Surfin' with Jersey Joe!

We have waited and waited for a decent day for how long now? I don't know, it seems like forever. So, this is it, the last day before the big 167 mile MS150 bike ride, and well, we had to go for it. I said, "Are you up for a crazy stupid adventure?" And he said yes. Little did he know. We loaded up the car and headed for Crossovers. Oh, look at those whitecaps! Yikes. Eh, we said, let's paddle out. After about five minutes of him trying to get past the first line of whitewater, I looked over and asked how he was doing. He wasn't speaking. Finally he gasped, " Exhausted." It was wave after relentless wave, and just getting stabilized on the board was a challenge for him. The next thing I knew, he was headed in. I caught one wave and went in to check on him. He was sitting on the bottom step of the stairway, looking dejected. He wanted to rest, and for me to go out and catch a few. After some words of encouragement, I paddled out for a few minutes and caught one. When I rode it in, I saw him ... almost outside! I was so excited to see this, but he didn't realize how great it was. He was pretty wasted from the effort, for one thing. He tried to catch one, but whoosh, it washed over him. It was just not the day to learn. But learn something about surfing he did. #1: It is not good to learn on a "Victory at Sea day," #2: It is easier when the waves are clean and defined and smaller, and #3: It is good to learn on a huge board that is stable beneath you. Trouble was, I was not going to take Karen's treasured Baby Spoon out on a day like today and break it in the shore pound, and he was trying to learn on my new 6' !0". It was fun to me, despite the choppy conditions, and like I told him before we paddled out, we will definitely laugh. And, laugh we did.