Surf Day
Josh and I went surfing for the first time yesterday. Seriously, it was awesome (btw – the pictures of people surfing are of other people because we didn’t actually take any pics of ourselves while we were on the water).
It was my fault, really. I’ve always wanted to go, and stupid pop culture things like Sheryl Crow’s song Soak Up the Sun and movies like Blue Crush made me really want to go. I work with a guy named Mike Nolte (who teaches Shop) and he loves to surf. Well, that and he’s just an all around cool guy with an all around cool wife and two all around cool kids. So, he said he’d take Josh and I surfing. So, we went!
First, I need to admit that both Josh and I are currently in the “stink” phase in terms of ability. We went and surfed some baby waves in Santa Cruz. The thing that stinks about surfing is the amount of paddling you need to do to get out to the good waves (and by “good,” I mean “ones that I can surf on that won’t kill me”). When the waves get bigger, it seems like you paddle 10 feet, then a wave comes and pushes you back 6. So, it’s an insane amount of paddling and mind-games to get your body to keep paddling even though your arms feel like jello.
You can tell who surfs a lot because they just effortlessly paddle by everyone else like they have a little motor hidden under their surf board.
Anyway, the first wave I took I started to stand up, but was not centered on my board, so I tanked it. I tanked the next one too. Then, Mike held my board when the next wave came and gave me a good push (reminds me of learning how to ride my bike with my dad letting go and not telling me that he let go and I was really biking by myself for the first time…). IT WAS SO SWEET! I felt like I was flying! And at that singular moment, all of lifes problems seemed to be left behind and nothing else mattered besides just flying.
Then I had to paddle all the way back to the sweet spot. Stupid paddling.
I got up a couple more times, but never completely stood up. I’d just kind of do a 1/2 squat 1/2 stand kind of thing. Anyway, it was sweet. Maybe I’ll get a surfboard next. That would be so awesome. I mean, I live in California where there is an ocean…so I may as well make use of it while I’m here, right?
After that we watched some surf videos at the Nolte house and ate Easter candy with the Nolte kids. Then, we biked down to the coffee shop and had some coffee. We drove by a freaky abandoned Buddhist (?) temple on the way home. It had these two freaky Rottweilers leashed on the overgrown lawn. We went and ate at Charlie Hong Kong’s afterwards.
Anyway, it was one of those sweet sweet days where time stood still.