My greatest day of surfing

OK, OK.  I don’t think that anything about my surfing can be described as “great”, but I had a GREAT day of surfing yesterday at Refugio Beach.  Refugio is a great place for a beginner like myself to learn.  It is a gentle beach with mostly sand and the surfers there are easy-going and very accepting of a novice like mwa.  I usually strike up a conversation with someone in the water and ask them for tips on catching a wave, such as where to place myself on the board and where a good place is to position myself in the water as the waves come in.  I have received a lot of good advice and every single bit of it helps!

So yesterday I have been out there struggling around and missing out on lots of waves because I can’t catch them or I am out of position or something…and then in rolls a nice 3 foot wave.  I am, by sheer luck, in the perfect position to catch the wave and I catch it.  I am moving along with the current of the wave and I focus on my balance as I make the preliminary moves to stand up.  I stand up and surf this puppy for about 150 yards (There is a nice long break at Refugio)…all the way into the shore!

One thing I noticed when riding the wave was a completely new sound I had never heard before.  It was the sound of a board cutting through water!  All my short surfing life I have heard the sound of a washing-machine-like gurgle of waves crashing around my ears.  That is a constant sound, but yesterday I actually heard a swoosh-type sound–the likes of which I have only heard sailing.

So, understandably, when I hop off the board I do a Tigeresque fist pump and look to see if Tracey saw it (I think she’s napping in the van).  BUT NO MATTER!

I have been breaking into smiles or outright laughter every time I think about it.  I have not been this athletically delighted in decades!  I caught a serious wave!!  Alright, that’s the end of my story.  If you haven’t guessed by now, I am HOOKED, baby!