Return to the fold

[surfinJ]

After an 88 day injury timeout, the joy of being wet again with a paddle in my hands.  Picked a clean day and a longboard to make the reentry easier.

[SUPcheat]

Congratulations, Jay.  Any residual effects from your broken eardrum?

The last couple of months with all of the rain and storm surges with beach hazard, I haven't been going out but about once a week, sometimes less.  SUP gets under your skin and my mood suffered, which surprised me.  I have been out again three times this weekend, and I feel "normal" again.

[surfinJ]

Thanks a lot Carl, we sure like the "normal".  Ear seems ok, plugging it for insurance.  See ya in May I hope.

[SUPcheat]

Hey, sounds good.  Maybe El Nino will still be kicking it up this year instead of the standard spring slowdown.

[mrbig]

surfinJ, Great to hear you are back at it! Hope you have a safe and FUN return..    

[PDLSFR]

That looked a great return to me !!! Welcome back !

[surfinJ]

Thanks guys, feels good to share the stoke.

[stoneaxe]

Nice....amazing how much just getting wet can affect our mood.

[headmount]

Wish there was something for my ringing ears.  I'd wait out of water for a long time if it would fix them but Kaiser says I'm screwed.  Glad that you're back and eardrum is healed.  Conner's sister used to do backflips off cliffs but those days are done for her now after a blown eardrum.  Hearing isn't over-rated and I hate being that guy who always says What?  Most of the time I nod, smile and pretend to hear.

[SuppaTime]

I also have very bad tinnitus (ringing) and cannot understand conversations. Hearing tests show a big drop-out in my hearing response in the higher end of the voice range, which happens to be where most women speak, so I need to get my ear close to soft spoken women, which can be a little off-putting. Dinner table conversation with friends and lots of background noise I cannot understand anyone, man or woman. Very aggravating.

Sometimes people say something to me in the line-up and I have no idea if they are saying "nice wave brah" or are saying "what an asshole, brah". I always assume the better one.

[surfinJ]

Thanks for the words.

Sometimes people say something to me in the line-up and I have no idea if they are saying "nice wave brah" or are saying "what an asshole, brah". I always assume the better one.

What?  Most of the time I nod, smile and pretend to hear.

    My French isn't perfect so I'm never sure if I didn't hear it, or maybe just didn't understand.  I've perfected the smile head nod. My wife hates it and if she catches me announces "he didn't understand" , nice girl.

Seriously, though not logical, my first fear in December was not being able to keep surfing. The possible loss of livelihood due to hearing loss and subsequent liscence loss was seemed less worrying.

My buddy in the same profession deals with bad tinnitus. Jet lag, caffeine and alcohol seem to trigger the worse events.  Seems putting your body under stress can increase the magnitude. At it's worst, a heavy affliction. I've got a touch that only became apparent in the sound proof booths where I get my tests done.  Sitting there already hearing my own peeps and pings, I've got to concentrate real hard to identify the computer generated ones.

[surfinJ]

The swell for this session was 3' and 15 sec. In the vid you see how the 3 foot, long period swell peaks to an overhead wave on the sand bar.  This past summer I had a special day there with a 6' 19sec swell, out all alone. About double overhead at the peak. Got 2 waves, then had to swim after my camera.  Got hit by a set, had a two wave hold down - forgot to bring the Gooru- and washed up on the beach.
Found out camera had missed it all.

Here below you see the peak where I surfed, off to the left. And a peak on the right, now gone after the winter swells. It has 10 shortboarders on it, hard to see, riding a 8-10' reform tube on the inside.

[surfercook]

You were benched 88 days?! That's a LONG friggin' time. Most for me was like 3 weeks. You're sure surfing well for such a long time out. Looked glorious! I had to check ur profile to see where ur at, J. Always pleased when a member fills in location. France is def bucket list for me! Nice vid you put togeth. Beautiful conditions and I love "Riptide"!

[stoneaxe]

Tinnitus sucks, single side deafness too. Hurting my one good ear is a big fear of mine. I had a brass band on my left side after radiation, a mix of higher tones that warbled accompanied by short start and stop lower ones. Big improvement after surgery. After they scooped out all the goodies all that's left is a high pitch whine. It's background/white noise unless I think about it but it exacerbates being half deaf. Obviously whatever the sound is it's completely generated in the brain, at least for me. I have no auditory nerve on my left side or any hearing organs for that matter.. I wish I could get Sirius/XM instead of this.

My wife is always telling people "he didn't understand" and they aren't even speaking french........

Surfing France has been on my list too. One of my favorite all time SUP vids, and I think the picture is from the same day....zoom in to right of center to see the lone SUPper

[surfinJ]

Last Sunday, I love that vid, just watched it again. Guéthary or Getaria in Basque which is what they are singing in.  It is a port village where the fisherman went out in row boats after the small bay of bisqay whale.

This wave is the queen of the coast. My favorite place to surf.  Easy long waves with a big channel to paddle back out in. But more and more inaccessible due crowds and vibes.  I mostly due dawn patrols and at the end of the day.  It's where I told you the story of the young blood pulling me out of the water.  Next time I'll see if I dare to film. 

And thanks for your words of support surfercook, but waves that perfect make it easy to surf better. My balance surprised me too. I think performance stress because of the other surfers in the line up. 2 days later in smaller surf with my daughter I was flopping down all over the place.