Friday, August 21, 2009

Surfing vs. Cycling: Should I allow two sports to compete for my time?

Surfing is finally becoming second nature to me. That's not to say that it's easy. I still have a lot of work to do and, after all, I am surfing in only two-foot waves (on a good day). However, I really felt comfortable in the water today. I understand what I'm supposed to do; I just can't always do it all at the right time. I had a couple of bad starts when I first got into the water. I might have been a little nervous. My friend (and, as of today, my new surfing buddy), Andrea, was watching after her lesson with Brian. She said she was too tired to get back in with us, but she wanted to watch. I guess I wanted to impress her, but I'm not sure what kind of impression I might have given her. Eventually, though, I got back in my groove and popped up and road some waves all the way in. I had a ball. Brian, my friend and surfing mentor, surfed with Robin and me, but couldn't help but critique us too, which is good 'cause I need all the tips I can get. For instance, although he complimented me on my form, he would then say not to worry about the other surfers near the pier 'cause they were just as pathetic as I was. He also told me that I looked like I had a death grip on the board when I was sitting out in the water. I do need to work on it, that's for sure. Then came the talk about tomorrow. Weather rumor had it that a cold front was going to pass through to change the wind from the SSW to the North. When this shift occurs, waves in Galveston will be running at 4- to 6-ft., which is quite big for Galveston. Brian says that I definitely wouldn't want to miss it. However, the latest weather forecast predicts that the front won't make it all the way through Galveston. Ummm...we really won't know until tomorrow. I don't want to miss the good waves, but Saturday is usually my cycling day. I cycle during the week too, but on Saturday, I usually do a long, hard ride. So my dilemma is should I go surfing first thing in the morning or should I go cycling? Right now, I'm leaning toward surfing, but I don't think I will know for sure until early tomorrow morning. I'll just have to keep my eyes on the g-townsurf.com Web cam to check out the wave action to find out if I will hang ten or assert my pedal power.