Everything's Always Wet but Life Is Good
8th and 10th. Peter Matthiesen said it in The Snow Leopard. Something about — in order to know, you really have to go.
There are days that just look like nothing on the cams and when you first get there, they seem like nothing.
And then some sets roll in, or you ride one, and you realize there’s some power to it.
And you look around and no one else is out there save the gulls and the monarchs and you think, “Suckers.” In the kindest way, of course.
Today was such a day. Although to their credit, there were maybe four other surfers out.
I had a couple really sweet, surprisingly long rides given that the tide was rolling in fast. I got out at 4:15—high tide is set for 7:52pm and by 5:30pm we were nearly getting some reverb and losing sight of the boulders that sit by the stairs.
It started raining when I got out there but no lightning. It felt like a day for gloves and booties when I first got out there, which was a little sad.
Backside is coming more natural, and I tried to gas it with my front leg a bit and it didn’t go terribly. Not having touched the water for just two days felt so weird. I’ve basically jumped in every day I’ve been here this summer—I didn’t Sunday b/c I lost the light coming home from Melissa’s lake house and didn’t yesterday b/c I was a wave snob for once.
I can’t be a wave snob.
It’s terrible.
This situation on my ankle from the skateboard fall is not healing. It sits right where my leash pulls if I lose my board and just keeps ripping it open. For the next week I’m going to practice better control of my board. I’ve known for a while I need to be better about not losing it on the wave and now I have added incentive b/c my ankle looks like hell.
I got to do laundry today and meet Ozcat. He likes to sit in the tub all day and especially likes when the water hits his head. He’s gray and wears a bowtie.
Even though everything is always wet—my wetsuit, my bathing suits, whatever I put on the porch from morning dew, life is really, really good.
“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.”