A little more than five years ago, Hurricane Ike hit Galveston. Although I had a safe evacuation that actually turned into a mildly entertaining visit with some good friends in downtown Houston, the experience caused disruption in many lives including mine. Quite a few people suffered as did several I loved dearly, but it definitely could have been worse. I hadn't begun surfing at the time, but I do remember seeing surfers taking advantage of the waves caused by the storm. Now, as a surfer, I hear other surfers talk about storms from a different perspective. It's all about the waves. I don't think I'm ever going to be crazy enough to head to Galveston when I should be evacuating elsewhere, but I can't help but be a little excited when a storm that isn't near us cause some building waves in Galveston. Don't get me wrong, I do not like the idea of others being devastated by a storm, but when a storm has formed in the southernmost portion of the Gulf, I can only hope that it doesn't come our way and that it will, perhaps, build some waves. Tropical Storm and then Hurricane Ingrid churned in the Gulf this past weekend and waves developed. Friday morning might have been the prettiest morning for surfing, but I couldn't make it to the island until the afternoon. I agreed to take an extra board for one of the young gals from my neighborhood. She has surfed a few times so she wasn't going to need my assistance, just one of my boards. So I loaded up Roxanne for me and my Softop, Iris, for her and met her at 36th. Because of the waves, the 43rd Street jetty was packed, which is why I headed to 36th, met my friend Brian and eventually met up with the young gal from my neighborhood. I had a ball. The toughest part about 36th is that there is no jetty with a rip current to get to the outside. Paddling out at 36th means timing the sets and making it through the waves as they break. Despite that, I caught many waves that day, and had a great time. I still need practice on my pop-up and also getting down on the board to paddle back out after the wave is past. I'm sure some day I'll get it all figured out. Until then, I'll just have fun practicing.
The next morning, I had a run in Galveston. I competed in the Press Run put on by the Galveston County Daily News. It was a 10K and my only complaint about the run is that it started at 8 a.m. rather than 7 a.m., which is crazy in September in southeast Texas because of the HEAT. The cause was a good one though. The run raised money to put newspapers (electronic and paper) in local schools. I was even willing to add money to the entry fee for this noble cause. I ran a pretty good race even though I had to stop and walk during my second climb over the Causeway. I finished 1st in my age group, 8th in all the women and 23rd overall. I wasn't convinced that I had actually one first in my age group though because there was a runner listed above me. However, she wasn't ranked. Not sure why, but I was presented the first place medal and it was fun. I can only imagine how fast I might have run if I hadn't overheated and walked a short distance. After I finished the run, I decided to go back down to the beach to have fun in the storm waves. I heard that the waves were cleaner earlier in the morning, but by the time I made it there at 10:30 a.m., they still looked pretty clean to me. I made it out on the west side of the 43rd St. jetty and managed to catch a couple of fabulous waves when I suddenly started feeling weak. Unfortunately, it affected the rest of my weekend. I'm guessing I overheated and dehydrated. I heard that the waves on Sunday were messy so I didn't miss much. And today looked incredibly rough even though the storm had moved ashore in Mexico, but they should be calming a little later this week. And, I can't wait!
