Feb 23, 2009

Mat Session #2

I was determined to get on the mat today, so much so that I left the surfboard at home.

After the first session, I went on a hunt for matting videos on YouTube. KenDog brings it on those videos. I was finally able to see how one gets the mat into a wave. I've also had a chance to see Pranaglider in the water. For all intents and purposes, they are my teachers.

I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. Question: Once you're on the wave, do you keep kicking in order to get to or stay with the shoulder? Or is it all in the angle of the mat? How do you steer this thing?!?!

The pictures below are a sequence of what was, I guess, my best wave. Of course, since I was at the home break, it was a closeout. Feel free to critique my form since I really have no idea what I'm doing.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try to get out into some head high or bigger waves, even if they don't have any shape. The mat will plane out easily, and you can start to get a feel for using the rail to turn and hold in.

Think of it as flying. You wouldn't try to learn how to fly a plane cruising below stall speed, would you? You need to get rolling to feel the handling of the mat!

Surfsister said...

On a mat, everything looks head high! I'm getting a totally different perspective of the waves on a mat. I do want to get the mat into some bigger stuff and that's my goal before this WWE (Worst Winter Ever) ends.

Pahl Dixon said...

Judging by the photos, you are doing great!