First fall session

I hate to say it, because I live for summer, but it's begun to feel more like fall already. The air is different, the light is different---it's like the world has shifted into another gear. Not to mention it's getting dark at seven p.m. And I suddenly feel like drinking red wine instead of vodka from the freezer.

I've been both looking forward to, and feeling sad about, the change. You know how your apartment feels when you've got all the windows closed for the first time in months---quiet, like something's missing? And how that feels strange for a while, and then not strange? Fall is all about the surfing, not the hanging out on the beach. I love both. I especially love them together.
It's hard to get used to just the surfing again.

But there is going to be one more weekend of summer weather, they say.

This past weekend it barely made seventy and no one was hanging out. A friend who'd promised to come out to the beach all summer finally made it to my house, only to find it was too chilly for her bikini.

Today felt like a fall session. I had my 3/2 on for the first time and I actually started to feel cold at the end of the session despite brilliant sun. The waves said fall, a notch bigger than they've been in a long time, but then failed to deliver the fun they seemed to promise. No popups happened today, I am absolutely certain. I got up using my knees and then had rides of no consequence. Additionally my timing was bad. I waited for low tide and ended up with the "after-school" crowd---teenage boys on shortboards, a bevy of them (a gaggle? a cockle? what do you call teenage boys on shortboards?) They are my absolute least favorite demographic to surf with. They don't yell at me but they don't give up any waves to old women either. And if there's one, there's a whole crowd of them sitting on the inside right in front of you.

I tried to make my way out of the crowd but it was crowded everywhere. I may hitch up my new surf rack to my bike tomorrow and try to find a saner spot. Everyone complains about summer crowds but fall can be just as bad.