My friends of standuppaddling.it translated my "strapped SUP anyone?" post in Italian and did some post processing to the photos. I like this one a lot. Thanks guys!



Talking about the strapped SUP, here's a little clip from yesterday's session #3. Honestly, the clip doesn't really show much of the advantage of the strap, but as I said in the original article, the bigger the wave, the bigger the advantage. And that was "just" a chest high wave.


Session report.
Yesterday I got in the water at 7 at my favorite spot. Unfortunately it must be a lot of other people's favorite spot too, since there were already almost 30 guys out...
The size was inconsistent from head to double overhead high. That means 30 guys spread all over the place. That also means that if you get a big one (I went out with the 8.6 and was sitting all the way out), you had to slalom between the shortboarders on the inside rather than focusing on riding a double overhead screamer... that's not fun for me.
In one hour I only caught on big close out. After that I got caught inside by a really big set. I managed to turtle roll one that was almost breaking, only to find out that the next one was bigger. Tried to duck dive that one and got pummeled heavily. Took me forever to get back up and after checking that there wasn't any surfer inside of me (everyone got washed inside), I decided to just dive under and hope that the leash would hold.
The leash did hold, but the board didn't.


That's the magic Rapoza that I already fixed once... I knew it was going to happen again. The problem is that the gopro camera was on the nose, but fortunately I was able to retrieve the half board from the rocks. No damage to the camera!
I am not going to fix the board again. If anyone in Oahu knows how to get in touch with Keola Rapoza (he's not in the phone book and he doesn't work for T&C anymore), please send me an email... I would really like to get another board like that.

Session 2 was on the 6.2 on a wave that was chest high and way less than perfect, but I was alone. Guess what? I had more fun. Yes, small, crappy and alone is more fun that perfect double overhead and tons of people competing and on the way...
Buys are still up, I'm out of here again!
I'm loving this south swell... if summer time was like this everyday I wouldn't want to go anywhere...