Performance Anxiety

For some reason, the guys who photograph surfers and later sell those photos have never found our break . . . until this week. I saw the guy yesterday when I took my kid to the beach to hang out and play. I even asked him if he would be coming back, telling him I wanted to see some pictures of me surfing. It's not that I think I'm particularly photogenic. Normally, I don't like to have my picture taken. But this is surfing, dammit! My abilties have changed so much over the last six months, let alone over the last year, that I need to see what I look like on a board. I mean, I tend to think I've found a bit of style since moving up to such a long board. So I was anxious to see myself on film. Or at least I thought I was. Today, once I noticed the camera and that huge lens, I did what I do best. I got performance anxiety. I've been athletic my entire life and I've always suffered from some from of athletic performance anxiety. Today was no different. The camera came out and so did my kookiness. I proceeded to pearl like someone diving for oysters! It was not pretty. Eventually, I got myself together. I had to block out all thoughts of the photographer. Then I just surfed. The pictures look pretty good. I was mainly concerned about my balance, where I am on the board, etc. The pictures showed me that I surf like I thought I did. You can see that I'm no longer a beginner. You can also see that I'm not ready for the cover of Longboard Magazine just yet.