Surf’s up!

We arrived in Edisto Beach on Saturday afternoon. As soon as we unloaded the cars we went down to the beach. The beach, as usual, was beautiful and the ocean was extremely calm. But Irma.

Irma is a hurricane in the Atlantic that is heading our way. I knew this would have an impact on the waves by the middle of the week and sure enough, Tuesday’s surf forecast proved it

I was excited (even though I will admit, some of this is downright scary) and went out and bought a new belly board this morning. Then Ryan and I went out to the beach. The surf was probably 1-3 ft with the occasional 4 ft wave thrown in, which is really good for Edisto.  We belly boarded until the waves began to die down. And I gotta give Ryan credit – he’s my 12 year old grandson - he stayed out as long as I did! Then we went in to get something to eat and wait for the afternoon.

We went back to the beach between 3 and 4 and found the waves were still down, so the boys began to fish

Suddenly, the surf picked up. I went back to the house and got my board and Drew and I went out. I’m guessing it was a steady 2-4 ft with maybe an occasional 5 footer. They were coming in bunches! I told Drew at one point, “If you miss one there’s two or three right after it!” And of course, if you caught one there were four or five pounding you as you tried to get back out.

My new board is a lot bigger than the other ones I’ve been using the last few years so I was having to adjust to that. And with the wind blowing so hard it had a tendency to hit me in the head. I told Drew at one point, “I feel like I bought this new board so I could hit myself in the head!” He asked if it was worth it. Yeah!

I enjoyed the afternoon but here is how it went. When I first went out, I tried to go over a wave with the board (normally, I dive under the wave holding on to the leash). I was holding the board with my right hand (the right shoulder has been hurting lately) and the wave caught the board and jerked my shoulder back. My first conscious thought after Ow!!! was, “I won’t do that again!” And as I hoped it wouldn’t continue to hurt (I fully intended to stay out anyway) my next thought was, “I wonder if I can take Meloxicam* three times a day (instead of twice).”

Then after catching a wave I noticed that the leash had cut into the board!! Wow, I have never seen this before. I removed the leash from the board and kept on surfing. Sometime later my leash came completely untied. I have never seen this either. And on the first day! Drew went in and I stayed out a little while longer before heading in to eat supper.

So, with all this, how was my day with the larger surf and my new board? GREAT! And once I get the leash problem fixed I plan to go out tomorrow.

Surf’s up, Dude!


*Meloxicam is a non steroid anti inflammatory that I take when my shoulder hurts