Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Quiet Summer

This has been an unusual summer in G-town. For one thing, the seaweed has been the worst I've ever
Met pro surfers Teddy Navarro, Morgan Faulkner
 and Sunny Garcia while they were in
Galveston promoting the Mauli Ola Foundation.
seen. And, secondly, it's been unusually flat … especially on the Fridays and Sundays when I can surf. That hasn't kept me from getting in the water though. Thankfully, Dude B has been willing to let me rent/use a SUP. I'm even thinking about buying one. I've investigated a few. My problem with the SUPs is that I'm afraid I won't be able to carry one in my car or from my car down to the shore. The ones I've borrowed have been so heavy and long that carrying them across the beach is difficult. I can't imagine having to lift it to put on the top of my car, and I doubt that either of the ones I've used will fit inside my car. Hmmm… I've had a good time on them, and it definitely gets me in the water when there are no waves, but I can't decide if I should buy one.

On Friday, it was too flat to surf and dude wasn't able to bring the SUP. By Sunday, though, I knew I needed to get in the water.  Dude B thought the waves were nice enough for him to have lessons and even believed that if I had the right board, I might be able to surf. So, I packed up "Petal," my 9'6" Senator surfboard, which I don't surf often, and headed to the 43rd St. jetty. Fortunately, Dude B brought his 10'6" SUP too. I went out on the SUP and floated around for awhile, before deciding there might be just enough waves for me to go out on Petal. I got her out of the car, and I was glad I did. The waves were very small … so small, in fact, that I had to paddle really hard to get into them. In the end, though, I found a few small waves to surf. It may not have been pretty, but it sure was fun.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will have something to play on this weekend wave-wise. Not completely sure that I will, but we will see. The surf forecast projects waves all weekend. The weather forecaster, though, also predicts some bad weather. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I might even go take a look at the local surf shops to see if I can check out an SUP. Again, I will have to figure out how I will carry it. But, just going to take a look at them will be an adventure. And, I love adventure!