My buddy Cliff and I headed out to 26th Street Manhattan beach to surf after work on tuesday 8-14-12. It was a really nice sunny day and even though the surf looked super small maybe 1-2' and no so great we happily decided to go out anyway. I had brought a few boards with me as usual (6'10" mini log, 7'4" hybrid and 7'6" bear board). I picked the bear board this time for a couple of reasons: (1) its about three inches thick and made of epoxy which makes it light and very buoyant and that means its easy to catch waves earlier an that is a major plus in small beach breaks. (2) I also wanted my friend Cliff to give that board a try. He's in the market for a new medium size board and I figured it would be good for him to give the bear board a test drive.
Most of the beach was black balled (no surfing allowed) but we snuck out there and surf in the least populated area north of the 26th street tower. I quickly picked off a few fun ones and was surprised at how warm the water was. I guess I really didn't need my spring suit after all. It was nice to just get wet and have fun. After a few more waves I asked if Cliff wanted to try out my board and of course he agreed. Cliff is a good surfer, he's a little rusty right now but I know he'll turning heads again before you know it. I took off my lease and passed my 7'6" bear board over to him and he slid off his 5'10" twin fin Zippy Fish (no lease) and passed that over to me.
I've never ridden a board that small before. It looked like it was a four foot board and I knew it was going to be challenging. I figured it would be a lot like riding an alaia, which I haven't done yet either but heard its fun but tricky. My goal was just to stand up on the thing. I managed to catch a wave right away and before I knew I was on fire - catching everything that roll up. The surf was improving with the high tide push and I was taking full advantage of it. I tucked into a few sloppy barrels and laughed a lot as I pumped down the lines that I found. After a while I even got a few quick turns in and understood why Cliff likes these boards so much. Cliff got some fun ones on my bear board and I'm glad that we both got to try something new.
Most of the beach was black balled (no surfing allowed) but we snuck out there and surf in the least populated area north of the 26th street tower. I quickly picked off a few fun ones and was surprised at how warm the water was. I guess I really didn't need my spring suit after all. It was nice to just get wet and have fun. After a few more waves I asked if Cliff wanted to try out my board and of course he agreed. Cliff is a good surfer, he's a little rusty right now but I know he'll turning heads again before you know it. I took off my lease and passed my 7'6" bear board over to him and he slid off his 5'10" twin fin Zippy Fish (no lease) and passed that over to me.
I've never ridden a board that small before. It looked like it was a four foot board and I knew it was going to be challenging. I figured it would be a lot like riding an alaia, which I haven't done yet either but heard its fun but tricky. My goal was just to stand up on the thing. I managed to catch a wave right away and before I knew I was on fire - catching everything that roll up. The surf was improving with the high tide push and I was taking full advantage of it. I tucked into a few sloppy barrels and laughed a lot as I pumped down the lines that I found. After a while I even got a few quick turns in and understood why Cliff likes these boards so much. Cliff got some fun ones on my bear board and I'm glad that we both got to try something new.
