Do what you want

My good friend hurt himself a week or so back and has been filming me and a few other friends surfing this last week. The waves have been super bad, wind swell mostly. Gutless waist high or smaller. I just happen to have one of the best surfboards I've had in months. It works in anything. Review coming on that one soon.

So I have been enjoying riding it even though the waves are sub par. The first vid session was so small it was virtually not even surfable, but I managed to get one wave that I was happy with, and semi happy with on video. I'm a fat boy and I'm not a pro so I've learned not to expect too much from video of myself. The second session was in beach break rights. My arch nemesis in surfing, lol. Again not happy but managed one decent wave, so I didn't feel too bad. Although I was less happy than the first video session. Then there was the third...

Hard side offshore winds slightly bigger but still wind swell. One of the things I noticed from the second video was that my stance looked too narrow, so I thought I would try a wider stance this time. It felt awkward the whole session but I figured it would at least look better. Got what felt like a few fun ones, then watched the vid as I was dropping my friend off. Ahh...TERRIBLE. I was embarrassed for myself. Humbling...No, just flat out bad. I looked like one of those people you see turning their bodies and their board moves less than an inch in the opposite direction. You know exactly the guy I'm talking about. So bad.

I have determined that as poor as I already am, I still looked better when I just did it my way. HA, whatever that is. Every person has a unique style and ability. Some good, and some really bad. Everyone always says, "As long as your having fun". Honestly Im not having fun if i suck. Sorry to be negative but thats me. I have dumped way too much time into surfing to suck this bad.

So where does this leave me. Im not sure yet. I'd like to say I quit but I'm way to addicted. It's not fun knowing I suck. Well for the time being I've decided that regardless of my many style flaws and sub par technique I'm going to stick to what I know I can kinda do well. Turn with power and speed. Even if it doesn't look great, I'm fat, old school and I like to do it. Theres something about taking my aggression out when doing that one turn. I can't do it in any other sport quite the same. It's an expression of some sort of who I am, and what I like. I will never be as good as some of my friends and not even close to a pro, so for now I'm going to stand narrow and look funny but enjoy the one thing I can kinda do.

There are a few guys who have made a good surfing career sticking to what they love about surfing despite having a "different" approach or technique. The reason they have made it is because they do what they want and what they love. There is something very freeing about that part of surfing.