North Shore Oahu, I was bobbing up and down with a bunch of surfers. Suddenly, they all started paddling out to sea. This meant that a "clean-up set" was coming. I paddled out hard and barely made it over a really big wave. It's scary to paddle up and up a wave trying to beat it before it breaks over. Surfers on short boards "duck dive" through them. After inching by that one, another bigger came.
It slammed me down, down, down until it got dark.
I swam up and up, lungs burning. Resurfacing, I found myself in a swath of whitewater gasping for a breath before getting pushed down again. And up... gasp... only to see another wave pummeling down on me... hoping that a reef wasn't close.
It's been kinda like that for three years.
I'm laughing now thinking that if I'd just paddled out I'd been okay... and getting pummeled doesn't really make one a better surfer... it just sucks. But now it makes me laugh. However, *now* will change in approximately 1 billionth of a second.
But there is some sense of buoyancy. Maybe the waters have calmed. Hey! Who's that fishin'?!?!?
PS: Rented "Jeremiah Johnson" as I try to get psyched for some mountain hiking.
6 comments:
Walked another five miles today. Nothing hurt. Drinking lots of water.
Resurfacing has another state. That's the one where you are 5 inches below. You know you are just right there... but you can't get your mouth to air. There's no real difference, oxygen-wise, between 5 inches and 50 feet... if you can't get your head above water.
Well, there's a difference... one you have to struggle to keep at... and the other you can just drop like a rock. LOL!
And at least when you are dropping like a rock, you feel like you are going somewhere. LOL!
So, here's to 6 inch snorkels... for those who are 5 inches under :)
To 6 inch snorkels!
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