Day 44 - Up the Ladder

Today was small, but better than I thought. I sandbagged by ridding the long board as it was very small and frustrating yesterday on the shorty, I just wanted to get a lot of waves and not struggle to catch them. I did, I got my share of waves, pretty much every set that came through and I even had some pretty good turns on the 10 footer. As I usually do, I imagined that I was on my short board, arms in proper position, switchblade stance* trying to take the extended rails of that 10 foot boat to their limits. It was probably waist to stomach high with some decent punchy waves on the inside, I could have ridden my shortboard. I always ride that long board without a leash. I lost it once today and had to swim in reminding me of the soreness in my arms from swimming for the last three days and surfing the last 43.

I’m still on my plan to do yoga every day until I leave, workout (lift) up until Wednesday, swim up until Monday or Tuesday, and continue to do core workouts everyday. I was pretty happy with my ability to hold my breath longer yesterday so I’m a little intrigued to see what happens today. What I do know is that my strength is pretty low right now as I am very tired, exactly where I want to be. Powering through this will pay dividends, I am certain.

*I call it the switchblade, where you put weight over the front foot and the back leg extended with a bend in the knee), Machado doing it nicely on a top turn:

Huh?!? I have to see his… I think it is from a movie “The Present” by Thomas Cambell, not sure though. I think I checked out another Woodshed Films production down in Encinitas at Patagonia last September or with my bro. I'm pretty sure this is Chris Malloy. Funny.