Monday, December 31, 2007
Rest Day Two
After a little over two weeks of training in the warmth of Florida's sun, it is finally time to come home to the slush of Michigan's roads. It has been tough riding hard for the first time since last summer, but it felt good pushing myself again. Resting and recovering will be a nice transition into the next semester and block of training.
Just in case you guys thought I only trained down here, think again. During my two rest days, the stars somehow aligned and produced the smoothest and biggest waves of the last two weeks. The cold fronts came right when I hoped they would, bringing their corresponding swells.
Rest Day Two
It was a shock waking early on the rest day to my dad hollering, "The waves are the biggest that I've ever seen down here. We are going to the market but will be back soon." My brother and I rolled around in our beds with an added nervous anticipation. Would they be too big to surf? Is this the day of the holiday that we look forward to sharing every time we're down here? We took to the beach by foot to check out the beach break.
As we crested the hill that usually blocks the view of the ocean, the offshore wind swept up sand and salty air from behind us, attempting to coat our skin. At first glance, our morning's questions were left unanswered as the ocean and sun teamed up to reflect blinding rays of orangish-yellow. Squinting, our pupil's constricted allowing us to see the choppy and restrained ocean turned mad into clean sets of near-overhead waves. The masses of water seemed to barrel over, rolling down the line from left to right, forming picturesque wave-faces normally reserved for the west coast.
Myles and I quickly felt the adrenaline born excitement that seems to flow between us when we share moments like this. We sat down for a second and stared out at the ocean and its larger than normal creations. Myles poked fun at me asking, "Can you handle this with your riding plan?" With the confidence of an older brother, in part to hide some of my more tentative thoughts, I answered"Of course I can my brotha, its a rest day after all."
Once out there, after paddling into a number of smaller waves, I let the tides take me down the beach towards the crowd of locals taking on larger walls of water. I saw one mountain-like wave come towards me, but I left it untouched as it lifted me up in the ocean and then set me back down. From behind it, I watched the force of raw nature in awe as one surfer took to it without delay, making it his own. As the offshore winds blew a mist of water from the lip of this monster, the artist of a surfer carved hard into it and launched himself into the air, grabbing the rail of his board to pull a huge aerial. He landed further down the wave and I lost sight of him.
Seeing another large set of waves coming, I finally decided to go for one thinking 'screw it!' With the board underneath my body, I threw my arms through the water, digging with my cupped hands. As I looked back, the wave perked up into a steep wall of water beginning to foam at the breaking lip. Leaning my body down the face of the wave, I kicked as hard as I could and felt the power of the wave pick me up, this time with me on it. I pushed off of my arms and simultaneously jumped to my crouched feet, grabbing the right rail. Tearing through and down the face of the wave, I saw the part ahead of me curl over as I realized it was about to close out or, in other words, fully break. A feeling of ecstasy rushed through me as I tried to make the wave my own. And within the same second, it was over. The wave overpowered me, pushing me to its depths to tumble in its turbulent afterthought.
Eventually paddling back to where Myles was waiting for waves, I sat up on my board to join him in reminiscing about the waves we caught and tried to catch. Surrounded by locals who were also taking advantage of the wintery swell, the sun slowly passed over top of us as we surfed through the rest of the day. After catching a few more waves, I packed the board up in anticipation for the next day's training ride. The beating I received was what I hoped for; that part of my trip was satisfied. Being pounded by a wave may not make your legs sore, but it will sure thrash you when it forgets to let you up for air.
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3 comments:
Watch out for sharks.
What is the water temp?
And what is with the cords attached to your feet?
Hey Doug, the water temp was cooler on that day. I don't know exactly. It was a cold front.
Those cords are leashes. When we fall off the wave or loose our board, the board stays with us because its attached to our feet with the leash.
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