I saw the morning sun for the first time in 11 days at my house. No fog at the beach either. Time for a paddle to work out the kinks from the Covewater race on Saturday.
I hadn't really intended to "race" but once one is in the water with all the other people who do want to race, "race mode" becomes somewhat irresistible. To qualify, racing for me is keeping up a steadier and quicker pace and cadence than I would if I wasn't "racing," and taking no rest stops. Sounds easy enough, but after seven miles I was needing the rest I had shunned for the previous almost two hours.
I took Sunday off and felt pretty sore, my feet being the aching-est part of my body. Feet? Go figure. By Monday I thought a short and relaxed paddle would feel good and help to stretch out some of those tired but recovering muscle groups.
I launched from New Brighton and paddled a diamond shaped 3-miler which turned out to be just right. No problems, no issues, just a beautiful paddle on a pristine Summer day. Looking forward to the Pier to Pier 5-miler wit da boyz this coming Saturday.
NB 3 Mile
Tuesday July 19, 2011
There was a little swell in the water yesterday during my 3-miler which I figured was the Fijian swell and I hoped that it would stick around through at least this morning. So I waited a bit on the tide and paddled out to the usual spots with SimmyD at around 0945.
The thick fog had burned back quite a bit and it was warm and sunny. Unfortunately, the swell had dropped off quite a bit and there were only leftovers being surfed by a huge group of surfers including a surf school that descended into Middies about 45 minutes into the session.
I surfed three or four different spots, poaching a few here, then there and taking down quite a few mediocre waves. Occasionally a sweet little sleeve would roll through, but it was mostly small and sectiony in the rising tide. Maybe the coolest thing about this morning was poaching a half dozen waves at FP's. Usually SUPs are heavily frowned upon in that neighborhood but since there wasn't a lot of wave action, and even fewer people surfing there I got away with it. This is how it all starts. (Insert winking smiley face here.)
After I changed out, I headed for fro-yo in the rapidly warming late morning. Can't get there too early cuz they don't open until 11:30. Bummer, no fro-yo for the dawn patrol. I motored over to my favorite overlook and shot some video. Again, it was packed but there were a ton of people having a ton of fun in the little longboard waves that were streaming through. It was the perfect transition from morning to afternoon on a perfect Summer day with roils of laughter drifting up and over the edge of my cliff-side perch. Man, I love Summer!
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