Endless Session, Day 281: What Surfing Will Do To You

It was quite a lot of work, but ultimately I had fun with my new buddy Tomo.
Bliss. Photo
Why I’m so tired. Photo

Dead would be a cheery euphemism for how I was feeling by the afternoon of my 281st straight day of surfing.

The pristine, buttery left in front of Cardon Resort is world class.  Like a softer, backwards Malibu, the near perfect wave has drawn surf celebs such as Gerry Lopez and Chris Malloy, who describe it as “a little slice of heaven.”  It’s hard to even leave your fancy air conditioned room at the beauty that is Cardon Resort, which accepts guests for an all inclusive week starting Saturday’ — but when you wake up and look beyond and see reeling swells less than 100 yards out from your balcony, you can’t help but put a skip in your step and almost bypass the hot and ready coffee in the gourmet kitchen.

So after a deep Central American slumber, I skipped out the door around 6:30 a.m. and grabbed a sled that I normally would never, ever, ever ride.  Not only was it a shortboard — it was a funky looking 5’9 Tomo board.

The paddle at Cardon is not for the faint hearted.  At first glance it doesn’t seem like much tribulation, but the inside current is like a liquid conveyor belt, working against your most likely already sore upper body.  Especially on a tiny shortboard, where your paddle power is close to zero.  I somehow managed to make it out past the washing machine to the point, where still ocean was only disturbed by the head high, glassy set waves that were consistently making their advances on me and the other resort guests.

It was quite a lot of work, but ultimately I had fun with my new buddy Tomo.
It was quite a lot of work, but ultimately I had fun with my new buddy Tomo.

Feeling clumsy and out of place on the oddly-shaped board, I sat with difficulty, and then paddled for a set wave with more difficulty, air dropping onto my face and rolling a few times with my short friend Tomo — slightly caressing that reef that took a chunk out of my toe a few days prior.  Trapped on the inside, I duck dove under wave after wave after wave. I must’ve caught the first of a 10 wave set, which left me in a really shitty spot upon falling.  Finally seeing a break in the breakers, I made it back out to the group, shook it off, drained the water out of my nose and ears, and proceeded to take off on an even bigger set and fell backwards this time, landing so hard on my back that it sent shock waves through my body.

Well, I was sure off to an interesting start.

After a few shortboard pointers from the helpful crowd, like staying high on the wave as to gain speed and widening my stance, I rode and carved on 300 yards of pure perfection to the inside, where I then happily traded in the Tomo for the 9’0 firewire — a little closer to my preference as a longboarder.  And back out I went, that exhausting paddle certainly testing my stamina, neck and shoulders hating me by the time I made it back to the lineup.  Usually the adrenaline and rush of surfing and simply being in the ocean overpowers soreness, tiredness, and pain, but during the next few hours of my second session, it was like gravity was picking on me, and I probably fell more times in an hour than I have surfing in the past three weeks.  I was tired down to the deepest parts of my bones.

I managed to catch a few waves all the way past the resort, and finally I couldn’t move anymore.  Getting out of the water and feet hitting the sand, I trudged slowly up the steps, and could barely lift my mouth to chew my veggie omelette.  I’ve never felt so pulled into the Earth, and when most of the time my blabbering self can’t shut up, I found speaking practically burdensome.  So around 11:30 a.m., I laid in bed, crawled 100 feet from my door for a much needed massage around 2 p.m., and went back to bed, and only got up from my air conditioned cocoon when dinner was served at 7:30.  At one point one of the resort managers came to check on me, and laughing at my state, brought back another worker to show him what surfing will do to you.

And the waves of Cardon are worth every second of soreness and suffering.

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Related