Epic SUP Session
I try to limit describing my surf sessions as epic… in all, maybe a dozen sessions a year may even qualify as epic status. This year with work and travel, my epic sessions have been far and few. Well, yesterday definitely classifies as an epic SUP session. Headed out to Diamond Head for the very first time on my 9′6″ Blane Chambers. Conditions were perfect! Oily glassy conditions with light offshores just rippling the water once in a while. Still some juice in the water with chest to head high sets rolling through once in a while. It was strange being on a SUP at my home break. Lots of familiar faces were giving me the stink eye thinking I was going to hog waves. No way! Sharing is caring and aloha rules! I did manage to get myself into some of the cleanest and biggest waves of my short SUP career. A couple peaky waves I totally pearled and shot myself into the atmosphere, but overall I was super psyched to have reached a new milestone. There were soo many good waves, but one that definitely jumps to mind was a wave that was the fourth of a set. Most of the folks in the lineup had either caught earlier waves or were cleaned up and washed inside. I hung out and watched as the wave rolled in, hit the first section of the reef and swung towards the lighthouse. I took a couple long strokes to get going, felt the wave start to rise and as the elevator starting going up, dropped my nose down face to get up some speed. I faded left and then dug in my paddle on the upside of the face to make a sweeping right turn and set up for the wave. The face continued to jack up and went basically squared. I could see the shoulder, but knew I to get up some speed to make it. I drew a high line, tucked my paddle parallel to my board and shot down the line with the wave feathering above me. When I shot through the section, I made a couple small smacks on the lip, took a couple strokes to make it past the flatter section and voila… the wave reformed on the inside for a classic noseride. The great thing with SUP is that I can use the paddle to control my speed and thus hang five endlessly. Ahhhhh… big smiles!
Epic. Did you get it on tape?