The waves were phenomenal. I just had a massive injection of dopamine... Ah, it feels so good to be addicted! I surfed about as well as I can at this stage in the game. My last wave was the best backside turn that I've completed probably since surfing in El Salvador last summer. A full bottom turn into a tail release that put me backwards coming down the face of the wave and then a rail grab to recover and continue down the waves. It's my "go-to" move on the backhand, feels good to get that one back! By surfing every day, I'm getting sharper. Time starts to slow down out there, distance become shorter, intuition starts to take over and the conscious starts to be the unconscious. Kind of like Neo in the Matrix! Ha! Just kidding - well, sort of. It is all relative, but that is OK because everything always is. I can be surfing as well as I ever had and then somebody will paddle out and do something that seems impossible. But that pushes you to try harder and surf more. Why, because your brain rewards you with a boost of dopamine followed by an IV drip of serotonin throughout the day.
What is coming natural for me this streak are the mechanics of the the bottom turn, which have been missing on my frontside for much of my surfing life. Proper shoulder alignment and arm rotation (Newport arm as we used to call it in high school - good surfers had it), are allowing me to complete turns instead of letting the wave push you around. Anyway, this time it feels all very natural probably because I have worked on it so much over the past few years. I'm not thinking about it. Jay has done it right for years, I'm just learning. I had the proper form on my backhand for years, but it is funny, at 36 I'm just learning my forehand... Until now, I've certainly relied more on strength than technique. It should look like something like this:
No comments:
Post a Comment