Yet Another Weekend at the Beach

A great image I saw on the door
of a surf shop in California

I was sure that this weekend would be a bust at the beach. The surf forecasts weren't great; although, they did show some bumpy stuff on Sunday with a big chance of rain. However, the forecast wasn't completely correct. On Friday, I spoke to Brian who said that the while the waves weren't great, they were certainly surfable. That was all I had to hear. I needed to surf! Although my week wasn't particularly tough, I still had a busy one. And I look forward to surfing away the stress on Fridays and Sundays. On Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I cycle away the stress, while on Wednesdays and Saturdays I let go of stress while running. Unlike my other sports though, I'm completely dependent on mother nature for surfing. This time of year, surfers like me are waiting for the cold fronts to come through and bring in north winds that cause pretty sets and bigger waves. No front this weekend, at least, not until late tonight. So, I had to surf the raucous waves being stirred up by the east/southeast winds.

Lots of people were out on Friday, probably because the Gulf had been flat for a few days. People were just happy to finally have waves. Instead of going out with all the others, Brian suggested that I surf at 45th Street. The only bad thing about that is I don't have a rip current next to a jetty to help me easily out into the waves. I was back to maneuvering my way to the outside through a beach-breaking waves, just like last week in California. I managed to do okay, although I must admit to being caught on the inside and falling a few times. I also had a couple of mishaps when catching the waves that caused me to pearl, which is something that hasn't happened in a while. The waves were hard to read and would occasionally close out way too fast for me. I saw "the dude" pearl twice too, and I've never seen him pearl. One time, I asked him what happened. He just said, "I pearled." He offered no explanation, but I'm sure it had to do with the "inconsistency" of the waves.

Sunday, was a little better. Although rain had been forecasted, it never materialized. I surfed at the 43rd Street jetty, where the waves were rough, but accessible. I caught my first wave, but the rest of the day, I only caught the the powerful whitewash from the waves. Had a ball though! I paddled to the outside several times (waves were breaking way out) and caught some powerful whitewash and practiced turning and standing positions. I'm sure there is still quite a bit I can do to improve my pop-up. I continue to work on looking forward instead of to the left side so that I can get a better position on my board. I think I'm still bending too much from my waist forward and not from my knees. I can't complain though. I had a lot of fun in the water today.

My big concern lately has to do with my left leg or rather hip. I first blamed running for the pain I was having on the inside and outside of my thigh where my leg met the hip bone. But, it didn't hurt after my half marathon last weekend, so it had to be my cycling. However, it didn't hurt bad after my ride yesterday. I hadn't thought at all that it might be from surfing, but it's really bothering me tonight. My board is attached to my left leg, but I can't really understand why that would cause it to hurt. Even when the board gets away from me and yanks at my leg when caught in a wave, it doesn't feel like it is pulling my leg very hard. And, why would that be bothering me now after four years? Hmmm...I'm going to have to give this some thought. I have a few weeks before my next big surfing trip. Hope I can figure it out before then.