This is it

The last day of warmth, if you could call this warm, was today. I cannot believe that for all the seventeen days I was off I can only remember one hour of really good surf. I know that now people say Christmas day, late afternoon, was all time at Crossovers. Due to a lapse in judgement, I missed out on that one. But, when all you really want is a sunny day with any size waves and light offshore winds, it hurts to know that this entire winter break has passed without more than one memorable hour.

To add to it, I had to turn down an invitation to go south to New Symrna this morning with Tom Burns. Today was the last day at the mansion, and the crew was returning around 2pm, so there was cleaning to do. I could have never fit that into the schedule, dang it all. But what Andy and I caught this morning wasn't that bad. Today was actually marginally fun. We searched all over for a spot that looked decent before we decided to go back to the original surf check, the pier. We checked tenth street, too fat. We checked Matanzas on the south side, too high tide. We checked the ramp there, too, and Brian was in the parking lot telling us he was giving up on it and going paddle boarding. I almost went out right then and there, so over searching. But, Andy said that FA's had actually looked the best. So, we headed back north.

Once there, it looked pretty fun. It was cleaner than anywhere else, looked shoulder high, so I grabbed my board. Karen pulled up just then, and was headed to get her board. She thought I was crazy running down over the rocks, but I told her I had just seen 'Avatar' and felt like I could hop all over them like the girl in the movie, all nimble and shit, ha ha. We were saying something about being too old when Andy yelled out to stop saying that! Andy good, fire bad.

At first I felt pretty good, but all too soon that feeling comes over you where you just feel that wetsuit like a strait jacket and the booties make your feet glued to the board in the wrong place ... and GOD I HATE WINTER. I had just talked to Bob about all this, and he was bummed too, about adjusting to wetsuits and needing a hood, about missing the Christmas swell and the one in Sarasota. We are in for a bad winter, he said, and things are going to get depressing like never before. We have skirted a bad winter for some time now. The good times are over...