so …dave calls me from the bypass that means I gotta saddle up and hit it…I phone white Bob . who ‘s got a 12’ board i made him years ago and recruit 'im for the go out at black rock,so I wait 2 minutes at the corner light and take off …realize there are people backed up in trafic north of this light for three miles that are getting through 15 at a time, kauai morning traffic at its peak…I drive 7 minutes to the park at lydgate and dave is there waiting claiming that he was ready to grab the mat had I not gotten there now… I offer him david maki’s old paddle but he Just cant get the picture and we get he boards off and make for the water…so anyhow Dave beats me to the rip channel but I over take him like a shot out of a barrel and go arround the reef as the paddle method doesn’t push through well…so out side I stand and continue paddling up to the peak,I am feeling frisky and choose to stand and paddle…the kneeling position is worrysome to the Knees and instep and the sitting posture provides little relief…the fact I havn’t persued this form in some time( agood twelve years since I had a board long enough to encourage me and now Im stoked …In the standing posture I wheel the board shoreward and build speed slowly to take my first stand up take off on this board with the paddle…I dont know If You guys ever have the running arround the take off area dream but this is the closest I have ever got…the immagination reels at the thought of being able to coordinate these two items paddle and board the agility coming with familiarity is just boggling…so I pull steady and skore the face of the incoming wave and take the gliding drop…the bottom clearly visible from this platform is mesmerizing all the way in through the reforms sets me back in my head to the clean headed appreciation of this loving medium
infinitely forgiving and I easily eflect on the lessons learned from a year of struggling to comprehend dale’s mat…the biggest lesson is to UNLEARN,to open myself to feel aand learn direct factids to determine what to do to make this work…I know it works I have seen it done well in waikiki.the door is open to teach me to see through this door into endless possibilities of growth without running up against heavy traffic…and the abdominal torsion is un compareable I rested about 10 days in between paddle go outs and that seems good…I let dave take the helm to spell me so I could rest the paddle muscles and watching him gave me further insight…I’m stoked and switching to the smaller 12’er was liberating.it turns and drives so well comparativly I cant wait to ride the 11’ers tomorrow.or the mat or maybe the 12’s again but I will be too sore to use the paddle that’s a given…so Im getting some roving ready to lam a fin and this guy walks by carrying a radio some duckfeet and a back pack that some how looks familar…he turns and its eric haas who pulls from his pack a zerox photo of hiself at the beach boy contest at makaha…he’s got the paddle in hand board completely out of the water fin and all! “so is this just after the back wash?” I ask… he nods and says this is the shorebreak"… Good Gravy this surfin pot roast is out of this world…aint it?..3 guys out …ambrose …doing my best to share a special day…and the romans paid taxes in the spring…
Good question Dale - Oh my brothers, I am sick with longing for the connection, the calling to oneness. ambrose - I am always so stoked to read what you have to share. Thanks for all the goodness
ambrose your posts are so thought provoking! How`d you get so wise? “I easily eflect on the lessons learned from a year of struggling to comprehend dale’s mat…the biggest lesson is to UNLEARN,to open myself to feel aand learn”
Could you please share more of your imaginations? So heres the scenario and a question: Somehow you`ve gone back in time. What do you think those Hawaiian surfers from centuries ago would think of you and your mat? Thanx man!
ambrose how do you wrap your mind around both a hard 12’ long board and a soft little mat? Do they have some kind of crazy similariites in performance? Or do you just like surfin on opposite things? Whats up with the "UNLEARN" zen speak? I dont get it but it seems like you`re in the flow with some pretty sick things. Thanx!
first of all yes dale the paddle was the first removeable fin ,I have come to believe,…the advent of the attatched fin was a design nightmare and it continues to be so the afixation dynamic is delicate to not durable in abusive use as we american children are so apt to be…the sensitive nature of finless craft is what stymied the aggressive manifest destiny attitudes of the early century and as such the fin enableing the rider to force hard angling as well as rapid and forceful direction changes was welcomed with open arms…the spots quested were 'fin friendly 'slides to the point that all the 'finless friendly 'spots are overlooked if not forgotten…If you were to see the hawaiian culture as decended from nomadic seafarers in quest of the perfect wave the form closly follows the naming of Hawaii… the name in polynesia for heaven was ,please correct me ,Havaiki, this name was assigned to the island group beneath the star of gladness Hokulea…
O.K. unlearn... a body of Knowlege universally accepted by a group of people and or culture can tend to cut them off from new criterion<that yard stick in place for measuring and judging phenomena> in otherwords the guys that know ship sit back and collectively bash any changes in criterion or precepts that would overthrow their status as The Know SHIP GUYS! these fins as such deny alternatives to a fault and the addiction to the fin is wide spread..I.E. the paipo the body board and the demise of finless board experimentation, don't get me wrong as I too am addicted and have spent a surfing lifetime learning the nuance of appendage and until further notice i put fins on boards althoough I wish to understand a higer form, the mat is an exemplery finnless tool...as far as the mat of antiquity as a biodegradeable implement its use would be the first to disappear...the tales of watercraft made of skins to hold air are in place although not well documented...crossing the helispont on goat bladders... if there was to be a well kept secret method it would be the mat as it borders on the trancendental only the astute monk self denial attitudes would be interested as the instant gratification is surely remote......did you surf then start to wind surf? then you know that unlearn state as leaning away from the turn... ambrose... ahem