Surfing USA
Jun. 24th, 2012 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleWhew, lots to catch up on but some of it will have to wait. Fast-forward to today...
Stayed over with my buddy Chris in Eureka and we went for a little surfing. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny with almost no wind. He chose a popular local break known as "camel rock", and the minus tide this morning made for easy, pleasant conditions on the water.
Gotta say, though, it totally kicked my ass. I was definitely not ready for it. And to think I got decisively out-surfed by a sixty year old man with Parkinsons. I IS GETTIN OLD!!! I can't paddle very hard, with my shoulder being too stiff and all, so I tried fins. Nope. No way, no how. My feet are not used to it and definitely did not want to do what it took to propel the board. It was actually pretty scary because they were more of a liability than anything, and I took a real pounding while trying to avoid the numerous jagged rocks that peppered the surf zone.
The water was also shockingly cold; the parts covered in rubber were completely comfortable, but my hands suffered greatly. With about twenty other surfers out there I lost Chris right away, since one black-hooded head bobbing in the waves looks exactly like every other. After a very short effort I beat a hasty retreat for the shore and got the fins off. They were a little too tight and were REALLY hard to remove. I also ditched the hood, which was comfortable but strangely disorienting. That done, I had more success splashing about in the shallows. Even where the pros surf is not very deep, and you can stand on the sand in the troughs just before some of the smaller waves, which break closer to shore. Instead of trying to paddle, I could simply lurch forward just as the wave broke and catch it that way. When you're down on your belly like that, catching even a little wave makes you feel as if you're going a hundred miles an hour. Wheee!
Just getting the wetsuit on and off takes a certain amount of strength. They are very different from what I was used to as a kid. Twenty five years ago, I had a diving suit that I used for snorkeling in BC, and could surf with it in a pinch. It had a long, generous zipper down the front that could be unzipped for instant relief when it grew tiresome. It did, however, leak water prodigiously, so my chest was always chilly. This one has a short little zipper part way down the back that's all of nine inches long, and the whole suit is made of much stretchier stuff, so you sort of have to wriggle in through the neck hole and have a friend hike it up over your shoulders. It was very warm in the water - the seal is so tight it hardly even got wet inside - but it was a little claustrophobic. On land it was surprisingly comfortable; they seem to breathe well, unlike the old ones that were intolerably hot unless you were actually in the water with them.
Real sexy, in any case. I'm thinking rather seriously of getting my own surf/dive suit, one that fits perfectly and is a little easier to wear, and maybe learn to catch abalone with the big boys. I think I could become more adept with a little practice. Maybe have some kinky fun with it too. ;-)
Sore all over now, we both feel like we've been put through a washing machine and hung out to dry. Should sleep well tonight!
Stayed over with my buddy Chris in Eureka and we went for a little surfing. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny with almost no wind. He chose a popular local break known as "camel rock", and the minus tide this morning made for easy, pleasant conditions on the water.
Gotta say, though, it totally kicked my ass. I was definitely not ready for it. And to think I got decisively out-surfed by a sixty year old man with Parkinsons. I IS GETTIN OLD!!! I can't paddle very hard, with my shoulder being too stiff and all, so I tried fins. Nope. No way, no how. My feet are not used to it and definitely did not want to do what it took to propel the board. It was actually pretty scary because they were more of a liability than anything, and I took a real pounding while trying to avoid the numerous jagged rocks that peppered the surf zone.
The water was also shockingly cold; the parts covered in rubber were completely comfortable, but my hands suffered greatly. With about twenty other surfers out there I lost Chris right away, since one black-hooded head bobbing in the waves looks exactly like every other. After a very short effort I beat a hasty retreat for the shore and got the fins off. They were a little too tight and were REALLY hard to remove. I also ditched the hood, which was comfortable but strangely disorienting. That done, I had more success splashing about in the shallows. Even where the pros surf is not very deep, and you can stand on the sand in the troughs just before some of the smaller waves, which break closer to shore. Instead of trying to paddle, I could simply lurch forward just as the wave broke and catch it that way. When you're down on your belly like that, catching even a little wave makes you feel as if you're going a hundred miles an hour. Wheee!
Just getting the wetsuit on and off takes a certain amount of strength. They are very different from what I was used to as a kid. Twenty five years ago, I had a diving suit that I used for snorkeling in BC, and could surf with it in a pinch. It had a long, generous zipper down the front that could be unzipped for instant relief when it grew tiresome. It did, however, leak water prodigiously, so my chest was always chilly. This one has a short little zipper part way down the back that's all of nine inches long, and the whole suit is made of much stretchier stuff, so you sort of have to wriggle in through the neck hole and have a friend hike it up over your shoulders. It was very warm in the water - the seal is so tight it hardly even got wet inside - but it was a little claustrophobic. On land it was surprisingly comfortable; they seem to breathe well, unlike the old ones that were intolerably hot unless you were actually in the water with them.
Real sexy, in any case. I'm thinking rather seriously of getting my own surf/dive suit, one that fits perfectly and is a little easier to wear, and maybe learn to catch abalone with the big boys. I think I could become more adept with a little practice. Maybe have some kinky fun with it too. ;-)
Sore all over now, we both feel like we've been put through a washing machine and hung out to dry. Should sleep well tonight!
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