Surfing and Biking ... finally!

Bouys were four feet at eight seconds in the middle of the night, so with morning light I am up and off to check Crossovers. Andy calls just as I am getting there, telling me he is just approaching Matanzas. We compare notes. Matanzas is terrible, he says, all over the place, brown water, with no one out. Just then, I walk over the top of the cosswalk and am giving him a live report: Ten guys on it (ugh) already, but the water is greener than I've seen it in days, it's running about chest to shoulder high, and I watch as a guy gets a long right all the way inside while another guy is swacking up a left. I'm out there in minutes, and Andy says he is on the way. I decide to go over to the left where no one is on it yet. The lineup on the main peak is so packed that every wave that comes through has at least one guy on it, and more people are coming by the minute. My first wave feels great back on the Firewire. I feel so energized after sitting around the house for the past few days. I get it to myself for about 45 minutes before two guys paddle out near me. One of them asks me how I like my Firewire. I bet he regretted that, as it is like opening Pandora's box. I just can't shut up about it, and become an evangelistic preacher. I end with, "I just love it," to which he says, "I can see that!" Tee hee. Then Andy paddles over from the main break and we start our usual talks about kids, work, and skillet lickers. He tells me about his best wave ever that he got in Hermosa. I tell him about the one that I thought was going to end my life there. We have fun, him doing his Olympic swan dives off the board and me getting the closeouts, and it has been so long out of the water this just seems like the best thing ever. Three hours later, the wind has come up and the tide is messing it up, so we head in, riding the wave of the day close-out together. When I get home, I'm still energized and not really hungry, so I jump on the bike and do 20 miles. I just love being outside again...