Turnaround session

I slept in today---heard it was good in the morning, but missed that and ran right into high tide by the time I was up. So I decided to wait for the low tide, but by that time the waves had really gone down. Still, there was a little something---very little.

It took me a while to get committed to the session. It started with C., as best as I can tell, threatening to throw sand in my face for just saying hello to him on the beach. OK, typical C. bullshit, not important. The man seriously needs mood stabilizers. But there were so many people in the water (those who had heard it was good in the a.m.) and the waves were so small, it didn't look promising. Plus the day had turned cloudy, cool and depressingly gray by six p.m. It was the kind of session where you spend time at first thinking, Hmmm, I could be home washing my windows. Also: if I'm going to try to surf crap small waves, I want to do it when it's hot and sunny, not cool and gray.

But instead of getting out, I stayed in. And I got some waves, and I got some rides that were really good. They were the ones where I get up on the wave far earlier the way my surf instructor told me to, where everything feels different. Where I'm actually on top of the wave. That's still a new thing for me. And I didn't get very far, I did fall off when the wave dropped down or when the wave closed out, but before that happened I was able to balance myself by using my arms. And I was doing better than most people who were out tonight. In fact, one of the young boys congratulated me on my rides! A couple of times! I just smiled and nodded, but it felt great. Wonderful, in fact. It turned into a way fun session.