How To Fall On A Reef

You’re blissfully riding a shoulder, planning your next turn, when suddenly you see coral heads and seaweed just past the nose of your board–ah, that’s why everyone else was cutting out of the wave fifty feet before. As the reef grabs your fin and you sail through the air you contemplate a long session with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin…

Stand Up Paddlesurfing seems much worse than longboarding for coral cuts. I think it’s because the big floaty boards tempt you deeper into trouble, or just that they don’t turn out the back of a wave very easily. I’ve become an expert at falling on a reef. I do it all the time. I’ve invested in Pfizer to offset my ointment purchases. Most surf spots include a place that can grate a few ounces off your feet knees and elbows. Here’s how to deal with a reef:

1. Stay outta there! Turn out of the wave long before you get to the shallows. Don’t straighten up and run with the foam if the wave closes out, pop out the back if you can. You might not want to get worked by the closeout, but riding the whitewater in can leave you in a much worse condition–paddling over a shallow reef with whitewater bearing down on you. Not fun.

2. Don’t fall! As soon as you see that you are well and truly screwed, step back on the board to raise the nose and brake your speed, and drop down onto your board.

3. Be one with the surface. When you fall, fall flat. Spread your arms and legs, don’t dive, fall onto your back as flat as you can. Think like a sheet of paper. Arch your back as you hit, don’t stick your butt down. Pretend you’re falling onto a bed of pitchforks–because you are. Paddle on your back until you can collect your board, crawl onto it, and beat feet.

4. Don’t stand on the reef. It doesn’t even matter if you think you see a sandy spot, there might be something there waiting to stick you. Sure, you look like a putz flopping around on your back weakly trying to get onto your board, but standing on the reef–even with booties on, it’s a sure recipe for a coral cut. You might get away with it two times out of three, but the third time can be a doozy. Perhaps a nice sea urchin spine between your toes, or a deep slice above your heel when a wave rocks you backwards.

5. Watch how you kick. Most of my cuts are on top of my toes–kicked a rock getting on, ouch! Make your body float up parallel to the surface before you kick, and then kick horizontally. Grab your board by the far edge and pull it under you. The edge of a deck pad helps with this maneuver.

6. Go with the flow. The water is heading off the reef just like you. Unless it’s taking you towards an exposed rock, you are usually best off going with the heaviest flow.

Rework

I’ve been really busy with Ke Nalu lately, but it doesn’t show much. It’s all in the background. I got really tired of slow loading times and lousy customer service so I’m switching hosting companies from Godaddy to Dreamhost. Since I’m doing that I decided to rework the interface for the site to give better access to all the stuff that’s buried in the archives. There are over 170 articles currently in Ke Nalu, some of them have been read by thousands of people, some by only a few.

My sandbox for working on the site is at www.kenalu2.com. Please feel free to take a look at what I’m up to and kick the tires some. Don’t expect too much at first, I’m mostly writing code and experimenting, but it will get prettier over the next couple of weeks.

Back to the Future

Regular readers will probably notice the paddle test is back, replacing the Laird Hamilton article. The load times for Ke Nalu have gotten horrific, and I’m working on a new interface to fix that. I think everyone will like this one better anyway, it give quick access to lots of content, and it’s got a cleaner look. But the big difference will be load times–with DSL or other high speed internet the load time should be less than five seconds.

Should be up in the next few days. In the meantime, get out and paddle!

Ernie’s Van For Sale

Ernie Johnson (Johnson Big Stick Paddles) is selling a custom van he has on the big island. Why is this in Ke Nalu? Well, its just about perfect for an extended Hawaiian SUP trip. I sure like the looks of this thing. I’d guess you could go about anywhere with it. I’ve lived in less comfortable quarters (a ‘70 econoline with a foam pad during my “totally broke, paying child support and racing motorcycles era”). This thing is infinitely nicer than mine was.
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Back to it

Tough week, but I’m back home and getting back into the things I do, including Ke Nalu. I’m working on a new set of instructional articles and some fun stuff. Still looking for any and all contributions of articles, photos, great places to SUP surf or paddle.

All the best to all of you. Don’t forget to have some fun today. This ain’t a rehearsal, this is your life.

Funeral For A Friend

Sorry for not being very active with Ke Nalu this last week. I’m in San Diego helping the family of my closest friend, Barney Li, who died last Saturday in a motorcycle accident.

It’s just kind of taken the air out of me, but I really do feel a lot more like celebrating this remarkable man’s life than mourning his death. I could tell I was on the mend yesterday when I saw a SUP board on a van and immediately brightened up. I doubt I’ll have a chance to get in the water this week, but even the thought of it is cheering.

To all of you SUP friends, the most enjoyable quote I found when trying to find something wise to say about this tragedy is: “Never knock on death’s door, ring the bell and run away. Death hates that”.