Sargasso weed takes over

When I drove across the Causeway last week and this week, I could smell the stench of seaweed.  Sometimes in late spring and, occasionally, during the summer, seaweed takes over the beaches.  This was the worst week of it this year. Approximately two weeks ago when we still had a little bit of an occasional north wind and pretty little waves, the water and the beaches were clean. The water was a pretty green/blue for a couple of weeks and the beaches were prepped for the upcoming summer traffic, meaning that it was almost as if the sand knew that it was like a carpet ready to accept special visitors. It looked as thought the city had prepared for summer by cleaning the beaches. However, this weekend, during a busy three day Memorial Day weekend, the beach was covered with seaweed again. It washes in and covers everything. The seaweed is quite thick in some areas and it's gross stepping into it to get to the water. Everyone has to walk into it who wants to be in the water. And, it has a sour smell to it. I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but, as I said earlier in this post, I can smell it the minute I get on the island.

Some of the locals refer to it as sargasso weed/grass, which is technically the real name for it. I looked in my Oxford English Dictionary to confirm the spelling and found a definition for it where it succinctly says "GULF-WEED; also a mass or a species of this." The earliest use found was in 1598 by a writer W. Philip, with many other uses found throughout history including a 1934 poem by Dylan Thomas and Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: Space Odyssey." (And this is why I love my Oxford English Dictionary!!) This sargasso weed/grass/seaweed is just plain nasty when it covers the beach.

Seaweed carpets the beach this weekend

The seaweed, though, didn't keep me from going surfing. I drove down on Friday afternoon and this morning, despite strong winds and sloppy conditions. Getting into the water not only requires stepping through the gross seaweed, but it also requires stepping into muddy-looking/brown water filled with the stuff. I managed to fight the washing machine-like current to catch a few small waves, but they were definitely hard for someone with my inexperience to read, meaning that I only caught a few and was surprised when I did. A couple of experienced surfers Friday and today made it look easy, but the rest of us were left guessing. Several times, I had to sit awhile in the water just to clean the seaweed/sargasso weed off my leash. It's amazing how one small piece can get caught in the leash and make it feel as though you are pulling a 2 lb. weight. I also heard that sea lice likes to nest in the stuff, and I sometimes feel like bugs are biting me when it gets wrapped around my foot/ankle. I can't wait for it to be gone. I thought last year's seaweed/sargasso weed invasion was the worst, but this one seems almost as bad. All I know is that I can't wait for it to be gone!

Busy Wave-less Weekend

Swell Info is a wonderful site/app! However, sometimes looking at Swell Info can be depressing. The weather reports on the local television channels offered a dismal forecast for surfing this week and Swell Info validated their forecast. A high pressure "dome" was sitting over the area, which would prevent strong enough winds to create winds. The wind was actually blowing out of the north. I kept opening my Swell Info app and hoping, wishing, begging that the high pressure was moving and that the meteorologists on the local channels had missed the call. But, every time I opened the app, the wave forecast was either flat or 0-1 ft. swells. Yikes! Surf dude B. suggested that waves would be back by the weekend and I wanted him to be right, but Swell Info is almost always right. And that forecast coupled with the weather reports made me realize that B. was going to be wrong this time. He might have enough of a wave for a lesson on Saturday since it only takes a little ripple close to shore for him to push people into a wave, but there wouldn't be much more than that.

Thursday evening was beautiful!

My week was a little different last week. On Thursday, I spent a delightful day at a women's conference in Galveston. Not only was the conference wonderful with a wide range of informative speakers, I was in Galveston on a perfect spring day. The only downfall was that on a day that would have afforded me a great afternoon/evening of surfing, THE GULF WAS COMPLETELY FLAT just as the app/forecast said it would be. I didn't let my evening in Galveston go to waste though. I rode through Galveston on my bike and ate supper at a sandwich shop on the Seawall. 

