It is all about having the fins in the back of the car at all times.
Over the last couple years or so my passion for bodysurfing has skyrocketed. The spring/summer here offer up some notoriously windy and junky conditions. It's the kind of conditions that hurt your feelings just to see them. It can honestly be depressing to stare out over a mangled ocean while the gusty onshore wind splatters your face with salty water. That is....if you have not adopted bodysurfing into your surf repertoire!
The magic of Ocean Beach is that even though the wind may play destroyer to the nice wave quality there is usually still some swell energy out there. This is where the fins come in!
I'll look out at the criss-crossed, turbulent, victory-at-sea conditions and I'll see it....a closeout barrel! Boom! That's all it takes.....the wetsuit comes on, the ear plugs go in and with fins in hand I race down to the waters edge to stretch, don the fins, give thanks and jump in!
What a rush to be diving under the waves...feeling every swirl and undulation as the water pushes, pulls, holds and releases me. I have this sense of vulnerability and power as I navigate on the edge of this incomprehensible massive body of water. The coldness and darkness of the water adds to the mystery and excitement. And on most of these less-than-pleasant-for-most conditions I will be the only one in the water. The experience transcends surfing in a way. There's a pureness....a simplicity about it that resonates to the core of my being.
And with all these 'feelings' going on I still search out the longest ride and biggest barrel I can muster. I have gone so fast on a couple that I felt like a helpless pebble being skipped by a child. I have had more tube time than ever before in my life. I have also been scared out of my gourd when the rough conditions proved to be too rough. As a bonus prize it turns out to be amazing exercise. When I return to my surfboard it feels like a retreat.
I have learned a lot about the wave by bodysurfing. There is more intimacy and awareness with my body submerged into the energy source. I learned from the legendary Ocean Beach bodysurfer, Judith Sheridan, about the pocket of energy inside the wave & how to submerge myself into the wave just as it crests for no paddle take-off's. This has been a trippy experience because on a couple attempts I was launched out with so much force that I was sent flying to the trough of the wave...like being shot out of a cannon! I've also been learning about the barrel. On a surfboard I am not an experienced tube rider. I've had some in & outs, but nowhere near as many as I need! This has allowed me to get more comfortable being inside the barrel and experiencing how much space is in there so that I can translate this onto my board riding experience.
The best part of all of this is that now when I go the beach -- It's always going off!
1 comment:
Great post, you managed to translate all the feelings I get when I'm doing it.
I started as a bodysurfer since I was a kid, some years later I got a board, but it was depressing cause later I changed area. After that, most of the time, there weren't any good waves for bodyboard. Windy, no tubes and waves to close to shore.
So I kept bodysurfing all those years... now, I still have a Wave Rebel Jack the Ripper, but it's in storage. Bodyboarding experience in my area was kind of lacking compared with bodysurfing.
Most people don't understand it.
Specially when there are waves and I stay all day on water, getting out only to eat and casually collapse on the towel.
But for me, there is nothing like that.
Everything becomes so simple... as if nothing else matters.
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