Where has the time gone?

What a busy few months! It's not that I haven't been surfing since May, but I haven't had time to post about it. In June, I had some fabulous surfing days early in the month. A couple of last-minute "cold" fronts (actually, they were just some fronts from the north) cleaned up the waves for some fantastic after-work and Sunday morning surfing. I surfed a few times throughout July too. But, as usual, by the end of June the summer flats took over and forced me to bring out my SUP. A little over a month ago, a friend and I went out on a Friday morning to find a quiet beach waiting for us.

A crazy summer! One of
my surf sessions was
 early August.
8/7/16

We met early at the 43rd Street Jetty and appeared to have the beach to ourselves. It was completely flat, and the water had that clear blue look that only happens after a north wind cleans it up. Although it wasn't as blue as a true winter norther makes it, the water was clearer than it had been since later April or early May. We paddled for a couple of hours and had a blast. The only unfortunate part of the morning was an incident with my shoes and a handle. I wear some old blue flip-flops to the beach. I bought them shortly after I started surfing. They weren't expensive shoes, but they were my standbys. I had left them on the beach before while I surfed and never had a problem. I also had a plastic SUP handle that also should have been safe on the beach. But, all it took was a a paddle a few jetties away and, by the time I made it back to 43rd, the shoes and the handle was gone. I walked down the beach looking for them and found a couple of thugs acting suspicious. I asked if they had seen my shoes, and they denied it. Oh well, trying hard not to sweat the small stuff...and it's really all small stuff.

A family illness has kept me busy for most of July and the early part of August. I'm not ready to really write about it just yet. And, because the story is not mine to share, I need to ask permission before I do so. But, I will say that it has been a an emotionally draining experience. And, the outcome to the most recent test has been good. Add to the mix that in early July, I was injured in a car accident. I was lucky. I had a fractured pelvic ring in the front and back, which was painful, but not sidelining. After a couple of appointments, I found out that the fracture was a stable one, which meant I didn't really have to give up any activities long term, but I would probably have to ease back into my running, cycling and surfing slowly. With that said, I only really missed a couple of weeks of surfing and even then, I don't think that the waves were great for both weeks.

I was excited to get out this weekend. I had a full schedule of activities planned. Friday afternoon is one of my usual surf days, so I loaded up and headed down around 3. The tide was out, but I could see some fun waist-high waves coming through. I paddled out in the rip and quickly found out what the struggle would be -- the current. I was pushed down the beach. I had noticed that a couple of short boarders were out, but they were staying on the inside because of the current. I caught a wave and took it left, which meant that I had quite a walk back to the rip on the inside of the jetty. From then on, I worked at staying closer to the jetty. I still had a couple of short walks, but I managed to stay relatively close. All in all, I had a wonderful time. I thought I might be able to make it back out again on Sunday (today), but mixed reviews on the wave report and other plans kept me from making it down. However, I'm looking forward to next weekend!