A week ago last Monday I had some of my best waves of the year. It was dawn, i was the only one out in head high clean A frames shrouded in mist, accessed by a long walk and cliff scramble.
I finned up the Riddler which I hadn’t ridden since Indo. I love this board but I often overlook it and even I think – “you are too weird to work”…
On this occasion I am so glad i took it out. Now I am not a rad surfer, more a kind of cruise-and-carve, odd power-turn-and-gouge kind of guy… but on this occasion… AIR! Fully up and cleanly landed…
The wave started as a nice A frame, most had been sliding left but this one just seemed to peak up a little differently, taller and stretching further. The paddle in and take off were so easy (thinking that is the boat hull nose doing its job) that I found my self riding so early that I had time to think about the whole wave (a rarity for me in beach break surf)… I gained speed with every turn and picked every apex going more vert with every one, the board flowing smoothly from point to point with effortless ease (the REVO fin set up and super wide rounded tail mean the board just draws any arc you choose… amazing).
At the end of the wave I had so much speed I knew I was going airborne, like it or not, so I decided to boost up off the lip and make the most of it… I have no idea how much air, but considerable and the board stayed under me all the time as if stuck to my feet and then landed smoothly on the lip as the wave closed out…
I proned in, climbed up the cliffs and ate blackberries all the way back to the van.
Russ Winter borrowed this board in Indo and went off on it; it wasn’t what he expected it to be and said it was “truly high performance”… more of that when I eventually work out how to edit the video I shot!
Anyways, off for dawny with Jon tomorrow in the G Wagen… Porpoise and Riddler locked and loaded…
