the town I live in NJ. 


For some reason, it "looked California," but the sun was on the wrong side, so I looked at your profile, and the time showed west coast ;-)

266
Sessions / Re: Few sliders before work_4-4-19
« on: April 05, 2019, 02:11:18 AM »
Nice! The older I get, the harder dawn patrol is....but usually so worth it once you're out there.

Your time stamp says California (LB=Long Beach?). How is the sun coming up over the ocean? :-)

267
Welcome to the real world of surfing, outside of all that is written about "rules and etiquette" on the Internet.

If you're going to surf in the crowd, people are going to paddle around you (snake). It's the reality. You either hassle them for it, making every session a competition, or you wait for scraps. If you get tired of it and burn them, there's going to be hostilities.

It's how it is in every crowded lineup I've surfed. There is no "line up," only priority, and the person sitting closest to the peak has priority. The "better" surfers will paddle back out, around everyone else, plopping their ass back in the priority spot. Everyone else gets scraps. Japan is especially bad.

Now, being a long-time surfer, I can hassle with the best of them, and generally take the wave I want. But about 10 years ago, I got really tired of having to put on my war face to do battle in the surf. As it got more and more crowded, it became less and less fun to surf.

People starting to snap at each other, yelling at newer surfers to get out of the water... It became ridiculous. So I left the line up, ditched my sponsors, and started surfing solo, using a kayak to get to more remote spots, away from people. Of course it had a big impact on how much I was able to surf...

Enter SUP. I explained how I got started in my first post/intro, but it was a way to get away from exactly what you describe, without all the extra gear, and with people who feel the same. I don't know what the situation is where you're at, but aren't there "lesser" spots or peaks that are empty? This is what I choose. I can now surf local when there's no time to take a drive, and the SUP allows me to surf stuff the short boarders pass on. I refuse to SUP surf among surfers, or any of that madness. I'll pick a peak with no one on it. It might only be a peak or two over from a crowded wave, and eventually, surfers tired of begin paddled around on every wave will see me catching all the waves, and paddle over. I have a two-surfer rule; more than two show up, I leave. I'll paddle down to the next peak.

At the popular SUP spots here, generally a ways out, it's a different vibe. There are the outliers, but in general, it's very friendly, and people are happy to see you. "Are you going? No? Yes? Which way? I'll go the other way. No, you go this wave." I attribute this to being on a SUP, and no short boarders around.  Maybe the snakes on SUP at popular surf spots are former prone surfers who were tired of begin paddled around, and have an axe to grind... I see it here too, with the one guy on a SUP at some popular surfer peaks. The short boarders hate him, he ignores them and takes what he wants, charging through the pack...who knows, but I don't want any part of that.

What I do know is that staying away from it all is the best solution for being happy. Maybe you have to drive a little more. Maybe you have to choose a lesser wave. It's better to have 30 waves with only you and maybe a friend or two, than it is to go to war, or wait for one or two on the shoulder.
 

 I know that sounds cynical, but at 50 years old, I'm a happy surfer again, and I know exactly what happened to make it so ;-)   

268
SUP General / Re: Spot Check PT2, California 2019
« on: April 02, 2019, 04:49:34 PM »
That was a great video. Smooth style.

I really want a Soloshot, but most of the places I surf, there's no where to put it... Might have to hire a cameraman LOL.

I never really clicked with longboards. Had a 9'0" performance shape I'd take my kids out on where they were little, but that was it. Now that I'm on a SUP, suddenly my favorite boards are the 9' and 10' performance longboards. The smooth style, walking back and forth to trim it, being out on the nose (not hanging yet...). I love all of it, and love watching it.   

269
Sessions / Re: JL Superfrank St. Patty Day Ankle Slappers Ch.2
« on: April 02, 2019, 04:33:54 PM »
Great stuff. Before SUP, days like this I would just turn up my nose, and go home in disgust...LOL. Now, they're one of my favorite days. Pull out the 12'6" displacement race board, and go!

I'm completely new at editing, and was using Movie maker, etc. I bought Cyberlink Power Director 17, and love it, although I still have no idea what I'm doing... I do know that you can shoot wider in a higher resolution, say 2.7k, and then "zoom in" while editing, dropping to something like 1080p. The program is really powerful for what it costs.

270
Sessions / Re: Windy Bowls
« on: April 02, 2019, 04:24:21 PM »
I enjoyed watching that even if it was onshore slop. Nice clear blue water. choppy surf is better than no srf!

Thanks. For sure it's better than nothing. The north-east side (Pacific) has really clean surf on days like this. Protected from the wind by 300' cliffs along the coast line, and straight off shore. But it can be a two hour drive sometimes. Spoiled...LOL.

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