My daughter having dropped nearly three weeks prior, I was ready to see what my new relationship with surfing would be. At times, we were acquaintances; at others, twice or thrice daily lovers.
The new little woman in my life stood in the way of the seventeen year love affair that had been surfing. Luckily for me the ocean, she had decided to go mostly flat, alleviating any yearning for years past.
I noticed an uptick in the buoy readings on the night of the second, and let my wife know about my intentions to revisit her partner in timeshare, the ocean. She was supportive.
The ocean was supposed to be 3-4', but to call it 2-3' would have been generous. It was a solid 2' with some power, but a 2' nonetheless.
As I was walking north on The Strand, I started talking to Bernie, a guy in his mid-40s on his way to surf for his second time ever. He mentioned being frustrated on yesterday's attempt and after glancing at his board, I told him the trick with logs is to catch the wave early, paddling as efficiently as possible, and take off diagonally so as to minimize the slope.
His eyes lit up with my gem of information and I wished him well. I saw him about ten minutes later as I drifted south towards him and I hooted him onto a wave. I didn't see what happened, but he didn't get far.
A left came and I was on it. It quickly shut down.
Another left came within five minutes and I was aggressive in my pumps. I finally caught up to the juicy steep section on the inside and thrashed it, sliding my tail around nicely but with no shot of making it unfortunately...
Bernie bailed after having been out there for less than fifteen minutes. The guy had either a sliver of a surf window or was getting super frustrated.
I should have joined him for the walk back, as no other memorable waves came...
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