Beautiful Waves, The Ship, and the Brown Stuff

Big waves at the beach bring other things besides an opportunity to surf. We get the seaweed and this year there was more seaweed than I have seen in my lifetime. The seaweed is okay and probably provides extra food options for the birds, but the jellyfish? No, it wasn't the worst kind of jellyfish, just the big pink ones, the kind that break into pieces and become what we know as 'sea-lice'. Sea-lice, you can't see 'em so you can't avoid 'em. Nothing like falling off your board into the water and having parts of your body feel like an electric shock. The only thing worse is when you feel that in your pants!
Seaweed and jellyfish are part of nature, so we accept it for the price of having the waves...but the ship that sat out there at the edge of the horizon for weeks, what is that? And what is the brown foamy stuff we could see at times in the water? You can't help but think that something is either leaking or getting flushed. My wife noticed the brown stuff the most when she had her polarized sunglasses on, just chocolate colored sections of water with brown foam. You really do not know the origin, but when you see cruise ships going by with 5000 people on them and freighter after freighter marching into the horizon, you start to wonder if they really dump their waste far enough away and if they don't, who's going to stop them?

Finding the Excitement

This is a shot from the morning we had to leave Cocoa Beach and head back home. Is this normal Cocoa Beach surf? No Way! But whenever a hurricane strolls by and stays at least 300 miles away, we get surf like this. What made this swell better in my eyes, was that we did not seem to get the long lines of closeout waves that we sometimes get. For me the best days were Wednesday and Thursday, before the crowds descended, but I'm sure that the waves continued through Sunday. I'm all beat up and so is my board, but I would not have it any other way. I definitely learned that you don't have to be in the best spot, you just have to figure out how to get the best out of YOUR spot...something I might to apply to the rest of my life!

The Week of Relaxing Turned Into Something Else

It started off with a cold, and then the weather was going to be not so great, and then on top of all that, a possible hurricane. But what happened after that is the real story. Pam's home remedy of Vitamin C and Zinc got me back on my feet quicker than I could imagine and the one day of howling wind and unsurfable waves gave me the time I needed to recover. The rest of the time has been surfing more than I ever had before. I've been out on the largest waves on a paddleboard ever, and it has been consistently waves that rivaled my recent surfing adventure in Southern California. Thursday, I was out on and off until 6pm and I am still sore in places I didn't know about. Sea Lice are in the mix and now the crowd of surfers. I actually got to where I was taking it for granted that I could have any wave I wanted until yesterday afternoon, when the water became full of surfers that were hoping to get some of the hurricane swell. Today is supposed to be the big day, so I can only assume that the crowd will grow. If there is one feeling I have had on this trip, it is a growing sense of wonder. That I can do this, that we have surf like this, it all just blows me away. Pam has her umbrella on the beach and a good book and has become my cheering section. I feel like I am that soccer kid that is looking in the bleachers to see if they saw his goal...and she always says that she did!

The Beach Always Has Something, Even When You're Sick

This adventure has more twists and turns than usual. Getting sick right before was not in the plans, a great family get-together and excellent surf further kept me from deciding if this was the worst or best week ever. Even now, the wind is howling on shore for the second day and a whirly girl is cooking down in the islands. I could be there for the epic waves of the year, or clinging onto the remaining stanchion of the condo as a storm returns us to the Stone Age. No matter, I have definitely learned that this time is not just one thing, and even as I walk in the largest pile of seaweed I've ever seen, there can be beautiful sandcastles up ahead.
Regardless, I'm going out to walk the sand and admire the storm clouds building and know once more that the adventure is still on!