I know this to be true: we will do more off the lip of wavbes, using high speed, than we ever will butt bouncing. However, first we have to learn HOW to do it.

Today I put it together. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind, or that of those watching me on the wave, that I got the Biggest Pan Am of my life, the Biggest AND fastest AND cleanist Aircrew (on a river wave), the cleanist and fastest Helix I've ever gotten, and then to top it off, something totally new (don;t ask me what it is, we can't figure it out).

In a nut-shell, I really figured out today how to make this boat launch! Unfortunately, all we have are the eye whitenesses who were there because Jean Louis (on camera) is a surfer, and doesn't know the timing or moves in a kayak, and so missed a lot of stuff (and we didn't bother to shoot in cloud).

A good frined of mine, Vic Chang, was there today, and he made two interesting statements. The first was in refferance to the new move that I did (did it two or three times). He said "I can;t figure out what you're doing, because you're spinning so fast". The other was in refferance to my biggest Air Screw ever (on a river wave, and pissibly ever, period). "Your head when you were totally inverted, was about 2 feet above the top of the wave".

The wave is about 4 feet high from crest to trough. That puts my head 6 feet up, and my boat 8 feet up! I wish I had it on film! Oh well, next time.

The key I've found, is really to pop off the lip,and with the maximum speed you can generate. Not only am I going higher than I;ve ever gone in a butt bouncer, but there are also two other things. 1) I'm travelling about 10 to 12 feet sideways and upriver from take off to landing, making the move appear bigger than normal because you add 2 boat lengths of forward travel to the boatlength of height. Most butt bouncers land exactly where they took off. and 2), the faster you're going forwards, the faster you rotate. This second revelation is a surprise. Who would have thought that forward speed ahd anything to do with your own generated rotation, but it does. The faster I was going on take off, the faster I'd rotate. In fact, most of the time I'd finish the rotation well before landing and sail through the air upright, and land tail first (front surfing).

So, thia much rotation and time made me want to go for a double spin. That would be a first.

I went for it, but the result was unexpected. I'm fat from claiming a new move here because of a few critical things. 1) I have no idea how I'm doing it, and 2) its not consistent. But I got two or three of them yesterday much to the amazement of those watching.

Imagine a Helix combines with an Airscrew! What I think happened is that because I'm not taking off from the traditional "front surf on the ramp", but rather I'm moving sidewas to the current, at vey high speeds, and I'm trying to kook my nose on the lip of take off, and the speed I'm rotating, meant that I'm going off axis, and while doing the 360 "air screw spin" I'm also doing a complete 360 horisontal spin (so similar to a Misty flip but an extra 180). However, the Misty flip, the nose naturally drops so its a little like a "flat Pan Am". I'm landing tail first, bow upstream.

Like I said, I really don;t know "how" I'm doing it, but I'm getting two combined 360 rotations 4 to 6 feet out of the water, travelling 8 to 12 feet sideways and upstream, all at high speed. It's wacky for sure!

next time I go out I want to video tape so I can figure out what I'm doing. What I've descrbed is not what I'm feeling - it feels to me like I'm doing 2 full rotations in a pure Air Screw (720 Airscrew) but those watching tell me that one rotation is an inverted flat spin at the same time as the Air Screw.

Of course, I never mised out in carving, and one of my goals is to put all these moves seemlessly into high speed carving. one of my gripes wqith the way I paddle (we paddle) is its obvios when a move is comming, there is this stall, set up, plunge and pop. I want to be in mid carve, bust out the move and land back in the carve like the move never happened. I managed to do this several times yesterday with a Helix, and easilly got the fastest rotating Helix I've ever done in mid cave (having generated so much lateral movement, the actual helix tool less than a second to rotate entirely.

This pretty much dispelles the idea that the Squastail is just a carving boat. Like I said, I just got the biggest airs I've ever had in the Squashtail, and I'm Sooooo pumped. I was getting bored with kayaking, and now this has given me the motivation I needed to push hard again...

Of course, what I like MOST about the Squashtail is the simple (but hard to learn) carving - learing to use the entire wave and constantly generate speed. So here are some pictures of todays session.