Lockdown 37

Lockdown Day 37 - 2 May 2020

Yesterday's talk of surfing got my brain going and today, after shopping through waves of people, I would like to tell you about the science of the perfect wave. Yes, surfing is a science. Whether you stand or lie on a board, the science for the serious surfers stays the same. First you have to know where between low and high tide lies your sweet spot. You need to be surfing thát long and know ‘your’ strip the best. Also you need to know the currents in conjunction with the wind and the weather. It is much like knowing your own neighbourhood. The locals all know where the best butcher, coffee or home produce can be found. Someone from another place just driving through will not know where to go for unusual treats, because they haven’t lived there long enough to know. Likewise when you surf you get to know the water. When the timing is right, my favourite time is Dawn Patrol (surfing first thing in the morning). Once in the water, there are a couple of things only surfers know about. People like me are known as ‘Betty’, which is the oldest surf ‘speak’ from the 1960's for a girl surfer. I don’t wear a wetsuit because, you guessed it, I love to “freeze”. The first 10 minutes you go from cold to frozen, which means you don’t really feel anything. Easiest way is to duck dive underneath the breakers till you get to where the waves break. This takes  about 90 to 120 minutes. Depending on the surf, you can come out a “Frube” (been in the water but did a zero - no waves caught) or you can come out ”Mushed” (the waves disintegrate every time you’re in the pocket- that place you are when you’re riding a wave). But oh, when you get that perfect wave, especially when it’s a glassy one, that is just the coolest feeling ever. From the the moment you move into the clean pocket and then the exhilarating drop down the see-through water is inexplicable joy. This just makes me go back for more. After about 7 waves the “Lull” comes. This is when the whole part where the waves break just goes quiet for a while before the swell starts up again. One day I was riding out a particularly quiet and long lull. I saw a shoal of silver flying fish come past. I dropped into the water to see them underwater and then shoot up and out of the water as if they were flying. What an incredible experience. Not long ago after I had started using a wooden board after a back operation, I found myself on a wooden board between longboarders. They were fascinated by this Betty and one of them even swopped boards with me not believing a wooden board could stay afloat. In surfer speak: Dude, I will always feel like a Betty in baggies screaming cowabunga after climbing a glassy wall and dropping smoothly into the pocket to catch a totally awesome ride! Mm hm aha YEAH 💃. 

So tonight I lift up a praise to God who makes glassy waves and speaks to me in the lull through silver flying fish, who invigorates my spirit and reminds me that He can do the impossible. Dude, He won't bail on you, He's the Perfect Wave!