Last Sunday a weak swell trickled its way onto the Kernow coastline, where a northerly wind slashed chop across the faces of the small weak waves this sorry swell produced. Despite the poor looking conditions and since the sun was out, Alexa and I decided to go for a surf as we both had new boards to try. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find some fun waves. They were small and weak but had good shaped peeled nicely across a sandbar for a good distance. Alexa rode her latest board from http://empiresurfboards.co.uk/, a modern 9ft 2” log. It was perfect for the conditions. She caught lots of long waves and had some great nose rides. Alexa was totally stoked on the little waves, the logging feeling, and the performance of the new board. For me it was the second session on the Albacore Alaia, http://tomwegenersurfboards.com/products/albacore. It is not as easy as it looked when I watched Alan Stokes ride one in the Slyder Cup, but a lot easier than a thin wooden alaia! It paddles well and picks up waves like a really fat fish, yet it has so much more glide and instant speed. So, catching waves and standing up is quite straight forward but it is adapting your surfing to a finless board takes a bit of practice. After sliding around and falling off lots of time I started to learn how keep the rail engaged to control the board effectively, and had some good rides. It's a really fun little board and seems to work in even the sloppiest of waves. I am really looking forward to experimenting with it more over the summer.
Mixing up what I ride keeps me motivated when the conditions are marginal and it was good to catch a few waves in the sun. Especially, since the surf and weather is so bad now.
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