Since I was leaving town for a couple days and was going to miss my weekend surf time, I decided to surf early on Thursday before I caught my flight. I made it to Galveston at 7:15 a.m. to find what looked like decent waves. However, once I made my way to the water, I realized that "decent" was definitely the wrong word. Choppy would have been a better description. Although it was quite a fight to get out, I managed to do it a couple of times. Eventually, I decided I would just practice my pop ups in the white water. Even that proved troublesome because I would jump on my board when a wave was coming my way, only to find that the waves were coming from two different directions, making it impossible to keep straight on the board. I was able to ride waves in three or four times, but another three or four times, I was knocked off balance on the board face first into the water because of the inconsistency of the wave. Although my surfing mentor Brian came out to watch me, he said the waves were too inconsistent for him to try to get out in the water and, besides, he was going to be surfing really "fine" waves tomorrow. Yes, at least three other times during the week, Brian had either called or e-mailed to let me know that because of the cold front coming in on Friday, the waves were going to be 4- to 6-ft and that it might be the best waves we've seen since last winter. I, of course, was going to miss it because I was going out town. My surfing buddy Robin broke her toe during our last outing and was probably going to miss it too, although she said she was definitely going to the beach to watch. Fortunately, this is just the beginning of the fall season and we should have many more 4- to 6-ft waves in weekends to come. Hooray! Although, I might have surfed those size waves a few times in Nicaragua last March (not sure if they were even that big, but I think they might have been), I haven't surfed them since and I am dying to know what it's like. Since it is only the beginning of fall, I'm sure I have many more weekends like this in my future. Ummm...can't wait!
P.S. While I might be missing the waves this weekend, I'm still having fun. I'm in Jonesborough, Tennessee at the National Storytelling Festival. Maybe I'll hear a story or two about surfing! Probably not, but who knows? Several great storytellers are in the lineup this year.
