.........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!