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.