Toes on the Noes

I was re-watching the ROXY short surf film 'Shimmer' the other day. The interviews are a bit naff, but I like girls surfing and Roxy is always so 'feel good'. Graceful and pretty. Kula Barbieto is a featured longboarder and I saw her pop up, turn her board and then cross-setp to the nose in a sort of graceful, two-step gallop. It made so much sense! I keep trying to take my time getting to the nose and then fall off because I've missed the opportunity while I worry about keeping the board in trim.

My Uncle had told me that you need to have your board in the top third of the wave and to get down the front straight away.

So on Wednesday I gave it a go. Waves were tiny, but there were a couple of people hanging five, so it reminded me to give it a go. I managed to pull off two Hang 5s on separate waves! All without falling off afterwards.
Stoked.

Gnaraloo 2010 - unknown surfer

After work today I'm off to pick up my Dad's 1969 Cordingley Stringerless 9'4. It hasn't been used since I took it out after I first started surfing, about 3 years ago. Now that I know what I'm doing - sorta - I'm keen to have another go. Plus it weighs so much that I'm thinking it will be a whole lot better for noseriding than my new, light 9'1. Apparently, though, it has a convex bottom.... we'll see how that works out.