Subliminal message?

If you happen to have been to MT's surfmat website you will notice that he has chosen to display an image of the latest MT5 upside down. This is understandable in view of the major change to the Series III mat being the new double coated fabric on the bottom. Some of you may remember all the subliminal message controversy discovered when the Beatles revolutionary song Revolution #9 was played backwards. People claimed to hear a car crash, sirens, flames, Paul McCartney yelling "get me out!" and of course the famous "Turn me on dead man..." where ever "Number 9" occured apparently suggesting Paul was dead. If you are into this sort of thing there is an extremely detailed analysis of the song here.



Now, I am not sure if MT is into subliminal messages but an experience during the session yesterday may mean he might be. Following my on-line check of the surf conditions, I arrived at OB to find the swell was way bigger than I had thought it would be with the biggest sets almost rideable off the point itself rather than the usual inner bank. So some serious size waves for sure and it was a line ball decision on whether to go out, and even though it was already a little busy and pretty messy, I made the decision to do so. In the end, I was very glad that I did as I got some very reasonable rides. On one particular wave, I did not quite get across as I would have liked, wiping out and losing my mat momentarily before managing to grab it again and quickly paddling hard to get back to the rip out of the impact zone. A difficult task as a secondary current was pushing back the other way and it was a slower than one might have liked crabwise movement back to to the rip itself for the ride back out. I get out the back and another wave rises in front of me with no other takers, I turn quickly in to it, managing to control the mat's speed and stay high resulting in one of the better rides for the day. As I perform my usual 180 degree side slide out of the remnants of the wave, before I end up on the rocks, I notice that the mat is looking a little unusual suddenly realising that it is actually upside down and I had not noticed! As I turn it back over the right way and head back out for more fun rides, I mused to myself how well the mat had performed upside down. I had not even felt that I was slipping around at all on the bottom fabric either which is particularly surprising? So there you go. Is MT's subliminal message that you can ride your MT5 any side up you like?