This is the day after the competition, and did I get sick of surfing? Heck no! Now I can go out and have just have fun surfing. I often wonder, if that is the case with other athletes. Say, if I won a prize in the Olympics in, say skating. Would I go skating at the Rockefeller Plaza next day with my best skating friends?
What a difference a situation makes. As I prepare to leave home, everything falls in place just like any other day. Driving past the Jetty is business as usual, it was just as flat as it can get in the summer and I continue to drive with the usual classic heavy metal music on the sound system; Scorpions, AC/DC and White Snake? They all set up the mood for me to get the energy pumping for another good (hopefully) session.
As I drive north the fog roles in overhead. It will be another dismal coastal surf day; business as usual. As I check out the ocean surface that peek between the houses, I see that no texture on the water, and that's an OK sign! The music pumps right along as to cast the doomed mode away, and the fog really starts to lift and the sky is now totally blue with no cloud. "Gosh, what a perfect day, wish the contest was today and at this spot!"
I pull out the phone, and call a buddy in the usual kind of surfer to surfer communication procedure; "Hey I am at? Put your shit together and come out right *now* and surf with me!" (An interpretation, "The surf is really excellent sir, would you kindly load your car with your surfing equipment, and I would like an honor of your presence to surf with my humble being.") It turns out that he was just ready to come out too to where I am. It turns out that he has not bee surfing for a couple of weeks and the last time was one afternoon local surfing with me.
He arrives in just a few minutes (well, he just lives a few blocks down, lucky bastard). He sees my new Rusty and he was so psyched because it is basically the same Rusty he has. Well, it is actually Haut now since he had the same board re-made by Haut after him liking the Rusty so much, and he is a good buddy with Haut, and he thinks that it would be a perfect board for me to ride today's waves (but then he always seem to say that to any board I show him.) My other buddy is much straighter forward on his mouse with my 6'6 fish. He thinks that that's too fat for me. He says that that's for a 220 lbs guy, not for a 5'6 tall 145 lbs guy, and that's the reason why I got this 6'3 in the first place. It is very interesting when it comes to the board, there are so many discussions.
The sky is really clear blue like in the fall and the ocean is this deep blue color and the sand's yellowish color makes this IKEA like beautiful color combinations. My buddy has a knack on finding rip currents and when he says to get in here, I always have a free ride to the outside. I splash in first, try to jump start like the competitors yesterday. Unlike yesterday with getting out with a 9'0, duck diving on a 6'3 is so much easier and smoother too. My buddy still standing on the beach, as I look back he is now a small speck like a picture of the Sun from the Uranus taken from the Voyager.
There are some surfers still on the outside so the comfort level of getting out is so much better.
Here comes the set! I paddle and it fades out quickly.
I paddle in a tad, and it still fades. This location is always difficult like this. Now I see the break further up, and I paddle hard to get there. Another set comes by and now there is enough juice that I know I can take off. What a difference when I am not pressured to ride, it was just so much fun not required to perform any special moves, just ride as I feel it right.
Should I not have had the pressure of yesterday, though I would not have appreciated this so much. I am so thankful for what I have done yesterday, and those who have encouraged me to go for it, and the day after.
Did I answer the question of whether I would go skating at Rockefeller Plaza next day with my best skating friends after returning from a competition?
Well, the guy who won the surfing competition yesterday was sharing the same break with us this morning.
And that probably makes surfing really special. It is really fun.
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