I CHEATED!

And I got caught. And now my husband wants a divorce, custody, and child support!!

PSYCH!!!! Okay, I did cheat, but not on him. In fact, no sex was involved whatsoever, yet I'm still ecstatic. Let me start at the beginning. I didn't expect to surf today. As usual, I said nothing about the beach once we were all up and milling around in the house this morning. Then, out of the blue, my husband said the magic words, "If you fix me something to eat, we can go to the beach afterwards." (In case you hadn't picked up on it, my husband can't cook. It wasn't until recently that he started eating and asking for breakfast.) Anyway, I think I was packed up before he was even finished eating. We got to the beach and I immediately started getting suited up. Why bother to look? I was there. I wanted to get wet and I had the log with me. There was no reason not to get in, even though all of the reports suggested the conditions would be flat and poor. So, I got in. Much of the crew was there. I could tell it was going to be a fun session. The waves were so small that everybody was laughing out loud about the tiny waves they did catch. I figured it was a day to simply play. I was wrong . . . or was I? I'd been going right most of the morning. I didn't want to run into the little kids and parents playing in the water to my left. At some point, I decided I wanted to get a left. I think I may have moved over to give myself room. A tiny left eventually began to build and crawl toward me. I jumped on it. Then, something strange happened. Instead of dying out, the left did a slight reform and picked up steam. I found trim and watched as the nose of the board seemed to be suspended in mid-air. To my surprise, I started walking toward it. Before I knew it, I was there. I was there! I wasn't in the water. I wasn't pearling, laughing to myself as first my foot and then the bottom half my leg became submerged before the rest of me went in. Instead, I was there, on the nose, doing a cheater five. I cheated! Finally!! Not only did I pull off a cheater five, but I also (somehow) knew when it was time to step back to the tail and end the ride. I couldn't believe I'd finally done it. Finally!!! FINALLY!!! A real trip to the nose and back. What made it even better was the number of people who saw it. See, I live in one of those philosophical internal worlds where I'm liable to believe that something doesn't count if no one sees you do it. To my relief, Sensei Greg, Niles, Shannon, Shannon's friend from France, and Sym saw it. It was also witnessed by someone on the shore, someone who seemed to read my mind and said, when I got out, "It still counts if no one sees it."

I always hear people say you'll never forget your first wave. I don't remember my first wave at all. But I won't forget this!!!