No bragging rights on this session. Caught a fair amount of waves but they where tough to get to. Wind was so high thursday thru monday. Lots of tidal movement as well plus for some reason the break was chocolate, you could see green clear water 600 yards out? So i arived early thursday and made it outside 400 yards to catch 8 - 10 foot wind waves, they where fun i'll admit but not clean long rides like last month. Oh well. ....Carol came by and we went to an AA meeting together thurs. nite. During the night a squall comes ashore, producing gusts of around 40 knots, with a rain of 1/4 inch. Friday i get camp up in fairly nice weather, windy but just on the shy side of being a problem, surf is the same, but nice to be here, this being my 10 th season. Nothing hurts on my body, unlike last year with my shoulder pain. the pain is Gone!!!! My teeth hurt a little but a month at the dentist will fix that someday, i hope soon. Mark and Martin from Houston appear at around noon??? Carol and i are drinking my expensive coffee, i usually open camp in the late evening. But the gents are welcomed into Surf Camp and find a beach chair, and join in on the discussion, whatever it was.
As the afternoon progresses and we ease into the chairs a little more we learn both these men are executive engineers from Marathon Oil. They are playing hooky today, friday!!! i am very proud of myself for hosting an outing that will encourage this behavior. And these fellows i think appreciate it as well. Before long they want a surf board brought down from the rack, and a short lesson, they both are athletic and are water skiers, snowboarders, snowskiers. Martin shared with me that after 30 years with the same employer he takes 6 weeks paid vacation, 10 days sick leave etc, etc, goes to company meetings around the globe etc . hurruaah i say, Mark the same and he and his wife have just bought their retirement home on the island of oahu just above one of the best surf breaks in the world for longboards, Wikiki....WWWOOOwwww. Later Audra, Lacey, and Chritine show up. and i introduce them to surf camp, but it is to late in the day to surf and i am not cooking tonite, so they go into town for dinner. All surfers for this camp are on the island, pretty good for the size of the econimic shake down going on today in this country. Every one else is being audited, what is the so called federal reserve system hiding from us. they need an audit, and the house of cards will come tumbling down...! No squall's friday night, in fact weather seems real steady, though windy as heck but not that bad, sleeping is fabulous, cool, zero bugs. Saturday morn, a few jelly fish on high tide mark, the stinging type. while out during first session, i explain why we all are itching, the jellyfish are pummeled in the impact zone and their legs are broken up and that is what gets on your skin and in your bathing suit, it itches, but not to bad. water is so warm and the waves are ridealbe. Mark and Martin have got rides and are standing up already, the ladies are instructed to "just let the board do the work" and you just ride along for funand enjoy a belly ride.... The waves are pounders, wave, after wave after wave, so i get everyone out after 30 minutes to rest and eat watermellon under the camp awning. The ladies are becoming tan, and looking like surfer girls. Many sessions are had today, along with a walk down to the pier and out all the way on the deck to watch the surfers below. My vanity has gotten a real large boost, i stopped by Ted's Boardhouse surf shop thursday and one of the gals pointed out some new surf wax, that is glow green, i bought some along with the standard, old, white wax that everyone else uses, but not me anymore, my deck is now getting glow green and it looks cool, looks way better than everyone else....by late afternoon my surfers are finding out that this is definitely a major athletic sport, so we start slowing things down, the ladies go over and get a real shower and i start preparing a grand dinner and everyone pitches in. After dinner and while enjoying the fine atmoshphere we all learn a new word, from Mark. Mark understandably is highly educated and oversees the planning, the procurement, the building of and installation every year of 100 million dollar investments of oil rig platforms out in the gulf of texas. Tonight he uses this new word "STICKTION" , yes that is right , sticktion, he swerars that this is a real word. i've never heard of it or used it although i kind of like it. DEF: (the physical dynamic of the surfboards ability to contnue on plane during a surfers attempt to "hang ten" on the nose of his or hers board and not wipeout by pearling). We dicsussed this word for awhile>>>>> "During the night we are annoyed by some rednecks, driving a fourwheeler around and around and around out in front of our camp pulling a drag, smoothing off the sand. we are to find out that next morning the area is roped off and a wedding takes place later in the day. I called it a "shotgun wedding", because lots of guests arrive and then the bride in a flowing white gown with train, she is barefoot, maybe pregnant, but the odd thing was that as we sat there in our beach chairs watching it all took place in about 20 minutes and then poof everybody left, no real party......Fathers day is tomorrow and also the first day of summer. Lacey this surf camp was not able to get a full 30 foot stand up ride. Beginning surfers who haven't done so are encouraged to do a repeat and keep coming to surf camp. Then they get to sign their name on the awning. An old tradition of Tide Guides, the main thing is to let the board do the work and beginners just do a belly ride. I guarantee that is what i did, and my learning curve is now 30 years or so. We all where champs as surf campers and had fun getting to know one another and the joys of walking barefoot and living life in the slow lane. This is the allure of the surf culture. We all had to say ariva derche, adios, good bye and we did so with good grace early afternoon on sunday. All will be missed, and that is one of the reasons i keep this log, so we can remember this weekend.......
