Distracted

Can't get into work today because I'm distracted by thoughts of surfing. This isn't at all unusual, but what is unusual is that I'm thinking about surfing a mat. I have a 5GF in the mail heading to my house, I've given up getting new fins and decided instead to modify the ones I have. I started last night by simply carving out a bit more room in the fin strap for the inside ankle bone. One struggling utility knife cut on each fin and I stopped. I should smooth out the ragged edge of the cut with some sandpaper before I put them back on. If I can find my old fin socks I think I'll cut the sides off and see how they feel with the fins. Then later I'll take more material off the ribs of the fins to see if I can get the blades to flex more, hopefully taking some stress of my ankles.
The surf forecast isn't good, but there looks to be hope for late Sunday, or some beach break any morning if conditions clean up. I was reviewing the entries for last year's mat tube of the year and I think the waves I've gotten (but not photographed) this year could have been real contenders. It's inspiring me to stop worrying about looking doubly weird (surf mat + head camera) and just have fun with it.
Some of the tubes I missed a few weekends back were because I slipped out and down the face. This can be a real bummer because not only do you loose your line but you also run the risk of taking the lip on the head, which happened at least once that session. There are three things I will do in the future. The first two are technique: drop the outside rail and drag the inside fin. The first puts more mat drag on the face of the wave which keeps things up the face. I've been pushing the outside rail with my hand, but I want to further the effect by putting more body weight on the outside rail thereby engaging more of the mat surface. The second (fin drag) is counter productive if speed is needed, but not all tubes are racers and in some cases the extra drag may be just what I need. I've already played with fins in/out of the wave and can feel the difference. The biggest difference is with fins in the water I'm less likely to start going sideways. Sideways isn't always a problem, but if I need to be going fast, sideways isn't what I want. And the third is the purchase of the 5GF mat, which is advertised as holding well in steep and large waves. From what I can gather the 5GF is smaller (narrower at least) than the other mats, but I'm living up to my blogger handle, even if I'm riding surf mats.
So hopefully by this time next week I'll have some video footage of riding the surf mat and maybe even have edited it and found somewhere to host and post it.