My "new" board

Yesterday and the day before were officially epic. We went from virtually no waves in a month to ten-foot waves, overnight. Of course I didn't go in either day, but watched from the bleachers (boardwalk). It was actually very pleasant because it was sunny and warm out, and I enjoyed it while the question nagged at me: Could I have handled the waves the second day, will I ever be able to handle big, what most surfers would call good, waves?

But really, though these waves were big they weren't so good; they quickly closed out and no one got rides more than about three or four seconds.

Today I was determined to go out no matter what. The wind was against me, making the waves choppy and sectiony. It was my first try on W.'s board, a 9-4 which looks crappy but is a good shape and heft for me. So he says and I agree.

But the dicey waves and a board on which I had no clue where to place myself were a bad combination. When I did get a wave, it was much faster than it looked; and when I did get up, only once, the ride was much bumpier than I expected. This even though the waves were only two feet. There was a kind of cross current going on (that's not the word, but I don't know what to call it) from waves breaking in different directions and hitting each other. You'd thinking you were riding one in one direction and then pow comes some whitewater from the other. Bump, bump. Fall, fall. It was amazing I got even one ride. The other times I just fell, in ways I normally don't, like off the back of the board.

Since these small waves were more powerful than they looked and I had a wipeout I didn't like, I decided to just try riding whitewater and moved over to a spot more conducive to that; but then in that spot the whitewater turned out to have much less power. I only got going on three waves and those I couldn't stand up on. I really do think, as people have told me over and over, bigger waves are easier to stand up on! There's that drop which helps you get your feet under you which you don't have on whitewater---there you only have the strength of your arms, which in my case isn't enough.

The board did really glide, though, once it got picked up by the whitewater. I can feel that it is more stable than mine.

Once a guy who tried my board told me it was "slow". I didn't know what he meant. Well, it's possible it wasn't the waves that were faster today, it was the board.
That's going to be a good thing, I think, once I figure the board out.