It's been a long while since we surfed together, never mind with the long boats... :)
What are you surfing these days, long boat wise? Your Avocet, AA?
Skeg deployment has no affect on your ability to brace. Unless you trip on the shoreside rudder, in which case, I doubt matters at all whether your skeg is down. Likely tripping over the paddle with not enough lean into the wave.
Ruddering -- are you having problem in your Mega with ruddering either shore or wave side? I don't remember you having any more issue than anyone else in the sense that we all trip once in while. Yet the Mega has way more sharp unforgiving rails and fins aka skegs (are you using fins these days?) than most longboats.
That leaves directional control. Are you making cutbacks, albeit slow abbreviated ones, with the longboat? I'd admit to only seeing one person doing that and it was someone at SC with a short longboat (14') on 8' plus face (enough room to play the cutbacks on a long boat. Most longboaters will select one direction -- usually diagonal away from the peel -- and go with it. Speaking for myself, the only adjustment I've noticed is that I can actually kind of effect my placement on the wave face -- top, middle, bottom - by how much I lean (or not) towards the wave face while using a shoreside stern rudder (to act as a skeg). The amount of lean affects the amount of carving you are employing you with chines (especially if these are sharp). I found that if I lean into the wave with the stern rudder, with the more rockered Montauk and Mystic, I can actually slide out because the rounded chine does not hold well into the face. This may be different say with an AA. Having gotten rid of the Montauk several years ago, I can say that I accidently discovered with the Mystic (because somehow I had hit the skeg knob down while surfing) that I didn't slide down a waveface but rather ran a quick diagonal like a freakin' train (maybe your directional control issue). When I adjusted the skeg to just a bit down, I found I had more hold and speed on a diagonal run but still had the ability to turn back over the top with a strong stern rudder on the waveface.
Have you toyed with a bit of skeg on the shore break? If not, it's worth playing a bit a playing with your avocet -- if you still have that one -- to see how it feels. You could do that with the AA tho' I suspect the hard chine is giving enough carve into the wave face alone.
But to the OP's orginal question. No, the skeg does not trip me up on a waveface. I usually trip myself when that happens. :)
Elitist surfer sing…making fun, What we don’t know we don’t know. You didn’t get it either a few years back. Nice to see you’ve come to the dark side. Now which sea kayak fires off the lip best??
Surfing the AA I have been quite enamored with the AA in the 1.5 years i’ve had it, and spend 90% of my time in it. I still have the Avocet and use that mostly as my rock boat. I also recently picked up a nice used Pintail, not sure where it fits into things, but it sure is fun to paddle.
So, yes, I am mostly surfing the Anas. I have found that boat to be the most controllable on a wave, probably due to the hard chines. Of course, the waves themselves have a lot to do with the ability to control the boat. There is nothing like those perfect 3’ - 4’ rollers that just go on without breaking. On those days, I can steer the Anas, left, right, whatever. On big nasty days, surfing the long boat is more of an exercise in survival technique than anything else.
I have to admit, that I have not spent much time messing with the skeg while surfing. My thoughts were that having the skeg down would just increase the chance of the boat broaching. After all, surfing a long boat is often just a never ending battle to keep from broaching. I will do some experimenting.
I have been out in the Mega Cyclone a few times as well. I am using a 2 fin setup. I took a great short boat surf class with Nigel Robinson up at Popham in October. We spent a good part of the day catching the wave, and then tossing our paddles away. I found it to be a great experience, and actually had some nice rides with bottom turns and cutbacks using nothing but edging and body english. Wish I had a hand roll that day :).
so you all have found some spots for forever rolling 3-4' waves that let'll you play with the long boat... I am jealous. :) I know the bar by Crane does that but haven't been there in so long since giving up the long boats. Actually, one of the home reefs has a very, very long peel before breaking. Pretty cool you are messing with lefts and rights on the long boat. I need to put in the seat belt and the suicidal knee block into the Mystic so I can give it go again. Actually, thinking about it, one of the reef breaks, with forever rolling waves, near home would be perfect to hook up with guys. We'll see when the next decent swell.
You're bunch whackos for throwing away tour paddles in the surf break, even for practice. :D You can play with just hand and body control but using the (what I call) the "Fletcher Burton" way. Crank down a face, hold the paddle with the shore side hand off the water, and then start ruddering with just the wave side hand rudder. Rollercoaster up and down the face and when the wall gets steep, use your wave side hand to do a trace a nice skimming line across the wave face. It blows the boardies away (only after you have shown your control with the paddle in the first place). It probably reminds of the old films of Gerry Lopez shooting through a Pipeline tube, totally upright, relaxed, one hand up for skimming luminiscent line across the bottom overhanging lip that creates the ceiling of the green room... It's just way cool because it gives off this sense of total ease in face of danger. LOL!
No Paddles The exercise of throwing our paddles away was so that we had NO choice and couldn’t “cheat”, you had to use your body. We also were in pairs, so that your buddy would get your paddle and then follow you in. It wasn’t a very big day, so it wasn’t too intimidating. I would really recommend it on a mellow day when you have a buddy there to get your paddle. I have tried just hanging on to my paddle and not using it, but it’s not the same. You really need to toss it away to get the full effect.