Today being Friday, I naturally felt like celebrating all my hard work from the week, so I said: “Chad you deserve to go surf and let some steam out in the open ocean, so drop everything and go have fun!” I honestly didn’t even know if there would be worthwhile surf, I took a look out my living room window at Scripps Pier, which looked decent so I busted out the big dog (my 9 foot high performance surfboard) strapped it down to the mini and drove down 3 minutes from my house.
When I got down there at 10:30 am on a Friday I figured I wouldn’t have any trouble finding parking, which is almost always the case at this time, but I actually had to circle 3 times before I found a spot, building the anticipation of what was going on out there.
I sensed a swell was near and walked down the back street lined with Torrey Pine trees, which waffed up fresh pine scent through my sniffer and reminded me of the pines in Colorado. My first notable sighting was a few liquid lumps coming in with mother ocean in all her full glassy, windless glory.
There was only one caveat… there were a lot of dudes in the water. But not to worry, I had my big dog with me and could pretty much get up on any wave 5 seconds before anyone else giving me a distinct edge, not only on the crowd but the inherent danger of liquid monsters.
I paddled out just South of the pier where about 10 guys were in the line up and right as I paddled out between the crowd a bomb came in with its peak right smack in front of me. I scratched for my life and just made it over the peak and thought to myself, why isn’t anyone posting up right here where the beef of the swell is coming in?
I posted up myself right on the tip of the remnants of that last bomb and sure enough another 7-8 foot face liquid bomb rolled in and I was in perfect position about 15-20 feet outside of any other surfer. I paddled, I peered, said good by to my old friend fear and hello to my new friend courage (aka “big balls”). Woooooo… yeah, thats about the expression on my face as I hit mock speed down the line heading Right or South on the wave. The feeling of gliding effortlessly down a big glassy wall of water that is much taller than you is like no other.
Well after I caught that wave all the surfers shifted over to my spot but they were still just too close to shore so I paddled out again about 20 feet past and sure enough another bomb rolled in and I was in perfect position. I paddle with fury so I can match the speed of the wave way before its about to crash, pop up and turn right, reach my right arm out against the face of the wave just to feel her loving power which catapults me down the line. A couple turns later and I’m back paddling.
One more of these beasts and I called it a day. Only had an hour to spend and it was well spent. My epiphany of the day was “Boy is courage liberating.” Had I not the balls to paddle out and paddle into the beast I would have never experience one of mother natures greatest gifts to human kind. And of course this translates right into life. If you don’t step up and take bold action you will never taste the true glory of victory.
And how was your day?
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