I took the swinger out at Neal St this morning. It was flat (full tide) at my point so I headed north.
Just about to pull the board out of my car and several car loads of gromms turned up. So I'm outa there. Neal St was the next option as I've never actually surfed there but the Caloundra Mal Club generally uses it for its monthly comp.
There were small waves so I paddled out.
Again, I am surprised how well the swinger paddles and catches waves.
Not a big day but pretty hollow, steep peaks so I practised my late take-offs, some of them even
sans paddling. And the board is very stable on the late take-off - not sure whether this is the quad configuration or the fact that it's basically a short board in the take-off zone. Maybe a combination of both.
By jamming my back foor over the fin area I was able to pull some fairly radical turns, although I tried one hard back hand bottom turn with too much of the rail in the water and came to a crashing halt.
Nice morning; it had rained all night and was still overcast with that stormy look to the cloud cover. I noticed a sea mist forming up along the Kawana Pocket area, out to Point Cartright and pretty soon the whole coastline was obscured and the mist gradually made its way south as far as Ann St although a lot thinner. Interesting to watch. The only other time I've seen this was once down around Fong's home territory on the NSW mid North Coast.
BTW. I was Ssoooo tempted to paddle out to the reef. I've never been out there but the conditions looked perfect for a board like the swinger. Very nice peeling lefts and rights not sucking up too much because there was plenty of water on the reef. However, early morning, cloudy and slightly murky water. And did I mention I was alone? Not today Josephine.
By about 7.30 there was a gentle noreaster starting up so I gave it away.
There were nice waves on my point by then.
I still need some slightly larger waves and some longer walls, especially now I'm reasonably comfortable on it.
A couple of the guys from the Caloundra Mal Club who were looking at it yesterday were pretty impressed but would prefer it to be a tad over 9'. They also liked the rails.