Hey dave - know exactly what you mean. Yesterday morning I surfed a very punchy local beachy with my best mate and had the most rewarding surf I have had in many years. When I say rewarding I mean that I have had plenty of really fun surfs in nice conditions with long rides and nice turns and all that really fun stuff - but due to a very dodgy back injury I haven't really taken on anything really challenging for probably 3years or so - until yesterday. We got a few nice ones early that were pretty easy but kept ya on your toes due to the high tide shorey and shallow water but they were fun warm ups. Then the tide changed and so did the attitude of the wave. Now they were steep takeoffs (not very big, just steep) and more suited to the shortboard crew who were all over it. I took off on a set wave, way too late and ate it so badly my mate was just about to come get me, or what was left of me
I very sheepishly paddled back out to a sea of shortboarders looking at me and just shaking their heads and my mate pissing himself laughing at the biggest wipeout I had taken in maybe 5years. I think the suggestion was made that maybe we should take the next one in and leave it to the shortys and that seemed smart but not exactly what I had in mind. 5 minutes later - bomb set comes through and I watch the shortboard on my inside paddle for it - he goes over the falls and the devil on my shoulder says "go"
Freefall down the face on a 9.4 mal - grabbed a huge handful of rail and I leaned as far and hard as I could back against the wall and pulled straight in
I could not believe the planets had all just aligned for me and it seemed to effortless (thinking back it wasnt that effortless
)
Paddled out again - my mate is just shaking his head and a couple of the shortboarders just smile and not as I paddle past - isn't is amazing how we say we don't give a rats about what others think but we get so much from the acceptance of others
I sat up out the back and could barely breath my heart was pumping so fast and I just wanted to scream and hoot and holler and go off. I caught the next one in and headed back to the car where I proceeded to hug everyone in sight and I just felt like a ten year old kid at xmas - it was incredible. I was literally buzzing for the next 4 or 5 hours and just couldn't stop smiling. I have never ever felt that lasting stoke after a surf - yeah I have felt really good about a sesh and dribbled on about it with mates afterwards but never felt the physical buzz and excitement before like I did yesterday. I think it was a mixture of actually surfing well on the day and the feeling of relief after thinking a couple of years ago that I would never surf my longboard again when my back went really bad. Today I have this whole new enthusiasm for surfing and I am feeling really confident that I have finally made my transition back from non-surfing to standup paddling to longboard surfing again and boy it makes me happier than I have felt in years.
