Let the fun and training begin

It has been a long dry fall, but our water is here and the Rock
Island we love is back! Here are some shots of the "Top Waves" which most
people just consider to be warm up waves before going to the main hole or
Brave Wave. We have decided that these waves will be great training for
the 2009 World Championships in Thun Switzerland. Why? Because they are
small and require really good technique to get the harder moves. Thun is
bigger than this but not a Nile Special, Buseater type of wave. The
technique for big waves is much easier than small ones. That may sound
weird but the reality is that anyone can jump on Buseater and get a Pan Am.
You’ll fly off the water on a big wave just trying to front surf. Think of
a small wave like skateboarding on the street. Want to do a trick? You
have to learn to Ollie high enough to pull off tricks. Same with a small
wave. You have to time your Ollie and force it hard, so you can get your
boat off the water enough to pull of the moves. You also have to be much
faster to do it on small waves. An Air Screw, for example on the "third
wave" shown here, requires a super fast rotation or you’ll just roll over on
your face and flush. The same move on a big wave is at least 10 times
easier. That doesn’t mean that a big wave isn’t a good challenge too,
because you are always trying to go higher, do more and stay in control.

Stephen has his Mcnasties down on this wave better than any of us and it is
a huge scoring move for the worlds. He killed it in Switzerland with that
move to get second place behind Nick who dominated with his Air Screws and
Back Pan Ams to win the World Cup final there. I am not as good at the Air
Screw as Nick and not as good at the mcNasty as Stephen here on this type of
wave, but that is what training is all about. August 2009 is the World
championships, and it is on a wave that is right in the middle between the
Brave Wave and the Third wave. I am very lucky to be able to train in my
back yard and to gain the specific skills needed for this next worlds here.
Of course it is all in the name of fun and what could be more fun than being
able to paddle every day, and have some specific things to try to be the
best at in the process.

Dane and Emily are both doing awesome things in both waves as well and
you’ll see plenty of them in updates to come!

Off to paddle!