January 1st 2012 and I'm greeted with a little rainbow for the start of my early glassy Kanaha session.
Wave one, dry hair and looking a little unsure.
Now that's better, clearly a good mental enama washes away all that ego nonsense and makes way for pure unadulterated fun.
This was without a doubt my biggest wave of the day!
I must have been out longer than I thought as I've grown a beard!
When Kanaha is too big for me, I know the harbour will be perfect.....and so it was for January 2nd 2012.
The harbour wave has a very distinct personality. It's flat, flat, flat and then an upwelling of energy shows up like someone has flapped a piece of silk. The watery step builds rapidly and it doesn't take much paddling to feel the push. I try to stay high on the lip for as long as I can and then swoop down to the right and then back up to the shoulder where (with luck) I repeat the manouver twice. Technically they call that a cut-back, but mines more of a loose swervey thing that thrills the pants of me!
After you... turtle crossing.
Posing with my favourite #8 buoy.
Charging Paley style which in truth is terribly relaxed.
These last few days the sweet water energy has given lots of smiles, yelps of joy and uplifted the spirits.... and that's just the people around me. Now imagine my feelings, the Yorkshire girl who couldn't swim until she was 39, got her first surfboard at 43 and made her first (and so far only) windsurf jibe at 50 (and three quarters).
Life is full of surprises.
I got a message on my cell phone saying " Sharon, I have some beautiful flowers and I want to give them to you". My friend Kanara wasn't kidding and I so appreciated her donation of 'function flowers' into my home.
Talking of donations...I'm guessing most people won't know they've contributed to this collection.
Early Saturday morning I went to Kanaha and while I knew it was too big for me, I figured there had to be something I could play on. I figured wrong! It took 45 minutes of falling before I called it quits.
And lets face it no one wants to see this in the line up!
But I wasn't done so headed to the harbour sure it wouldn't be breaking, but for the second time in an hour I was wrong!
Good grief woman get up, up, up on the lip!
I was still falling but having sooooooo much fun.
Let me tell you - we've all done it, you come in off the water, go to grab the key that's around your neck only to discover it's still in the door. I went from panic to elation in one second when I discovered everything was still there. Phew!
And it's always nice to come home to a friendly face.
