Friday, August 12, 2005

2 surf school sessions with drama in the middle

I warm my body up with 5 Tibetans + the hidden one. I hear from Liz that it was glassy at 9 AM and not many people out. The waves just keep on breaking. Backyards. I paddle on out at 11 AM. There's about 7 of us out there. The sets roll in pretty regularly every 5-10 minutes. The first chapter of this surf sesh is titled: struggle. Today's waves here are hard for me to read. I wonder if they came from Japan or something. I watch a beautiful Hawaiian woman effortlessly catch wave after wave. Struggle, struggle, struggle. I try for a wave and the nose goes under water and I am dumped into the sea. Caught inside. Wave after wave washes over me. Paddle, paddle, paddle. Finally back out. Watch and observe. What am I doing wrong? This goes on for another 30 or 40 minutes. Getting schooled by the ocean. And then: I catch a wave. Not too big but it gives me a nice ride. The ice is broken and I am now able to ride these waves. The highlight occurs with a one of the bigger waves of the day. I catch it, cut and slip along the wall. Ahh. That is why I surf. Brief moments that last forever.

Paddle in. When I get near the shore. Liz is there with some friends. Liz is waving at me and screeching. "Come in over there! flip the board over!" She waves her hands crazily not even knowing that she's over reacting.

The reef is sharp, slippery and there are pits and holes. "Let me concentrate." I pick up the board and carefully make my way over the terrain. The wind blows the board and I tighten my grip.

When I reach the sand, Liz continues to berate me in front of her friends. "Don't you no where to come in?! it lines up with there!" She points to something (????)

I try and express that she made me uncomfortable with her histrionics: "Liz, try walking in my feet, it aint easy to negotiate coming in while someone is-" She cuts me off. Unable to listen.

I say "Thanks for embarrassing me." and walk away.

[Almost live]
Just a few moments ago, with Roberto present, we tried to rehash the moment. Highlights: "I was not screeching at you!" and "You're the girl and I am the boy. You're a girl!" and "You're in my house!"

When I walk away from this barrage she says "Run away!"

All I can do is scratch my head at this behavior. Why try and provoke me like that? All I can think is one word: displacement.

[That just happened so I wanted to put it down while fresh in my mind like hot cookies out of the oven. Hmmm hmm. Eat them up, don't cost nothing.]

I had another 2 hour session which started at 6 PM. This one can be summed up with one word: struggle. Sound familiar? lucky for my fragile ego I still managed to catch about 3 or 4 waves. The waves keep coming. I mostly learn the hard way. The horizon is above the sun. Orange clouds become grey. I catch some white water to come in. It reforms into a wave and I stand up.