Because this weekend was commencement weekend at the university for which I work, I had some weekend commitments including a Commencement Kick-Off event on Friday evening and two Commencement ceremonies on Saturday. The Friday evening event was going to require me to work in the afternoon instead of the morning, so I wouldn't be able to surf on Friday afternoon. I thought that I would surf in the morning instead. But, it's impossible to surf when there are no waves. So, Friday slipped by without a surf session. Although I usually ride bikes on Saturday with an occasional afternoon surf, I spent the day at Reliant Arena surrounded by anxious and excited UHCL graduates. I was working, but it didn't really feel like work. Commencement is always so fun! And, again, there were no waves anyway.

I still had Sunday for possible surf. I could tell on the webcam on Saturday that the surf was building. But, by Sunday morning, not much had changed. The ripples were still there, but none of the waves were building enough to surf. I opted to cycle Sunday morning. By the time I finished, I had a phone message from surf dude B. who said there were surf-able waves. However, within 20 minutes of the first call, I had another call from him saying he had misjudged and that the waves were NOT surf-able. So, alas, I would have a surf-less weekend. The good news is that the waves are definitely building, and, if all goes as forecasted, the waves should return midweek so I can surf.

I've had much on my mind lately, so I'm hoping I get the opportunity to clear my head while out on my board, but we'll see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Start with Star, end with waves

What a busy weekend! Even though the weekend had a little uncertainty. Going into the weekend, I had such high hopes. Several weeks ago, the surf dude I surf with had asked if I would be at the beach on Saturday to be a part of a ribbon-cutting with the Chamber of Commerce and grand opening of his new surf school. In addition, I had bought tickets to the Galveston Homes Tour so that I could take my mom to see the historical homes in honor of Mother's Day. It's impossible to complete the Homes Tour in just one day. So, my original plan on  Saturday had been to go to my bike ride, cycle 40 miles and then to head to Galveston for the ribbon-cutting before meeting my family to cycle from home to home on the Homes Tour. But as Saturday got closer, it became more and more apparent that some, if not all, of those plans were going to be changed. The weather forecast showed high percentage for a chance of rain. Strong winds were also in the forecast. So the beach Dude decided to call off the ribbon cutting until a later date just in case the weather forecast was correct. I definitely couldn't ride my 40 miles because of the weather (the forecasters were right for a change), so I ended up at the gym where I completed weights and two spin classes. I then took my mom (and dad) to Galveston for the tour. I was able to convince them I needed to drive by the beach, where I found a ton of surfers and beautiful waves!! I was envious of the others in the water, but knew that this weekend was special; something I had planned for my mom for a long time. So, I didn't surf. I saw the others, but just knew that there would be other days for surfing in my future.

Sunday brought new possibilities. Earlier in the week, I had registered for my first duathlon, which would be held early Sunday morning at a park on the northeast side of Houston. It would start at 7 a.m. and be over by 8:30, but I would still have the long drive back to my house and need to clean up before going to the tour to finish seeing all the homes. I debated whether I should do the "du" or not, but in the end decided that I would be better off not doing it, even though it meant I would lose the $80 registration fee. Instead, I thought I would go to the 7 a.m. yoga class on the beach, ride over to Star Drug Store for breakfast before meeting up with my parents to finish the tour. And, that's what I did, and my husband decided to join me (even though he isn't much of a "yoga" guy)! The day was wonderful. I brought my swimsuit with the hopes that there would be waves and I could surf, although I wasn't convinced that I would. However, when I saw the dude driving down Market Street just as we were all heading back to our vehicles after the tour (we rode from home to home by bike), I decided to chase him down. It was 4:30 and he said the waves were still fantastic, so we agreed to meet back at the beach at 5 p.m. for a late afternoon surf session. I didn't have a lot of time and decided that I would spend only 45 minutes surfing. It wouldn't be long enough, but it was all the time I had. I was so glad that I did. The waves were small, but very clean. I was able to get one ride after the other...nice, wonderful rides. I used the dude's 9'6" "Hurricane" board, which was perfect for these waves. He said that I surfed real well. I felt pretty good since several people were out, but only B and I caught waves consistently. I love surfing, especially on days like this.

My mom was gone by the time I started surfing, but I'm sure she would have been happy for me. I think she had a wonderful Mother's Day. I know I did.

And even though she had nothing to do with the waves, I still must say Thanks Mom!