#20 A Few Words of Thanks...

trying to capture all the thanks i feel in this one blog is as difficult as trying to express all the love i feel for my wife and kids in a birthday card. so before i even begin i acknowledge the impossibility and accept the task of expressing a little everyday.

these last two days of surfing have been unreal! i felt like i got dropped into a surf video. ob was overhead, glassy, consistent, hollow, peeling and just plain awesome. just watching the waves come in was breathtaking. everyone was in such a good mood! it reminded me of the childhood dayz when we would hoot for each other all the time and people would always announce the sets. so fun!

as i suited up and made my way across the sand past all of the beach walkers i had this overwhelming sense of thankfulness that i knew how to surf. the ocean is such an awe inspiring, life-giving, soul-recharging, magnificent thing that to be able to play in it is an absolute honor. i owe my parents the ultimate thanks for relocating our family from inner new york to coastal sunny southern california when i was a wee lad.

thank you to my wife for understanding and supporting my love of the ocean. i am a working father of two and still get in the water multiple times a week. and when the conditions are exceptional she is cool if i let a few things slack while i savor my sanctuary.

i am also thankful for my health. ob is not an easy place to call your home-break. today, for instance, i was in the water for 2-hours. if i was riding a wave i was constantly paddling north to keep from being swept down the beach with the outgoing tide draining from the bay.

i am thankful, too, that i got to share the ocean today with one of my closest friends, db. being able to look over and see a perfect wave peeling toward you with you friend riding it is like....yes! or seeing a perfect wave forming in front of you and hearing your friend yell for you to get it is like....yes!

so, thanks to all the things that have come together to make my love of the ocean possible!

#19 Our President!

Yes....this is our President-Elect!!! I can't even put into words how much joy I feel to see a Black man as President.....and then for him to be a surfer, too!!! The world will never be the same.

Black children in this country(& worldwide) are going to see the world completely differently than those who came before. It has always been said that you can do whatever you put your mind to & now there is a major role model leading the country. I wish my Grandparents were alive to see this. I wish I could hear their thoughts on this. My Father, having grown up in the country of Alabama, says this is equal to him seeing an alien in his lifetime....he just NEVER thought it possible. I'm glad he was wrong : )

Where do we go from here?........i guess the answer would be: Anywhere.