Morton's Magnificent Mushy Meager Morning

When I rode up to Porto along the bike path I was thinking to myself, "I'm totally screwed." It was tiny and gutless. And there I was pulling up with a little 5'9 that was sporting less than 2.5 inches of thickness. No way I was gonna catch anything. I was meeting up with Surfsister who was walking down to the water with her surfmat in hand. First thing I said to her was, "You made the right decision with the mat. I'm not gonna catch shit on this thing."

My first impression of Mortie (after spending only one session on it in even worse conditions) was that it was way more potato-chippy than I thought it was gonna be. I knew these particular shapes were good at "hiding foam" as they say. But I was a bit concerned that maybe it was too thin despite that. It really did feel like a tiny potato chip the few times I stood up on it a few days ago.

The waves were somewhat surfable this morning though, which is way more than I could say for my first session on it. So, in the unlikely event I was able to catch something in this ankle-to-thigh high day, at least there would be some sort of a shoulder.

I paddled out and waited for the small, inconsistent sets. I went for the first one -probably thigh high at best- and actually was able to get in to it for a few pumps and a turn. Not sure how that happened. Probably a fluke. Then I caught another. And another. And another.

No friggin' way this board should've been able to get me in to these little dribblers. I don't even think my fish would've gotten me in to some of these. But, dammit...I was catching waves left and right. There were some where even Sister's mat/fins couldn't get her in that I ended up catching. WTF?

I don't know what it is about that board, but, I was astonished to say the least. Alan_M nailed it. And I say that after previously thinking I was going to have to go back to him for an adjusted-dims board. This tiny little surfboard is something else. :-)

Photos by Ken. Old-Guy-On-Shortboard-Stance by yours truly.