Hello Liars & Truth Tellers!
I used to surf.
My senior year in high school, I discovered surfing. I had lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for six years, and I had never surfed.
One fall day, I cut class with some friends and went down to Santa Cruz. We had planned to hang out at the Boardwalk, a beachside amusement park. On a lark, we decided to go surfing. We rented boards and suits (the ocean in Northern California is always freezing) and somehow convinced a guy to teach us the basics.
It took me most of the day to stand up. But for the three seconds I was on top of a wave, I was the happiest I’d ever been. It was like riding a roller coaster, racing down a hill on your bike at 50 MPH, and summiting a mountain all rolled into one.
Over the rest of the year, I took every chance I could to surf. If it wasn’t for the fact that Mrs. Pabst in the attendance office would excuse any senior from school if they could make her laugh, I might not have graduated.
As much as I love the ocean, I haven’t surfed in decades. I do regularly get the boogie boards out with the kids.
I’m starting to wonder if I could even still get up—but I think it’s time to find out.
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason