The Old Man and the Sea

Graveyard shift. Get off of work. Hop on the old chopped Harley and ride home. Catch a few hours sleep. Have some beer and pizza for breakfast. Drive to the coast. Window down. Radio blasting. Shirt off. Surfboard in the back of the truck. If this isn't a rock-n-roll lifestyle I don't know what is.

And the waves were insane! Crazy insane. Hard, heavy, fast, and huge. The little guys are chest high and when their mother comes chasing after them you get scared. But there's only six of us in the line up. Plenty of surf for everyone. We sit out there on our boards, wide eyed, havering about the conditions. The passing swells lift us up for a glimpse of what is coming, then drop us down to where we are blind to nature's impulses. Instinct and luck are your best friends.

Paddling out was treacherous. I keep looking for holes, pockets, some place to sneak through without having to constantly duck dive through these crashing monsters. All day it never gets any easier. This blessing is the curse. A behemoth, about 8 foot tall and looming as though it were 20, bitch slaps me upside the head. There is no room here for the weak. Good thing I decided at the start of this adventure that wiping out was almost as much fun as catching the wave. Has it been a year already? It's not a day of surfing until a wave has its way with you. Today I'm trying to find ones that won't just so I can get back out.

After a summer of struggling to catch whitewash, the waves have arrived. I've never attempted anything of this size. Here she comes and I start to paddle. As it crests up and behind me, the board's nose dives and catches water. Force against the front flips the back, launching me, the human catapult. Ouch.

Eventually I get the timing right. I glide down the face, squat on my board. Was that it? I suppose that's why people travel along the face rather than down it. Then the whitewash surges behind me. It gives me another short boost of speed before throwing me back into the sea.

With so much fun to be had I couldn't bring myself to leave. After a few hours of severe brutality my leg develops a cramp. Just one more. It comes. I ride. I wipe. To punctuate the experience another comes up right behind me and crashes my powerless body into the seabed. Yeah, I get it.

Dragging my walking corpse onto the beach I just want to crash on the sand and pass out. Spent. Totally. If only every day could be this good.