Walking the red carpet with sand between your toes

Okay, so I don't have red carpet anywhere except on TV while I'm watching the Oscars. I don't have much carpet in my house at all actually. However, sometimes, I walk on the little carpeted mat I have at my front door and worry about all the sand. On my Pergo floors, I can sweep the sand up easily, but in the carpeted rooms or on the mat, the sand gets embedded. It also permeates the nooks and crannies of my vehicle, even though my all-purpose car doesn't have carpet. It's hard to get out too. Everywhere I look, I see sand. Since I bring my boards into the house, I always have a little sand in the corner of my dining room. I'm willing to put up with the sand though, just so I can surf. I'm starting to appreciate the way the sand feels on my bare feet. It's the grainy carpet I must walk on to surf.

This time of year the waves are "iffy." Because the wind shifts constantly, the waves form, get blown flat, re-form, then another Norther comes in and flattens them again. So, it's hard to tell whether there will be waves or not on the days that I can surf. Last week, my waves were on Thursday. This week, thankfully, the waves were on Sunday. Well, the waves weren't fantastic, but they were just enough to surf. The small waves started peaking through the flat water on Saturday night, but at that time, it was hard to tell when they would be surf-able. I received a call from the surf dude this morning. He said that he was looking at the waves, but he wasn't sure that they were good enough for me to drive all the way into town. He said he would call back later. So, I did a quick 6-mile run and came back and waited for the phone to ring. And, it did. Because the waves were still small, I took my 9'6" "Petal," even though I really wanted to take my 8'1".  The longer the board, the better, for the small waves.

As it turned out, I was very glad I had the 9'6". The waves were quite irregular. It was hard to tell where the wave would actually break. I saw pictures of some experienced surfers catching the rough waves close to the jetty. They made it look easy, but I immediately knew that I would probably struggle because of how rough the water looked. However, once I took the "rip current" out on the west side of the jetty, I felt a little better. The current was strong and pushing everything west, which meant that once I paddled to the end of the jetty in the rip, I was immediately pushed right. By the time I sat up on my board to watch the direction of the waves, I was already halfway down the beach. Several surf lessons were taking place closer to shore, so I knew I had to be careful if the waves also pushed me in. I easily caught the first wave coming my direction and what a ride! I felt a slight drop and managed to turn sideways in the wave. The wave fizzled quite fast, but, still, the ride was enjoyable. I immediately got back down on my board and attempted to paddle back out, which was quite difficult without the help of the rip current. I managed to get part of the way back out, turn the board and catch the second wave coming my way for the day. I had another incredible ride. After that second ride, though, I had to make my way back to shore and walk back to the jetty and the rip current. I only spent a little more than an hour or so out in the water before my feet got cold (still had to wear a 5-4 suit) and, clearly, my best two rides were the first two, but I still had a fabulous day with several nice rides. I love surfing!

As I was driving down the seawall, I snapped a shot of the new pleasure pier. I only saw a couple of surfers there, probably because the waves were better around the jetties. I'm not sure how the "new" pleasure pier (formerly the popular Flagship in whose pool I first learned to swim) will affect surfing at that popular spot. We'll see.