Surfing with the "locals" - ice chunks!
We had so much fun surfing on Saturday, that we decided to go back on Sunday. This time Darren and Andreanne brough only SUP's. Christine is a die hard shortboarder and so she just brought the Fat Fish.
In the SUP's we had everything from the 10'2" Cayuco (Dragorossi SUP), the 8'9" Cutback and 7'11" Chopper. Each one a radically different ride, from the "impossiby easy" Cayuco to the really tough-to-paddle Cutback.
The wave was at one of those levels thats really more irritating than anything on a shortboard - gutless and slow, but on the SUP's it opens up into a whole new level of fun.
Darren, who has been giving me shit for weeks now about SUP surfing, tried it for the first time and has completely fallen in love with it - bottom line - it's a whole lot of fun. Not easy... but fun!
There were some massive ice chunks coming down yesterday, as well as endless amounts of slush, resulting in some dinged rails and and a few bruised ankles and legs, but it was just clean enough to be able to surf.
Andreanne on the Cayuco... unfortunately the camera froze up a few times, and by pure luck - each time it was when Andreanne was going for the wave, so no pix of her. Oh well, thats life.
Waiting for a gap in the ice flows to go for the wave...
Believe it or not, this IS a gap in the ice flows...
Darrens first attempt....
Floater after floater on the SUP - really fun, but not very easy - its a lot of board to be tossing about...
You constantly have to watch for large ice chunks - if one of these hits you, it'd really hurt - or worse... we had a spotter on shore at all times calling out.
A nice lay-back carve - you can really get down and push into that turn, supporting your weight on the paddle blade and using the boards extra flotation to get back and dig in - cool feeling.
Darrens first ride - obviously catching the wave SUP is not easy - once you're up, if you can already surf, or kayak, then its just a question of adapting your timing and edging...
Darren laying one out for the ice... Below the differance in ease of transport - the SUP vs the Shortboard... Andreanne lugging the SUP up the trail and Christine waiting for a break in the ice to go out to the wave...
I jumped off the Chopper and onto the Cutback. The Cutback in this case is a bigger board than the Chopper I have, so it was actually not as responisve on the wave, though easier to paddle due to shere size.... but given that its a whole foot bigger, not that much easier to paddle than the Chopper. However... much faster - a lot faster... very cool feeling.
The extra speed was nice for getting high on the pile for floaters, though it didn't turn as fast as the Chopper...
Darren checking out some of the "local tallent"
For some reason, every time christine went out there were these huge chunks of ice the size of semi trucks that came down, so she was constantly on the look-out rather than "carving it up".
Darren got a last ride in before the sun dropped behind the hill, the wave fell into the shadow, and the temp dropped by 10 degrees...
Darren switching up from the Chopper to the Cutback... surfing away into the evening sunset...
