Regaining My Stoke

Towards the end of April work and home got busy and the waves died down. The end result was the I spent nearly a month out of the water. This combined with the fact that I'd been having trouble adjusting to my new bodyboard before this break left me disheartened with zero desire to paddle out.

A random day at the beach with the kids last weekend ago began to revive me. There was some irregular but solid swell rolling in and I decided to tandem up with the kids (son 8.0 yrs old, daughter 6.5 yrs old) and give them a real wave riding experience. Each in turn climbed on board and scooted as far forward as possible with me overlapping them a bit but mostly hanging off the board. We dropped into some punchy 5 to 6 foot bombs and rode them straight in with whitewash exploding around us. They were laughing and cheering and proud and full of joy and it was contagious.

So my kids brought me out of my stupor and with good surf being forcast I decided to paddle out on Wednesday over an "extended lunch break". At 18th street I found that conditions were far better than forecast with waves in the 10 foot+ range. Big thick wedgy waves that refused to pitch over but instead crumble away in a mass of angry whitewash... Big Crumblies I call them and they're one of my favorite waves. Long rides down steep faces... loads of fun. From around noon to 3pm that day I regained my stoke.

Thursday topped out at 10ft but the waves cleaned up and provided better rides. And if my stoke needed any more of a boost it maxed when a school of dolphins joined me for the last hour of my session... chasing fish, riding the waves, jumping and surfacing as close as 10 feet away... dolphins everywhere. There was even a baby swimming with them... too cool!

So to sum up... bodyboarding with kids + big waves + dolphins = Maximum Stoke.

Oh and the new board is working out great; I'm really loving it, I'll write a review soon.