I am not talking the trousers' one, but the one that closes when the waves coming from opposing sides of the reef (or beach or whatever is shallowish) crash against each other. If you manage to time it and position yourself right in the spot of the colision you are sort of launched into the air. That is a hard trick to pull though. It is not only timing but also the precise point in space you need to 'estimaguess' in advance. Regardless, it is a very fun and chanllenging area. You have to be very awake because you may be watching one wave coming from behind to surf it and another coming from the front brakes on top of you. Then, when you think the wave is gone another rebound comes from somewhere else. In one of those zippers I know a good kayakers who broke a paddle and another one who capzised and wet exited to discover the water was just above his hips. He just walked out instead of swimming. The most fun for me is to surf a wave and use the one coming from the other side as a launching ramp, with the speed of the surf and the ramp you may get a short airtrip.
Another wave in the zipper, white in front and white behind.
The other day I launched with the idea of surfing but after spending 1 hour trying to catch a runner and only succeding in getting smashed by dumpers I decided to quit the spot. No wonder the beach was all for me with no surfers around. It was good though, because I kept paddling to a spot near by where a short reef coming from the cliffs forms a small rocky outcrop, almost like a tiny island of rocks that is covered at high tide. The part linking the coast and the island is filled with lots of rocks submerged, forming a shallower sea floor. With the right swell and tide it gets interesting to play on it. If the swell outside is big enough it gets around the island and comes onto the shallower floor from both sides forming a zipper. The catch is that the floor making the waves to break is hard if you go down.
With that and the fresh trashing in the dumper at the surf beach in mind I went in and after I got used to the rithm it was a really fun session. At one point trying to stay straight on a wave another one came from the front. However I was not straight on the ride, almost about to broach when the other one hited me. I thought I was going over (1.25 in the video) and was half way down thinking 'oh no, I will definitly scratch the helmet here'.
It is funny, during the last few outings I capsized 3 times that I remember when I didn't go straight down. I put a brace to avoid having my head upside down in the water. When the brace is not enough I go over but slowly and half way through I realize I am about to capzise. When that happens I used to just give up and set up to roll up. However, after the fact I realized I could have done something to prevent the capzise, like a sculling or turn the body like during a balance brace. That is what happened at that point the other day. I realized I was about to go over and because of the previous experiences and the rocks at the bottom I did a sculling that kept me up for another microsecond. When I was about to start to reverse the sculling another wave came from that side and gave me the small extra support and push to come back from the no return point.
Later, while waiting for another wave to come I saw a bird dive in front of me and fly away with a fish half its size. I got it in camera but unless I tell you the black thing at the feet of the bird is a fish you wouldn't recognize what it is. It was an awsome afternoon that I only abandoned because I discovered one of the attachements of my spare paddle was broken.
Enjoy the video and leave some feedback to know what others think.
Cheers
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