Summer doldrums and passing afternoon thunderstorms

I believe I've talked about them before...the summer doldrums...that time during the summer where the waves flatten out. Brian, my surf coach, called me this morning before I headed to Galveston to tell me the waves were fading fast. He was in the middle of a private lesson and, although there had been some small surf for his lesson, the waves were flattening out. I told him I wanted to go anyway. I spoke with Andrea and she desperately wanted to be out on her board also. So we met at our 43rd street pier. Once I arrived I saw just how flat the surf could be. It was definitely going to be a day to practice swimming out and turning the board. And that's exactly what we did. We hauled everything down to the beach and paddled out. A couple of small waves came through for us to practice the pop-up and one or two decent rides. And then, the sky turned black. It started to rain, but there wasn't any thunder and lightening; at least not at first. The wind started to shift and Brian suggested we swim out and over to the other side of the jetty. Just as we made the swim over (I still need to work on arching my back more), we heard the first clap of thunder, which of course means that lightening wasn't far away. Brian thought we should swim in and that's what we did. When we made it to shore, the skies opened and the rain came down hard and fast. The native surfer, Brian, said we should go stand close to the wall for some protection, which we did, but we still got soaked as did our towels and coolers, etc. A beach rat came out to play during the storm and not being a fan of any kind of rodent, I got a little miffed at the creature who thought it might run over to play around our feet. A loud "shoo" kept him away. The rain was the result of a norther heading our way that wasn't going to quite make it all the way through. It would switch the winds a little, cause some rain and, basically, flatten out the seas. Too bad! I'm hoping that the wind shifts enough to give us better waves on Sunday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Surfing vs. Cycling: Should I allow two sports to compete for my time?

Surfing is finally becoming second nature to me. That's not to say that it's easy. I still have a lot of work to do and, after all, I am surfing in only two-foot waves (on a good day). However, I really felt comfortable in the water today. I understand what I'm supposed to do; I just can't always do it all at the right time. I had a couple of bad starts when I first got into the water. I might have been a little nervous. My friend (and, as of today, my new surfing buddy), Andrea, was watching after her lesson with Brian. She said she was too tired to get back in with us, but she wanted to watch. I guess I wanted to impress her, but I'm not sure what kind of impression I might have given her. Eventually, though, I got back in my groove and popped up and road some waves all the way in. I had a ball. Brian, my friend and surfing mentor, surfed with Robin and me, but couldn't help but critique us too, which is good 'cause I need all the tips I can get. For instance, although he complimented me on my form, he would then say not to worry about the other surfers near the pier 'cause they were just as pathetic as I was. He also told me that I looked like I had a death grip on the board when I was sitting out in the water. I do need to work on it, that's for sure. Then came the talk about tomorrow. Weather rumor had it that a cold front was going to pass through to change the wind from the SSW to the North. When this shift occurs, waves in Galveston will be running at 4- to 6-ft., which is quite big for Galveston. Brian says that I definitely wouldn't want to miss it. However, the latest weather forecast predicts that the front won't make it all the way through Galveston. Ummm...we really won't know until tomorrow. I don't want to miss the good waves, but Saturday is usually my cycling day. I cycle during the week too, but on Saturday, I usually do a long, hard ride. So my dilemma is should I go surfing first thing in the morning or should I go cycling? Right now, I'm leaning toward surfing, but I don't think I will know for sure until early tomorrow morning. I'll just have to keep my eyes on the g-townsurf.com Web cam to check out the wave action to find out if I will hang ten or assert my pedal power.

a surfing legend

Even though my surfing instructor and friend Brian called last night and said he thought the waves would be good today, by this morning he was calling to say that they hadn't picked up. The waves were flat just as they had been for most of the week. I questioned him about this and found out that every summer at some point, the waves in Galveston are nonexistent (not that they're ever real big). I asked him how long it could last, and he said that this flat "session" has been known to last two months. TWO MONTHS????? He said he didn't think it would last that long this year. I told him that I was planning to come down anyway because I need the practice swimming on my board (in particular, arching my back) and spinning the board for when a wave was coming. Before I went down, I went to my favorite surfcam page and saw just how flat it really was. While on the page -- my favorite surfcam page (www.g-townsurf.com) --, I texted my friend Robin. She wrote back and asked if I had noticed that Robert August (the '60s surfing star from "The Endless Summer") was going to be in Galveston today. I hadn't read that far down. Once I read the portion of the page that talked about how flat the waves were, I stopped reading. But, sure enough, when I revisited the page I noticed the posting. So, Robin and I made Ohana Surf and Skate our first stop. When we arrived, we found him standing in the middle of the store signing autographs. We immediately made our way to him and introduced ourselves. He graciously agreed to a photo with us. He even asked if we minded if he groped us a little. "Absolutely not...he could grab us all he wanted." He laughed and grabbed our butts all in good fun! We met his young daughter (she was nine) who had been out surfing with one of the Ohana employees. She was adorable. Robin explained we were really old surfers and the little one just smiled. When we left the store, we went to the 43rd street pier and swam around on the boards. Every little bit will help, I'm sure. We may not ever be as good as Robert August, but we're determined to have just as much fun!