Please, may I have a pass?

On the list of things I love about surfing, close to #1: it's an honorable way for adults to give themselves a pass.

A pass is a way of getting out of something you don't want to do, or don't want to do right now. Like in grade school, you could get excused from gym class: "Please, Sister Mary Joseph, I can't play volleyball today because I feel like I'm gonna barf." OK, usually that required a note from a parent or a doctor, but with that, you got a pass to get out of gym class.

Favorable waves and wind are now my pass to drop everything and go surf. I realize I'm very lucky to be in this position, i.e. am not chained to a desk and a day job, and not everyone can just grant themselves passes. But most of the time, I can and as much as possible, I do.

A pass used to require giving up an entire day, back when it took me four hours to get back and forth from the beach. Such passes were never lightly given from me to myself. But now that I'm so much closer, they're much easier to get.

Today I got a pass from taking my car to the mechanic's, which is what I intended to do (last night the engine or something in it started burning and sent white smoke billowing from underneath the hood). Wasn't even going to do a wave check, but did. I saw a guy much kookier than me, given his outfit (a yellow drysuit and a helmet in one-foot waves)---but he could surf, and did. The waves would have looked unrideable if I hadn't seen that. It was a day that felt like spring rather than autumn, the sun was out, and...well, the car could wait.

Also, I'd had a chat with D. on the beach. As I've said, he's one of the best (and also the nicest, most genuine) surfers here. I told him about the difficulty I'm still having with the popup, and how I'm trying to work on not using my knee to get up. He's seen me ride waves and even turn and didn't pay any attention to how I got up, just whether I did. He told me not to "work on" popups, that it doesn't matter; what matters is riding the wave, turning, cutbacks. (He said he saw me do a cutback---I don't even know what that is, and didn't do it intentionally!) That, he said, is surfing, not how you get up. He said, Go ahead and use your knee. In other words, he gave me a pass for that.

Given how good he is, how senior and how much everyone respects him, it felt like getting special dispensation from the Pope of surfing. You Grandma are officially excused from popping up.

After that, I went out alone on the one-foot (more like six-inch) waves and had a very good time. I got up on the waves early and had the feeling of really riding them (being on top of them is the way I describe it) and was able to adjust my position according to what the wave was doing behind me, in order to stay up as long as possible. And you know what? I think I was doing a popup most times! Towards sunset, F., another longtime local and friendly face, showed up and said, "You're not having any problem getting up," and I wasn't. Then he offered some advice on turning.

By the way, I got the car in to the mechanic's after the session, but there's a whole bunch of stuff I don't want to do tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get another pass.