Feb 22, 2011

Pranaglider...

(Sequence from last year's Cotton's Mat Meet. All photos by Ken Samuels.)







The two-shot header sequence on Surfmatters this past Tuesday showed Pranaglider in a somewhat unusual position. So unusual, even he didn't know what was going on!

To wit..

Dear Paul,

Since you have probably seen more mat photographs that anyone, I was wondering if you could tell me just what might have lead to the positioning in attached photo?


I have been studying it intently since it was posted on Surfmatter's this morning. A side drift gone horribly wrong? A bit of side-shore backwash mishap? Did I feel the mat was under inflated and choose this moment to "pop the cork" and add a few breathers? Perhaps an attempt at turning the mat?

Maybe I was just going too fast and fell off the back. Any help on your part would be appreciated as I hope to avoid assuming this position in the future.

Regards,

Bruce



To help allay his (and our) fears, I'm publishing the sequence from the whole ride, so the world can see that Bruce was, in fact, executing a "Mat Surfing Island Pullout."

If you are under, say, 80 years old, you might not know what an Island Pullout is, or was. Basically, experienced surfers could exit a pitching wall while still standing in trim by breaking out the tail and pulling the nose through the back of the wave. And a great surfer could do it without using his or her hands on the outer rail. (A "Standing Island Pullout" was one of the defining manuevers of the 50s.)

Since Bruce kind of cheated and used his hand on the outer rail, we'll give this an 8.5 out of 10.
:)

Now that he's fully entrenched in the corporate world of greed, exploitation, and general anti-social behavior, Bruce has taken his new move in a commercial direction...

Bruce continues...

PS As you can see from the attached photo I am taking advantage of this opportunity to "maximize the profit potential" and "capitalize on the group synergies available" by using this photo to market not only surf matting but also assure a steady flow of Benjamins from the fine folks at Joe's Beanery the "Home of the Bottomless Burrito"!




------------------------
Follow up...

Paul,

Looks great!

I think I remember why I was in such a hurry to get out of that wave. The shore pound that day was pretty bad. You know the setup, a long steep beach and a fair amount of swell. Once you were off the beach and over to the right you were in good shape. If you got caught just off the beach it could be challenging.

I watched Mary get get clobbered just a hundred feet from the sand.

(Mary, getting clobbered a hundred feet from the sand...)


But all in all it was a good day!

Hope you can make it to the next one.

Bruce

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"maximize the profit potential" and "capitalize on the group synergies available" ?!

Excellent.
Lesson learned.
Remember Bullsh@t-Bingo?

Those were the mat-less days in my gray suit...

Growling Gecko said...

What a great sequence of shots! Arsey as though Prana, still managing to make it look good even when you blow it!

pranaglider said...

Anon, I love me some good corporate speak!

Ramsnake - That is a perfectly executed "el rollo exito"! This particular variation I am calling the "salmon jump".
You get extra points for keeping the bottom of the mat dry whilst "maximizing the profit potential" of beach photographers catching the ever changing advertisements on the bottom of the mat.

Paul Gross said...

Gotta go with Pranaglider over Ramsnake on this one...this is a brilliant, preplanned move. The work of a budding mat genius.

Plus, I have no idea what "arsey" means...

:) :) :)

Surfsister said...

That picture still sends me into fits of laughter. The wave let me know who was in charge for sure! LOL!! I'm still laughing . . . thankfully. Obviously, it didn't scare me off mats!

Growling Gecko said...

It means got lucky PG!