seaweed

Summer was fast approaching and with that came beautiful weather, warmer ocean temperatures and crisp offshore winds.

Everyone was gearing up for the beautiful outdoors and there wasn’t a group more excited about it then the surfing community. People from up and down the coast would start to trickle in here and there and the upcoming competitions started to make their way into every conversation. The buzz was energetic and you couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement.

I was entering a few comps that year. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, I knew there were plenty of talented people I was up against but there was a sliver of anticipation growing inside me that knew that I deserved to be alongside the best of them.

I had this inexplicable feeling that my best years were just on the horizon and that I was going to go places in this life.

The first comp happened over a long weekend and the town was booming! Everyone was walking around with smiles on their faces. Out of town boys were making the local girls swoon and the pubs were bursting at the seams. When I walked down the main road I could hear echoes of laughter, singing and music, it was a pretty special time for the town.

Saturday morning was my first round and the winds could not have been more generous. I hadn’t seen waves of that size here before.

I paddled out to sea and counted the next set coming in as the waves peeled perfectly. I swam out to meet my first wave and as I stood up to balance the barrel a flush of ecstasy came over me and I forgot that I was even on the planet. For a brief moment I thought of you, my euphoria distracted me and my board came out from underneath me. I was tossed into the ocean and thrown around like a piece of seaweed in the whitewash.

enthusiastic

I don’t know what it was but something about hearing you say my name sent tingles up my spine. It heightened every receptor on my body and put the brightest smile on my face.

It was all I could do to try and contain my excitement. I felt obligated to recount the event of the report for those friends who missed out and it was during these times I found it most difficult to subdue my enthusiasm.

It seemed so silly and insignificant, I don’t know why something so simple sent my heart racing, but it did. I felt like I could do anything after hearing you say my name. I nearly felt invincible.

It might sound odd but it felt like I connected to the universe in some small way. It almost felt like it was waving at me and to an extent it felt like it had nothing to do with you, like it had to do with something greater. Yet at the same time it felt like it had everything to do with you because you were real, you were tangible.

As I walking around on cloud nine the universe decided to throw a curve ball at me to see what I was made of.

It was a typical, beautiful summer’s day on the coast and some friends and I stopped in at the local fish and chip shop before hitting the beach. We were nearly finished our meal when low and behold, you walked through the door.

That tingling sensation overcame me again and I could feel my face flush and smile with excitement. I didn’t even have time to point out what was happening  to my friends before the loudest of them all took it upon herself to announce it to our table and nearly the whole shop.

‘Hey! Isn’t that Alfeines!? The weather man!?… It is!!!’

The whole table started giggling and laughing.

‘Hey Steely! Why don’t you go introduce yourself? Tell him you’re the one that wrote the joke!’

‘I don’t want to bother him… he’s having lunch with a friend’ Which was a bit of a lie, I wanted to walk over to you and say something clever but the surmounting pressure from my well intentioned friends drew the words further and further away from me.

‘Go on! Go tell him you’re the one that’s not easily forgotten!’ they teased with googly eyes and melodramatic love gestures.

‘Stop it… you’re embarrassing me’ I could feel my face growing more flush and my stomach becoming tense.

‘Go walk up to him and tell him another joke!’

It was starting to get ridiculous.

‘Hey STEELY! Can you pass the pepper? STEELY… RIPTIDE?!!!!’

I could sense eyes on our table now and I didn’t even want to check if that included yours. I cracked. I was mortified and I couldn’t grab my surfboard fast enough and high tail it out of there leaving my ‘friends’ to pay the bill.

I felt my reality collapsing in on me and I needed to be somewhere safe. I hit the ocean and stayed out there all afternoon, catching wave after wave, until my legs were too tired to stand on.

windblown

I turned on the television and there you were.

Tousled hair, button up shirt, rolled up sleeves and tie flying over your shoulder. Glasses that subtly hid your charm but emphasized your intellect. You were all business and my god you were cute!

It’s not too often that someone can come along and stir excitement over something like the weather. But there you were, reporting live from the beach, with the coast behind you and the waves rolling in. The wind dishevelling your hair, with every gust further igniting your passion and conviction.

‘I can definitely tune in to this every day.’

And I did.

muse

I remember the first time I heard about you.

‘Hey did you see the local station has hired a new meteorologist? He’s really cute!’

‘Meteorologist… cute? Just as long as he’s telling me how good the offshores are I don’t care what he looks like.’

I grew up in a small costal town where the only thing that changed was the size of the population during the summer season. It was great that everyone wanted to come see how beautiful my home was but it also meant that I had share the ocean.

I struggle with this because overall I think it’s wonderful that people want to enjoy the earth mother’s essence, but there’s something about the solitude and connection you feel with her when you catch that wave and for a brief moment in time you become her muse. There’s something definitely unique about that experience that you just want to keep all to yourself.