This time I wasnt at the beach alone. I went with three very wonderful guys. These guys perpetually keep me laughing and feeling good about myself, life and randomness that comes our way.
This was the third day I was trying to surf. The first day I tried it, I was with Adam ( one of the guys) and I was standing up and riding the wave. ( Mind you this was a little farther in when the waves would crash closer to the shore. I mean it was my first time after all so its ok..) The second time I went with my really good friend Garrett ( not a part of these friends but a close friend none-the-less) and he didnt really help me at all and just stole the board from me most of the time.
Today was different. I was super jazzed to go out there with Adam and rise to the occasion. The air was more cooler than usual, or what I'm accustomed to. The sun was shining bright as it does here in Southern California and there were sparce clumps of very white clouds slowly sliding across the sky, often in front of the sun. I picked up the blue foam long-board one of our friends bought from Costco and began to follow Adam to the water feeling very sure of myself. I could have been satisfied just walking around with a surf board under my arm.
Adam and I walked out to the water. We set our boards on the water and skimmed them as we trodded deeper into the chilling water, both of us whispering obscenities under our breath with each new wave. Once we got used to it and had dived under, Adam jumped on and paddled gracefully ( and with apparent experience out to the break of GOOD waves) while I stood there just about knee deep struggling to no end trying to get past the walls of crashing waves. After numerous tiring wipeouts ( just standing mind you) I was finally able to get to a point where I could surf like I had the first time. I sat on the board facing toward the waves utill my best judgemnt told me "this is the wave!" I laid down and turned around facing the shore and braced myself. I looked back and saw that it was time to paddle. I started paddling like a 3 year old just learning to swim alone. When I felt like I had enough momentum I gracefully put one knee up to stand and as I tried to spread my feet, the board nose dived and submerged JUST in time for the wave ( which felt a lot like a brick wall) crashed on me, under me and all around me throwing me in every direction.....with a board attatched to my ankle. Its scary enough flipping around under the water as you plunge in some direction, let alone visualizing the board snapping back and slamming into your face. After this entire process happened three times in a row, I decided to call it quits.
I hobbled back to the towel, out of breath in a way I've never felt before. Compeltely sure I was bleeding internally somwhere. I got back to the towel and Tony said, "check out your knee sweetie" I look down and I have a raised gash in my knee bleeding down my leg.
Having the war wound ( which was a little smaller than 1/2 an inch) made everything okay and I hobbled off down the beach to the rocks and looked for seashells with the 13 year old girls for the rest of the time.
I love the beach.
