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"!

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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