Dear Paul,
Last week I finally made my way down to The Tusked Beast's cave in SF. It was nice to meet
Jonathan - an incredibly humble and interesting man. During our conversation he reminded me that you are always happy to hear feedback on the mats. Thinking about it, I can't remember ever sharing with you my feelings about riding your mats here in Spain. The environment here is not mat-unfriendly, but the mat community is small to non-existent. Approaching a humble decade of matriding I can still only count the mat surfers I know around here on one hand. Nevertheless, mat surfing has become an integral part of my life. An average week these days is around 15 hours on a mat.
My feedback on the mats is most likely redundant to you, but since we do live in circles, what the heck - here you go:
Out of all mats, the Standard and the Omni get surfed the most. Big days are mostly Standard days but with a certain amount of uncertainty about where I will be heading I prefer to pack the Omni because it goes well in just about anything. Since the Omni feels much like a slightly larger Standard with just a bit less hold and responsiveness I pack it for days where maximum hold and minimal volume are not essential. Wearing thicker neoprene in winter I often graduate towards the Omni.
I used to only take out the larger mats on the smaller days, but I remember one day in particular when I only had my XL at hand. Perfectly clean day with mild offshore winds at a break near my home in Spain. The wave I am talking about is a slow breaking wave on the flatter side. That day, the size of most sets was solid overhead. I could not believe how well the XL went. Hold was not a problem and the extra volume and size felt really good. Despite the size of the surf I ended up with a rather low inflation level – the mat almost completely deflated. I recall quite a few sessions in decent surf where my larger mats worked surprisingly well - despite the strain of getting out the back. In certain conditions more air moving around in a mat can feel really good. As fun as the large mats can be in the right wave they are just terrible in steep waves of even medium size. Slow, slippery and not very responsive. I have somewhat stopped judging mat selection merely by the size of the surf, I found steepness and speed of the wave to be an equally important factor.
Something I pondered quite a bit is that when the surf is very very small my XL stops working, where the a smaller Fatty would still work. One explanation I came up with is that I like to go with very low inflation on these super small days, but when the air in a large mat gets under a certain threshold it gets very difficult to manipulate the rail and rocker. A slightly smaller mat in that case can usually be better handled at these low inflation levels. I guess my general feeling is that I do not like to go super low on inflation with the larger mats.
By the way, I seldomly end up checking my inflation levels by the ''degree-method.'' I prefer to get the inflation level down to where I am still able to get the inside rail firmly inflated by body positioning and manual compression. I use that approach for all mat models, usually very little adjustment is needed from there. This way the larger mats end up with slightly firmer angles and the smaller mats slightly more deflated. It feels like the larger the mat, the less impact compression and positioning has on the shape of the mat. I am guessing this is a big part of why we find mats with smaller volumes more responsive.
For unknown reasons the Lotus has flown under my radar until you mentioned it during my last order. After one good go out I already wish I had ordered at least another one. Hold is just superb at no expense of speed. The Lotus just flies! One hell of a mat! Can't wait to get the Lotus going on the next big swell.
Having the ability to choose between different mats is quite a luxury. Most mat surfers would probably be fine if they only one mat to chose from. You can really surf any model mat in just about anything. There are quite a few cool - and a hand full of rather sketchy - river waves around my former home in Germany, and even there the mats work. Some might say that matting a river wave will never unleash the full potential of a surfmat. There is no where to go, no "down the line". And they are right. But it is still heaps of fun and quite an experience to ride them in sweet water from time to time. Same stoke, if you ask me.
There are quite a few river waves I surf around Europe including the Eisbach river waves. Something that all sweet water waves seem to have in common is that building up down the line speed is immensely difficult and turning ends up being mandatory in almost every river wave I know. Positioning on the mat and strategic turning are crucial. For inflation levels on a river, I generally use a lot less air than I would for the same size wave in the ocean. I always end up riding the waves quite high. If you lose speed and glide the water coming at you will suck you right up and out of the wave. Remember that unlike in the ocean water is moving against you in a river, so every bit of slip and slide that keeps you tracking downhill is helpful. The Omni at low inflation levels is my favourite river mat. The major downside of river matting is that dropping into the wave from above drastically decreases the life span of a mat. Killed an Omni in about three weeks at the Eisbach river. Anyone who attempts to surf a river would really want to focus on dropping into the wave gently.
Thank you for everything Paul, for the happiness you brought to so many people by keeping 4GF going. I know on your side of the planet the mat community is good and growing. My point is, Paul, probably less than a hand full of people would still be mat surfing if it was not for you. You are a true beacon of hope and inspiration to today's surfing. You have brought mat surfing from the last century all the way to the state that it is in now. Serious surf matters will always be charging all kinds of waves no matter where they live. Stoked and happy and excited.
Thank you for the daily stoke Paul. I know I am not the only one! :)
Warmest greetings from the Northern Atlantic!
ML
4 comments:
Excellent ride report, a LOT to think about there. You articulate your impressions well. Looking forward to more!
Max, it was so great to meet you. I shouldn't be surprised that a fellow mat surfer is as interesting and "sui generis" as you were but there you go. See you in Spain some day!
Hi Max, in Spain do you refer to a surfmat as “inflable,” or a different word?
Jonathan, the truth is it feels like I would have quite some living up to do to your state of 'sui generis' but there you go. Thank you for the kind words. Looking forward to catching up with you, whether that is in the near or distant future.
Ben, over the years I have only met a handful of people in Spain that recognized the surfmat as what it is. In an effort to describe something that they are not familiar with most people here refer to the mat as either a 'colchón' [mattress] or 'hinchable' [inflatable] - clearly as accurate as referring to a surfboard as a 'foam block'. Maybe it is a good thing that surfing on our own breath, encapsulated by a thin sheet of nylon is not defined by words ...
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