First ride of the new board

Today we had a nice lazy start and I made pancakes, and we went to the Pass to surf. I went down in jeans and walking boots and it made the sun come out! I felt clever. The waves were 2-3 foot, no wind, gorgeous. I was totally energyless and wasn't going to go in (anyone seeing a pattern?) but Zappa once again persuaded me to have a little go, and I was itching to see what sort of thing our savings had got us. I was pretty scared that it was badly shaped or something, because why else would someone sell their McCoy?! Plus Zappa was saying things like he had to pull the front of it up before he popped up everytime, so I was like oooh nooo....

I asked Zap to push me into a little already-broken wave, cos that's all I was up for. I popped up...and stayed up! Woo! It was loads of fun. Then I realised I was headed straight for a guy standing in the water - and turned round him! Score! It handles nicely. I rode right up to the beach and daintily sat back down on the board instead of falling off. I felt better already. Zappa didn't need to ask me if I wanted another one.

The second one, as Ray said, the universe handed to me. It was the best wave I've ever ever had. It was still green, and the guy already riding it fell off just in time for me to have it. I paddle-paddle-paddled, and it looked like it could get away, but I wasn't letting it. I pushed down so the board was tilting down the wave and popped up whilst still going down it - before when I've caught green waves I've stayed laid down until I go whoosh down the face and bump onto the bottom of the wave, and I'm trying not to be bucked off, and fight to stand up - but this time I just glided down, turned right, and it's still green and glassy, and I'm like wow, ok, I'll turn left, and I glided round to the left, WOW, and then I thought, I'll try that thing people do of stepping back, bringing the nose round to the right, yeeeah look at me go, it works! I passed an old skinny guy with a beard on a board, and he whooped at me, and I realised I'd been whooping, and then I thought hmm I'm slowing down, so I stepped forward on the board, and it sped up, and the wave broke, and I rode it right into the beach. It felt amazing! And I know it's probably very boring that I've broken the entire ride down, but I'm just so amazed that those things that are sposed to happen when you move a certain way on the board, actually happened when I did them. And it felt soo good! Green waves work. And the Pass is such a good place to ride them because they're often nice and small, and gentle. Perfect longboarding waves. Longboarding is not hectic.

We didn't take any pictures today but here is a video of a gorgeous girl on her longboard, part of a DVD about Byron Bay that we watched recently. She's very much inspired me, she makes surfing into a sort of dance, which very much appeals to me, but sadly I won't ever have Argentinian legs like hers, no matter how much surfing I do.