Life is Better When You Ride a Mat

This picture was not taken recently. How do I know? Well, there's nothing to smile about these days. This spring's windswell is giving me—and so many other surfers—the blues. There's not much out there to surf. Some would say there's nothing out there to surf. I'm more of an optimist. I think there are waves somewhere, but they're just not where I can easily find them. You know it's bad when I hit a break with the specific intention of riding my mat . . . and go home dry. The waves were horrible. I would not have wanted to surf them on a board. I could not have surfed them on a mat. The mat needs some juice behind it. The crumbly stuff that I might catch on a longboard is almost impossible to catch on a mat, especially since I don't wear fins with long blades.

All we can do, dear friends, is grin and bear it. I'm doing this by finding pictures of myself having a ball in the water. Such pictures make me laugh. They remind me that the ocean gives us so much while asking for so little in return. Of course, we humans are killing our oceans. But I won't go there just yet.

Anyway, grin. Bear it. The weather will change soon enough. The waves will return. And so will the crowds. Pray for fall (my favorite season for surfing).