I made it past the breakers, beyond the brute slap of the Pacific’s arm and the ramming plunges of whitewater, onto the mammoth back of the ocean. It swells and heaves beneath me. I feel so small.
I paddle farthest out, and behind me, everyone bobs atop their boards, all in black, all watching the outside. Suddenly, floating above the emerald heft, I relax in between sets. I circle to face shore, sitting upright. My feet tangle in the slick fingers of kelp that sways in a world beneath me, a mystifying, pulsing abyss. Sea otters hump three feet from my board, unashamed, and I smile and wipe snot off my face while they cavort and roll in a large circle around me.
I swing outside again and see nothing under the white curtain of fog. But back on the shore, I watch the boys and Dwight take turns sliding on the sand, learning to skim, climbing the cliff rocks. Chas is wearing a red baseball cap. That was a good idea.
Damon, yards behind me on his big banana longboard, puts both fingers to his eyes, then one finger points outside. I turn my back. A tremendous hussy of a wave shows me her hand, and my face falls. I am sucked offshore in her slow inhale, and in the green-gray glassy shadow, where I watch the kelp reach skywards, I draw a pillowfull of air and slink off my board. That’s when the beginner follows her stomach, covers her head, and plunges round and round to the place where leashes become necklaces, surfboards rocket, and the ocean smacks a big fat bubbly sign on my forehead that reads “DUMBASS.”
You are a little boy’s mama-HERO! And it doesn’t matter how you feel you’re faring at it. The fact that you’re beginning is incredibly cool. I’m in awe.
i could see and hear and feel every minute of this! love it.
So you got spanked by the wave? You’ve got some guts to be out there! Good for you, Steph. Glad to see that you and your family is enjoying Cali as much as you are. I’m sure Austin misses you. 🙂
hey there, just checking up on you, and damn excited to talk to you SOON! if you have come to houston and haven’t called me i am never speaking to you again, just kidding, omg i am so funny. i think of you all often, and have a dream trip planned to come out with the kids to california and visit all of the loved ones i have there. perhaps spring break? yes, i will call soon. everyone misses you!
Oh I miss YOU TOO!!! Fall was crazy! I apologize that you have little to check up on by visiting here; I’m just going to have to call you TOMORROW. No excuses, screaming children and barking dogs in the background will just have to do, I just miss you terribly.
XOXO
*s
ps–Chas is still Chas 😉 he found a Corona sitting around on Christmas eve and pounded it behind our backs. I think he also finished Damon’s glass of wine. We need to put everything on shelves or pound it ourselves. We had to wake him up the next morning so he could find his presents!
(Of course, someone had to wake MY sloshiness up first!)