Saved by a sore throat

I felt like I might be getting sick, so I opted out of the Endless Summer Watermelon Ride today. It's a good thing I had that sore throat, or otherwise I might have done it. 100 miles. IN THE RAIN! As soon as I got up and looked out the window, I knew it was not the day to ride the bike. If I had done that ride, the flipping up of road grime into my mouth would have been the end of it for me. As it was, it rained all the way down to Matanzas. I passed all those poor riders on bikes, heads down, resigned to their fate. But, rain has never stopped a day of surfing. It wasn't the best day for surfing, either, but Andy, Mark, and I made it as fun as it could be.

When we pulled up at Summerhaven it was gray skies and brown water. It was offshore wind, clean, small, maybe waist high, so Andy got out the tanker, I got my 6'10", and Mark grabbed his 7'0". As I paddled toward the left, I saw a guy paddling beside me as if he had the same idea; to get out the back and on the lefts that were peeling off. It was Jack, he remembered my name, but sadly he had to remind me of his. DOH! He told me that after he had surfed with me that one day, and had talked to me about my Anastasia Island board, he had gone and bought a 7'4"just like it. Cool! We talked about how good Hurricane Bill had been (he had surfed right here), and shared the weak little peelers.

After an hour, it got so crowded that I headed in. I decided to check the other side of the inlet. Gregory Harrison, A.K.A. Chandler, came into town last night, and he and Bob were planning to surf the north side. I called Bob, and told him I would paddle out and give him a report. But, after two waves, I gave up on it. It was just too long between sets, and the wind was coming around from every direction with the storms. I walked back in the rain, and when I called Cindy, they had already left. Hopefully they caught it better than I did...