Endless Session, Day 142: Shortboard dreams
Gliding on day 142. Photo by Grant Ibrahim
My morning alarm is usually unnecessary. My eyes pop wide open at 6 a.m., even after a long night at a roaring ’20s Christmas party. Although I was awake, I neglected to move for at least an hour and thought about how much I’ve surfed in the past 5 days – over 20 hours of water time. It took almost every ounce of energy I had to get myself out of bed and moving, stiff and sore from overextending my ocean therapy. A sunrise “SURF IS GOOD” text from Boris Vishnevsky thankfully provided the extra motivation I needed to get packed and going.
Kris Hall and Morgan sharing a wave. Photo by Grant Ibrahim
I made the short drive down to the beach, all the while promising myself that I would catch three waves (my minimum surf quota) and head in to give my shoulders and lats break – but once in the sea I couldn’t bring myself back to shore. On my very first ride, a seal cut in front of me and jumped up a few times, playing around in the break. The fun waves, good people, wildlife, and bit of mystical fog made my soreness nonexistent and allowed me to yet again surf my brains out.
Day 142. Photo by Grant Ibrahim
After I managed to finally get myself out of the water, my new surf buddy and coworker Dr. Luis Abrishamian, who decided on our surf adventures yesterday that he wanted to order a new stick, met me down at my Sea Sensei’s shaping den. The first board that Luis ever rode was a Jose Barahona longboard, and he was excited to meet Jose and order a brand new surfboard from a shaper of his caliber. After they talked some shop, we headed into another room to put some artwork on my brand new shortboard – Luis taking over the calligraphy on the bottom, and I drawing some artwork on the top. Being a longboarder at heart, I’ve never been too excited to ride a shortboard, until now. Jose and I meticulously talked about ideas for this particular board and made it very 70s-esque, using a singlefin instead of a regular 3 fin thruster.
Dr. A helping out with artwork while Jose gives pointers. Photo
It’ll be ready by the weekend, and until then I’ll be having pretty blue shortboard daydreams.