Aussie Mat Meet?

Nuh! :-(

UK Mat Meet No 3

Probably the best UK mat meet video footage in some fun chunky waves just as a contrast. It is certainly worth checking out the slideshow of the stills from the 5th UK mat meet on the UK Mat Surfers YouTube site too which had some great waves from the look of it.

US Mat Meet 26 June 2011

Just in case you haven't seen it elsewhere! I think the US mat riders should consider getting a Go-Pro as some footage at the same time from the rider perspective of a couple of those long fast rides would have been wonderful to see.

A new mat riding accessory!

I just ordered a pair of these Darkfin gloves because I have found that hanging on to the mat wears the hell out of my finger tips and particularly so on my right hand. I end up with cracks and missing skin which is not conducive to playing musical instruments such as the piano and the guitar. As I use my right hand to assist on the take off, I thought I may as well get a webbed glove. I don't want a bulky surfers glove, as the water temperature is not an issue around here, only something that will protect my fingers and this neoprene glove looks like it will be perfect. I may only wear the right hand one and I know it is not white but will that make me the Michael Jackson of the mat riding world?

.........and stellar indeed it was!

Terrific session at a break 30 clicks to the west that I have surfed stand up previously and thoroughly enjoyed also. Today, I can report that it is a terrific mat wave too and very similar to the one, an almost naked, Paul Gross is enjoying. I was sharing the wave with a couple of boogers and although they were doing alright there was no way they were able to get the length of ride I was able to milk, one left being particularly notable as it just went on and on and on. The waves were peaking up so nicely making the take off very easy every time. The odd one had a bit of speed so it was directly across on the high line before stalling the mat back into the zone and off on our bloody merry way again!
Every time I take out the mat I am learning something new. I am really getting the hang of using a hard carving turn to pull out through the back of a wave that is about to close out and using a sharp drifting turn (almost a 360 sometimes) to terminate my momentum at the end of a ride.
For some reason, I am also now suddenly able to duck dive it almost as effectively as if I was on a board.
A big squeeze and a bend of the corners downwards to concave the bottom of the mat as I drive under the whitewater before pushing the mat ahead of myself and up the other side of the wave. There was a time when this would just have seemed completely impossible.
At the end of the session, as I was waiting for my beloved to emerge from the water so as I could carry her 8' 4" board back to the car in the howling off shore wind, I was musing at how my seemingly innocuous neatly rolled up mat and UDTs with fin socks stuffed into them could provide me with such a wonderful wave riding experience.
Whilst I wrestled all the way back up the beach with her board, my beloved kindly agreed to carry the mat and fins and then had the audacity to complain that the UDTs were a bit heavy! Yes they are, and a good thing too as they are an essential part of balancing my centre of gravity whilst riding a mat!

Surf Mat Riding? Putting the fun back in to catching waves!

Art or Decoration!

This has suddenly appeared on the change rooms at my local break. I don't mind it but the resident artist reckons it is a crap composition. Note the red bucket that contains:
A Standard, Roundtail, UDTs, wettie, fin socks & zinc!

In the further interest of Global Matting Relations (GMR)........

......and continuing the weird mat surfer fin thing, I used POD 2 fins when I first started riding mats as that is what I used with a booger. It was not long before I switched to a pair of UDTs and suddenly discovered what mat riding was really all about. Here is why..........

........big difference heh?
The Poms reckon that DaFins are the goods so I though I would give them a try.

Definitely a little bigger than the PODs but they still didn't quite cut it and here is why..........

...........still a big difference heh?