Once upon a time, it wasn't so easy to get good surf photographs, so mostly what we had were images like this. Either before or after we went out, or some photo taken by a friend that didn't really capture the feeling of the sport. Now, we can get almost anything photographed, and although I haven't gotten any drone footage yet, I think that by the end of this year that will happen.
What makes this photo interesting to me is that it was the last time my brother Paul and I went surfing. We still hang out, but Paul found that even though he was a good surfer, he didn't like "sand in his shorts"....and he lives at the beach...something I will never understand. Here, we were coming out after a session at Matanzas inlet, a place I only surfed at that one time....later I heard too many shark stories to want to go back.
A couple of other things are really significant to me: Paul is carrying a surfboard that he got from me, one I bought specifically for a trip to Costa Rica with my family. That trip turned out to be one of my family's big adventures...please note that there are no known photos of me surfing in Costa Rica...there is one somewhere of me walking on the beach with a surfboard. That surfboard is still hanging in Paul's garage, but it did not age well. Paul and I did much better.
In this photo, taken back in the late 1990's, judging by my haircut, I was riding a board that I bought from a classified ad, for something like $200. I was very proud of my dealmaking, and tended to overlook the fact that it was pretty much shaped like an ironing board. Then there was this weird logo on the board that no one I ever met could explain: ANOVA. I had fun riding the board, but got a lot of strange looks when walking with the board. One of life's mysteries, never to be explained....
The Perkins boys went off into the woods again. This time, I knew two things: the end of the reasonable weather and the beginning of me sitting behind a desk again were both looming in the near future. I liked the idea that there was a company that found my talents useful, but I also liked taking off and having adventures whenever I felt the need. Paul and I agreed that the Travis McGee approach to life is best: fill the treasure chest when it runs low, and enjoy life when it is full.
We reserved the site: Dock 2, for one weekend a month and have started to feel like this is our home away from home. Mind you, it is a good 1 1/2 miles to the nearest flush toilet and even further to the nearest shower. There is only one shower for men in the campground. It is non-potable sulphur water, but at least it can get semi-warm if you leave it running long enough. Those walks to the bathroom and the shower were how we managed to achieve a brand new goal. 40,000 steps in one day. Hey, if you start walking in the morning and finish about 11pm at night, you can do it. You sleep very well after a day of that. We had the most wind I've seen followed by dead calm with bugs...I prefer something in between, but at least we left before the rain and cold arrived in Florida.
Once again, I saw many people fishing, and nobody catching any fish. One guy we met coming off the water from a kayak claimed to have caught 2 redfish....but we all know about fishermen and their tall tales. Next time I'm taking a fishing rod to see if I can verify the claim that there are actually any fish out there in that water.
We had the fires, the political rap sessions, mostly me standing in for the "left-wing, snowflake, tree-hugging hippies", while my brothers complained about Trump not being allowed to do his job, or to my way of thinking "have his way with our country". I always enjoy these conversations, but have to admit, it was easier for me when Obama was president!
I tried an experiment on this trip: Cast Iron skillet brownies....I'm gonna have to work on that one...3 guys all alone in the woods, and I threw away about half the brownies. I guess they don't like them burned on the bottom and gooey on top.....
