Saturday, November 14, 2009

Dr. John's Ride: Stamps Viking 9'0 x 28" x 3.75"

This ended up being one of those bonus days for surf. The clouds rolled back, the wind switched around and that little "dying NW windswell mixed with a small SW" provided some fun crossed up waves. Dr. John was out nabbing a few, here's a couple of shots of some good ones:



John's on a 9'0 Stamps Viking. The single best thing you can do for your stand up surfing is to get a board that matches your size- a board that's scale to you. It doesn't matter if you want to cruise, rip or if you're just learning, the sooner you get a board that fits you the better you'll get. This is John's second custom stand up- he's stoked on this one; it just fits him. Could I paddle this board- absolutely not, too small. But for John, it's perfect. Plain and simple, get a board that fits.



Of course I was dicking around with all the buttons on my little Canon S5IS when I looked up to see John dropping into this cool little wedge. I whipped the camera around and just barely managed to grab this shot. If I was more on it I would've snapped a quarter of a second earlier and got that little piece of lip before it folded over in front of him- that would've been the shot.



A little bit of the peanut gallery- stoked for somebody.



You can't see it from here but there's quite a few guys in the water. To his credit, John didn't surf right in the middle of any of the small clusters that were out there. John worked a little open spot between the prone guys. He was really patient, he didn't get a wave in every set but he did snag a gem here and there. The next few shots are evidence of that:



From where I was shooting this wave didn't look like there would be much to it...



...but the thing turned into a little zipper.



Whoo- hitting the inside sandbar and starting to run...



and run...



and run.



Easy there! Looking like he hit a little warble, John just manages to pull it together.



This one looks like it ran all the way to the beach!



Looking for an exit (check out the wave behind him).



So much easier to pull out on a small stand up board...



Probably made his day!

1 comment:

Andy Gere said...

Waves look good; flat city up here this weekend. Good point about getting a board that fits, but what are Dr. John's approximate dimensions? 3.75" sounds thin, but it certainly is working for him.