Even though my surfing instructor and friend Brian called last night and said he thought the waves would be good today, by this morning he was calling to say that they hadn't picked up. The waves were flat just as they had been for most of the week. I questioned him about this and found out that every summer at some point, the waves in Galveston are nonexistent (not that they're ever real big). I asked him how long it could last, and he said that this flat "session" has been known to last two months. TWO MONTHS????? He said he didn't think it would last that long this year. I told him that I was planning to come down anyway because I need the practice swimming on my board (in particular, arching my back) and spinning the board for when a wave was coming. Before I went down, I went to my favorite surfcam page and saw just how flat it really was. While on the page -- my favorite surfcam page (www.g-townsurf.com) --, I texted my friend Robin. She wrote back and asked if I had noticed that Robert August (the '60s surfing star from "The Endless Summer") was going to be in Galveston today. I hadn't read that far down. Once I read the portion of the page that talked about how flat the waves were, I stopped reading. But, sure enough, when I revisited the page I noticed the posting. So, Robin and I made Ohana Surf and Skate our first stop. When we arrived, we found him standing in the middle of the store signing autographs. We immediately made our way to him and introduced ourselves. He graciously agreed to a photo with us. He even asked if we minded if he groped us a little. "Absolutely not...he could grab us all he wanted." He laughed and grabbed our butts all in good fun! We met his young daughter (she was nine) who had been out surfing with one of the Ohana employees. She was adorable. Robin explained we were really old surfers and the little one just smiled. When we left the store, we went to the 43rd street pier and swam around on the boards. Every little bit will help, I'm sure. We may not ever be as good as Robert August, but we're determined to have just as much fun!
