Not One But Two Forgotten Wetsuits

This was not one of my better days. Being the "epitome of efficiency" that I am (as I mentioned a few posts ago), I efficiently forgot to put my wetsuit in the car. Imagine my horror when I arrived at the break, took down my board, opened the back of the car, saw my surf bag, fins and surf mat, and my bottle of hot water, but did not see anything resembling a bodysuit made out of neoprene. The horror, the horror. That's when the stupid stuff starts. You start looking at the water and wondering how long you can last without a wetsuit. Why was that so stupid? Don't I always talk about being cold, even in the summer? Why would I hazard a delusion about paddling out in my swimsuit in winter (if you can call it that)? Part of me wanted to go home and stew. I was looking at waves that weren't closing out. The wind seemed to have bypassed this break. What I was seeing was as good as I was going to get today. Suffice it to say, I was pissed. If I'd forgotten my board, which is something I have nightmares about and yet have never done, I probably could have found someone I knew and borrowed a board. A forgotten wetsuit? Kiss your session goodbye. Soul Brother #1 and I drove home, got two wetsuits (my 3/2 and my 4/3) and came right back to the break.

It's been such an odd fall weatherwise that I had not yet followed my normal practice of leaving an extra wetsuit in the car "just in case". I don't like to leave wetsuits in a hot car. And you have to admit we've had a lot of warm to hot weather this year. Anyway, I threw two wetsuits in the car and drove back to the break. On the way there, a friend called to check in. She mentioned she was about to stop for a session. It turned out we were both headed to the same spot and were both about 15 minutes away from said spot (but coming from opposite directions).

Guess what we discovered when we met? She'd forgotten her wetsuit! Even though I probably outweigh her by 20 pounds, she was more than happy to borrow one of my wetsuits. I'm happy to report it wasn't hanging off of her; it was simply a little big.

My plans for a one hour surf session followed by a first date with my mat never materialized. My mat time was spent driving home and back for the wetsuits. I managed to surf for about an hour and a half before the wind killed everything. The mat never made it out of the car. I will try again later in the week.