Playboating Northwest

Okay, so you have your flat spinning dialed and want to step it up with a more advanced move- How about a blunt? It’s a really fun, fast move; basically an elevated 180 degree spin done against the grain (i.e. if the feature wants to spin you clockwise, the blunt is done counterclockwise) on the shoulder of a hole or on a green wave. With a little practice, this can be one of the most dynamic play moves in your arsenal.
First, establish a surf at the corner of a hole or on a green wave (preferably at the top of the feature, as this sets you up to gain the speed needed to throw a big blunt). Now surf out to the side of the hole or across the wave, carving hard to gain as much speed as possible. Right now your boat should be at an angle with the downstream current, about 20 or 30 degrees. Keep the boat angle there and make sure you still have speed for this next part.
Once you feel you have enough speed, (your call on this one, moving fast is good- just make sure you don’t travel too far upstream away from the feature and start to slow down) use your paddle to throw the bow of your boat back in the direction you were coming from, back towards the pile of the hole. Now here comes the important part!
As you’re throwing the bow around, make a really fast and dynamic transition from edge to edge with your hips. I’ll call this going from carving edge to blunting edge. The bigger the edge transition you do, the more vertical the boat is going to get. Now that you have the boat motion and edge transition dialed, it’s time to concentrate on where your head is looking. Imagine you have a “Mr. Yuk” (the poison guy) or a Britney Spears (insert other favorite pop star here) sticker on the center of your paddle shaft. That’s where you want to be looking- this head motion sets up the rest of your body for the fast edge transition which leads to bigger, more dynamic blunts.
Putting this all together:
1. Carve down/ across the wave face to gain speed
2. Fast, hard edge to edge transition
3. Look at the “Mr. Yuk” or Britney Spears sticker on your paddle
… And you’ve got the blunt dialed and styled!