I'm Throwing in the Towel!

No, not the surfing towel. But I'm finally going to admit that I've been cold this entire summer. I know I refused to wear a fullsuit. I thought I could live without it. Now I have to admit that I'm going to buy a 3/2 for summer waves. It's just too damn chilly for me out there. I thought I could gut it out or wait for my body to acclimate itself to the not-so-warm water. Well, I gave it my best shot. And now I'm admitting defeat. I've got to get a fullsuit. Today I was cold from the minute we got out of the car. The wind was up at LPB. For some reason, even a bit of a breeze chills me almost to the bone. As a result, I couldn't really concentrate on surfing today. I was too busy willing myself not to shiver. It's kind of hard to surf when all you can think about is how cold you are.

Anyway, it was a pretty good session. I finally dragged Gracefullee to LPB with me and CYT. The waves were definitely smaller than they'd been earlier in the week. They'd also lost quite a bit of their shape. The one thing I've come to realize from surfing this week is that I'm not an admirer of big waves. CYT loves them. She says they're the only waves on which she can do anything. I prefer medium waves as they're the ones on which I feel comfortable to walk the board. At LPB, I continually come face-to-face with my own fears. (I consider the movie Riding Giants a horror movie; it scared the shit out of me.) Big walls of water are unnerving to me. Still, I dropped in on a few good-sized waves today, making drops that I didn't think I would survive. Obviously, I lived to tell about them. The wave at LPB is so fast that all I can do is drop, make a bottom turn, and try to climb back up the face. Sometimes I made it. Sometimes I didn't. On most of the decent waves, I didn't even make an attempt. I'm feeling a little stale now that it's August. I don't feel focused anymore. I've spent this entire summer surfing. I've surfed so much that I need to take a break. So even though I wasn't tired today, I just couldn't get myself together mentally. I think, believe it or not, I'm a little tired of surfing. I don't see this as anything negative. I've made so many improvements over the last two months that I need some time to process it all. So, I may take a little break. (In Surfsister-speak, "a little break" means three or four days.) During my last few sessions, I've felt like I was in a state of chaos. I simply couldn't get centered. I think that means I'm all surfed out . . . for now. I still love LPB and I will continue to go there to face my fears.

As far as I'm concerned, the summer is over. Like so many kids out there, I see the "Back to School" commercials on TV and cringe. It's time for me to start hitting the books. I've yet to read my textbook. Nor have I prepared my syllabi. School starts in less than two weeks. Obviously, it's time to switch gears. But I have to admit, this summer was better than I could ever have imagined. If you're going to be unemployed and without a decent paycheck, then you might as well surf your ass off. And that's what I did.

Hair update: I can see that I have locks on both sides of my head. However, I can feel that I still have twists one the top and in the back. Something is happening. It's just not happening fast enough!