24 May 2015

That wave last week

I don't know how or why I got sick a few days ago and I still am.
The weekend is wasted.

So, instead of winging I'd write about last week.

As I wrote in the previous post, I got a very good wave. A few good ones, but an incredible good one in particular.
It was the second wave of the day and I was testing the VersaTraction.
I was sitting on the shoulder halfway between Snapper and Greenmount and there were big sets (over head high - for me it's big) coming every ten minutes or so. 
It was one of those days where the waves were a 100m wide, left to right. Not breaking, peeling perfectly like it does at Superbank, but with the wall of water out and high just there, in front of you.
I love it when it's like that. Only problem when it's big and it's like that it scares me, because a killer set can leave you without escape.  
So this set came and I was sitting wide and safe, still measuring my distance from the breaking point, from the curl, from the others. And all the waves were taken from the horizon. The second one, I think it was the second one, was this beautiful, high, powerful, blue wall of water, and this guy with a yellowish longboard was doing all sort of numbers on it. Then he made a mistake and fell, leaving me with less than 5sec to go. When I saw him going down I felt great joy! Now that I think about it, I wonder how I didn't worried about the size of the wave approaching. I remember joy, and determination to catch it. So I turned the board and paddled and I felt it was the last moment available. I jumped up and there I was! On top of this moving mountain. I started my trimming routine and then I realized that probably the people I came with were still near the car park watching me. I became self conscious and in a fraction of second I thought something along this line: "every time someone is watching me there are horrible conditions and/or they are never there when I get the best rides and they never saw me actually surfing well like the others. So now I stop trimming like a chicken and I go down this wall and turn back up!" And I did it!
And after that the wave was getting to half the size, and I cut back, and trimmed and moved my feet, and finished my ride well pass the rocks of Greenmount, with my heart full of great, unbelievable joy.

I knew I could ride decently one of those big mountains and recently it just happened that I did it a few times. Not that I care about upgrading my waves, but when you see and evaluate the conditions around you, and what the others are doing, and understand that the crowd is the only reason you don't get to ride a 2m wave, well.. you start to say: I can do that! Let me try! And when you finally do it.. well.. you know.. it's unbelievable!

Then the people at the car park actually saw me riding it! I only regret there's no record of it. You see, I often have the GoPro with me. I don't use it when it's big because I don't have mental RAM available while big things are passing by around me. But I don't mean that it's a shame not to be able to admire myself, no: I would like to see if I did what I believe I did. You know what I mean?
Did I really went all the way down and bottom turned up?

After a couple of hours I took this pic at Durambah

Wild life note: a dolphin played around me for a good 5 minutes! And I mean: in front of me, to my left, behind me, to my right.. just among the surfers!

 


Malato.
Weekend buttato.

Quindi dopo aver guardato di tutto su youtube mi sono deciso a scrivere questo post.

Ho accennato nel precendente post di aver preso delle belle onde.
In particolare la seconda del giorno e' stata magnifica.

Era un giorno di set molto grossi (per me, ovviamente. Caramelle per gli altri. Ma per me onde da due metri circa sono cose con cui non scherzare) distanziati da minuti di quasi piatta.
In ogni caso stavo testando il VersaTraction e me ne stavo bello tranquillo sulla spalla, largo, e al sicuro da onde traditrici. Ancora valutando la mia distanza dal breaking point, dal picco, e dagli altri intorno a me. Trigonometria applicata!
Quando e' arrivata in vista la mia onda era gia' occupata da uno che c'era su da chilometri, e con un longboard faceva numeri da circo. Quindi questo bellissimo muro d'acqua si avvicinava e io guardavo il tipo maledicendolo, sorprendendomi poi che le mie maledizioni avessero funzionato facendolo cadere giusto in tempo per me! 
Senza esitare ho girato la tavola e ho remato come un disperato sapendo che un'occasione cosi' non sarebbe tornata (ero l'unico a quell'altezza) sentendo anche che la stavo prendendo proprio all'ultimo.
Sono quindi saltato su e, magnifico, mi sono sentito il re del mondo. Tutti giu a remare e togliersi di mezzo mentre io me la godevo. E me la godevo in modo conservativo, trimmando allegramente, quando mi ha colto questo pensiero: "quelli in spiaggia probabilmente sono ancora la e mi stanno guardando! Non mi hanno mai visto su un onda decente e quando c'erano le onde non c'erano loro. Quindi ora smetto di fare la femminuccia e scendo giu' da questa montagna, giro e torno su come un serfista serio!". E cosi' ho fatto!
Giu', girato, su, trim, cut back, onda ormai scemando, passi avanti, giochini.. da meta' baia a oltre le roccie di Greenmount! Una goduria infinita!

E poi in effetti mi avevano visto! Peccato solo che non ho niente per poterla rivedere! Spesso ho la GoPro con me, ma quando il mare e' grosso evito di fare lo sfigato che gioca con la videocamera perche' le probabilita' che venga punito dalle onde ci sono tutte. Ma il peccato lo dico pensando al fatto che sono sceso giu' da quel muro e ci sono risalito: sara' andata veramente cosi? Ho magari la mia mente ha ingigantito tutto e mi sono mosso di mezzo metro?
Mah.. un giorno lo rifaro'..

Nel mentre guardatevi la foto scattata qualche ora dopo a Durambah. Giusto dietro il point.

Nota animali: c'era un delfino che giocava intorno a dove stavo io per almeno 5 minuti.. in mezzo a noi surfisti.. troppo bello


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