Sunday the wind had calmed a bit in the morning and had a slight, off-shore component to it.
The waves were cleaner, and slightly smaller. So you know what that means, I got out to the very outside. It wasn't easy on a 10.0 Walden, but I did it. Got a beautiful left in a window of opportunity when the wind ceased nearly completely for about five minutes. All day long, one wave.
Drifts were still massively to the south. We chose Spessard Holland Beach Park North; the same place we had surfed during Hurricane Bill. The drifts were so bad early on, we ended up washing into the contest zone, at Spessard South and had to walk back.
This was also the same place I had taken Sean when he was ten, when he had been off surfing for a few months, and somehow, had developed a fear of the ocean all over again, where on a day with waves no bigger than a two feet, Sean had turned back for shore. He sat on the beach with tears in his eyes back then, "I'll never make it out there." I sat beside him and coaxed him to try again. He did, and we made it out.
He was riding a 7'0 gun I had bought from Jeff Crawford back in the early 1990s. A gun shaped for Mark Foo by Dennis Pang. A gun that Crawford said Foo had rejected and somehow Crawford ended up with it during a trip to Hawaii and he brought it back home to Florida with him. It was so narrow my buddy and I named it, "The Wave Needle". A historic surfboard, nevertheless that I bought in trade from Crawford with a sack full of fanny-packs made in Guatemala, along with a stack full of straw hats. I got these in Antigua, Guatemala, after my Peace Corps service. They were colorful, made by Mayans. Guatemalan print was popular back then. It must have been 1991, when this happened.
Jeff was getting ready to sell his shop at the intersection of A1A and Fifth Ave. in Indialantic. He was in some legal trouble then, and I still am not precisely sure what it had been about. He liked the fact I had been in the Peace Corps I suppose, and so we swapped. I think I got the better end of the deal. I know he didn't unload all those fanny packs, or the hats. Your average Quiche Indian has a much smaller waist-line and headband size. I think kids mostly bought them.
His shop later became Long Board House. Last year that surfboard ended up right back in that shop as a used classic. Sean and I used it as a downpayment on the board he now rides.
And now, Sean is the one who paddles out ahead of me, urging me on.
Late in the day Sunday, I had trouble getting back out again. Wind had switched to directly out of the north and the water looked precisely what it looked like on Saturday. Big swell, choppy conditions.
In the afternoon, Sean got out, I did not.
Soon I waved him in, and he was good and miffed.
"How can I learn to ride big waves if you won't let me stay out in it and surf? You're so affraid," he said.
The battle continues.
Dad's weight 244 lbs.
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