by oldmansurfer » Tue Apr 18, 2023 1:19 am
I used to try using my sand slide board to bodyboard with most often without fins. The increased effort to catch the waves was hardly worth the increased speed as my sand slide board was just a little faster than bodysurfing. There was a store version available which was similar in shape to my sand slide board except it was spooned out concave deck and convex bottom. This wasn't any better than my sand slide board so for a while I gave up on sand sliding. I regained an interest when I saw people making good use of the boards at my bodysurfing breaks. I went back to my sand slide board and one of the neighborhood kids saw me and offered to loan me his sand slide board which was different from mine. He assured me it was going to be an improvement. He had just started board surfing and didn't use it anymore. The very first wave I caught I flew across the wave at a much more rapid rate than seemed possible. It wasn't that big of a wave, maybe 3 foot face and it looked like it was going to closeout but I made it through all the sections. Suddenly hooked on paipo boarding. I made all my future models based on that design. The later models included a glassed in fiberglass rope handle. Not only was it fast but I got tubed quite often and made it out most of the time. My neighborhood friends took me along with them to go to various surf spots. They guys at the place I surfed the most invited me out to the lineup. Because I was poaching waves inside of them. Because it was a wooden board I could dive all the ways to the bottom and avoid most of the pounding the waves do so I could sit inside of them and catch the waves the let go by. They saw me there and were apparently impressed but I told them I didn't know the rules of the lineup and they said they would instruct me. I am not sure if that was the best decision for me as I was doing pretty well without the invite but at least I go to know the rules of the lineup. One of the surfers who was also a friend said "I didn't know you could do that with a paipo board." I said "Do what?" He answered "You know like what you are doing". I am not sure but I think he was saying he was jealous because I was getting tube on nearly every wave.
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.