Pace Yourself

[stoneaxe]

No worries guys..please don't feel sorry for me. Life is good, the journey is a bit different than planned but still 1st world problems. I just have to dodge the raindrops.... .

I still had some great rides on Sunday morning.....though the best of the day was screwed by a longboarder (real dumb longboarder) who I just barely managed to miss when he dropped in without looking...or at least I thought he wasn't looking. I saw this wave coming a long way out and started paddling for the horizon and I was the only one out there when it started to break....just barely got on it and had to pump and paddle but I finally got the drop and knew it was going to be fun...took the 1st one deep and then did a hard bottom turn came back up and tore the top off the wave..... ….that wave was fast...it overtook the one ahead and caused a weird fold in the face. I shot over it and dropped to the bottom....a little wobbly but I held it, went deep and then came back up for a long floater on the lip. I landed the floater and started to maneuver through all the folks inside. A couple of short quick turns and I was lining up to come off the lip of the next section when this idiot starts flailing his arms to catch the wave. I was flying at that point and I had to cut hard to avoid him. Forced me deep and I missed the next section and got rolled. Shortboarder who watched it all said.."man.....you were ripping that until that guy fucked it up". I rarely say anything nasty to anyone but when the longboarder didn't say anything as I paddled back out and was sitting there with a smirk on his face talking with his buds  I paddled over and told him if he fucking drops in again I'll just run him over. I said it with a smile...which makes me look a bit scary since the left side of my face doesn't work..... .

I'm not sure WTF some people are thinking. After seeing his reaction and the smirk I'm pretty sure the drop was on purpose....I'm 6'4" 270 lbs and kind of ogreish looking...I don't think he and his 2 friends combined are as large. Never mind what could have happened if I hadn't turned hard...if I was the angry young me I would have used him as a club to beat his friends.

Long story Zoo...2003 diagnosed, radiation and then surgery...I have no vestibular or hearing organs on the left side now. I always, 24/7, have some level of vertigo from  mild light headed feeling to fall down on your face. I've fallen many times getting out of bed...usually the worst time. Put my forehead through our closet door once.... . SUP is my therapy for balance problems... . The biggest issue now is driving...I don't drive if it's anything more than what I feel comfortable with and I'm starting to drive mostly back roads and slower even when I do feel comfortable enough.


It comes and goes EB...some connection to weather changes, and if my sinuses get clogged with a cold or allergies that screws with me also...but sometimes it just happens. Today I'm fine...just he usual stuff I can ignore. I'm on Grampy duty today so staying in the house anyway though.

[Beasho]

I rarely say anything nasty to anyone but when the longboarder didn't say anything as I paddled back out and was sitting there with a smirk on his face talking with his buds  I paddled over and told him if he fucking drops in again I'll just run him over. I said it with a smile...which makes me look a bit scary since the left side of my face doesn't work..... .

Sometimes you just have to snap, as in lose your sh-t.

I never snap but I snapped a few years ago when some guy on a Mav's gun paddled out to Mushroom rock and just went right through the lineup while I was on a wave.  I was alone on a SUP and he and 2 buddies were prone.  Small'ish day 4 to 6 feet through a spot called EY's for Extreme Yackers - A place no Kayaker would ever go.  It's extreme because you go between 2 rocks and when its working you surf, going right, within feet of one of the rocks.  As in there is NO room for a guy paddling out while someone is on the wave.  So he took off inside of me and I went anyways.  I had to kick out because there is NO room for 2 guys to thread that needle.  I later, and in a polite manner, ask 'How was that wave?'  He says "Man you gotta watch your board you almost hit me." 

I didn't recognize the guy so I start laying into him "I don't know who you are, you're definitely NOT from around here and more than half the time you prone guys paddle for a wave you miss them so I am going to take off . . . . "  He says in a pissed off voice 'Oh Really we miss them!'

YES!  I yell back. 

It turned out to be Ben Wilkinson who was 4th on the big wave tour.  Big Ben is 6' 3" and probably 220, Patagonia Cover Boy and looks like Mr Incredible.  I was pretty fit and 175 at the time.  Haaaaa! 

PS:  I told the story to my buddy Ian Wallace who later said "Don't worry man I talked to Ben and apologized for you being a d-ck."  WHAT!   Added insult to injury.

[supsean]

Thanks. great post!

[stoneaxe]

LOL...good story Beasho….but my problem was always that I lost my shit too easily. Thankfully mellowed with age. I try to just laugh now.

Speaking of pacing myself…..a bit of relaxing SUP....beautiful sunset paddle with my wife last night. A very warm October night, sun was down when we came in, went over to the backside and watched the lights of Plymouth come on as it got dark, a smell of roses and salt in the air (beach roses all over). It doesn't get much better than that.

[eastbound]

ive mellowed too, a good thing---too old to get beat up, or to beat someone up--zero upside in that--only downside is the angst one feels when wronged, when one walks away without standing up--meaningless compared to what can go wrong in a fistfight--even if one "wins"

i commute on a bike nearly an hour each way in NYC traffic---used to yell at aholes several times each ride--makes a healthy activity unhealthy--now i thank the drivers, who follow the law, and yield properly to bikes/bikelanes, with a thumbs up and ok gesture--and i try, usually with success, to not shout down the selfish aholes who put cyclists at risk for no good reason but that they're in a hurry