“I’m Back.”

Those are the only words I could think of to begin this post.  And, assuming anyone out there is reading, I guess the logical question would be “Back where?”

The reason I choose to begin with the words above, was that in my mind they summed up many, many feelings that have been rolling through my mind for the past couple weeks.  First, the most obvious answer is, I’m back on my blog.  I know it’s been a while (a LONG while) since my last post.  All I can do is apologize and try to do better.

The fact is, colder weather in Los Angeles, combined with inccreased stress from work weighing me down, caused me to cut back on surfing for a while.  I was planning to get back  in the water come spring, but frankly, my job was making me so miserable, it was all I could do to get up in the morning.

I’m not looking for pity and sympathy, just explaining my absence.  Things finally came to a head, and I quit… I know it’s not the best timing, but when you’re floating in a sea of toxic waste, the only sane response is to climb out.  The place where I worked had become a toxic environment, so I removed myself, and despite some lingering fear and uncertainty, I know I made the right choice.  I credit surfing with giving my the courage and strength to confront the unknown, and take a chance.  Paddling into an uncertain sea, sizing up a new wave and taking off… only time will tell if I picked the right one, but I’d rather give it a shot than just bob up and down waiting all day.

Before I quit, my wife and I had already planned, and paid for most of, a trip to Hawaii, to visit her family.  Of course, my mind immediately turned to surfing.  After all, Oahu was where I first set foot on a board, and I could still remember the long, slow waves, with their nice, soft break far from the shore.  Unfortunately, as soon as we stepped off the plane, I was struck by a cold or virus of some sort.  My throat swelled up like a sack of marbles, and a dry cough punctuated my wheezing breath.  I immediately began a massive vitamin C regime, combined with a shot of tequila to let the cold know who was boss!

We were only in Oahu for four days, and on my second to last day. I felt my throat begin to loosen up.  It was now or never!  Dawn Patrol at Waikiki!  I threw on my board shorts and rash guard, and walked to the beach to rent a board.

I paid 20 bucks for  a two hour rental, and grabbed a tufflite 9 ft. longboard.  It was my first time on a tufflite, and it was an interesting experience.  It was so light compared to my PU or even my epoxy board back home.  It was also very thin, but floaty, and had a kind of “skippy” feeling on top of the water.

As I stood at the edge of the beach, I squinted and looked to the waves breaking out in the water… WAAAAYYYY out in the water.  The paddle out was so long compared to the near shore breaks of my home spot in LA.  I dropped onto the board, and started paddling.  and paddled… and paddled… and paddled!  I’m not great at judging distance, but the paddle out was so much longer than I was used to, my arms quickly took on the consistency of wet cement,  and flopped uselessly in the water.

The fact was, I was out of shape.  Although I worked out regularly, I had forsaken my surfing workout for a more traditional weight routine.  I looked OK, but my cardio ability was way low, and my paddling muscles had definitely atrophied from months out of the water.  By the time I made it out to the lineup, I was flat out exhausted.  I tried paddling for waves and literally could barely propel myself forward, let along catch anything.  After about an hour of this, I simply could not paddle any more.  I turned around and headed back in.  It took almost 30 minutes to get back to the shore!

Not a great experience, but still… I was back on a board, in the ocean, and honestly, it was heaven.  Hell, the first time out is always hard, and this was no different.  I resolved to use the rest of my trip to get back in surfing shape.  Since then, I’ve been doing tons of swimming and cardio exercise, and I hope when I hit my home break back in LA, I’ll at least be able to hold my own in the waves!  And there’s no better place in the world to brush up on swimming than Hawaii!

Which brings me to the final section of this rambling post… I’m now back on Big Island, Hawaii.  Big Island is where my wife is from, and after Oahu we headed here for the last leg of our trip, to visit the family.

Big Island is everything Oahu is not.  Rural, small  town, quiet, expansive…  Somehow, I formed a connection with this place the first time I ever set foot here, and it has felt like a second home ever since.  At first, I think the love I felt for this island was an extension of my love for my wife… after all, this was where she came from, and all the good and bad of her childhood was wrapped up in its lush green jungles and winding mountain roads.

But since then, I feel I’ve formed my own relationship with this place.  Something about this island speaks to me, makes me feel happy and relaxed and at peace.  My wife says there’s nothing to do here, and on the one hand, I can see she’s right… there are no clubs or fancy bars or giant hotels.  There aren’t even that many nice beaches!  And yet…

Yesterday I awoke to the salty sweet ocean breeze.  I snorkeled in a volcano heated tide pool, filled with water so warm you could bath an infant in it.  I swam with angelfish, parrot fish, even a small barracuda.  Then, I slipped into the ocean side, and swam across shallow reefs and deep blue sinkholes that plunged into the unknown abyss.  I kicked past uhu fish as big as the spread of my arms, and tiny neon fish no bigger than my finger, ablaze with yellow and violet stripes.  I saw eels slither across the undersea rocks, and fed a giant puffer fish scraps of bread, as it bobbed at the surface like an aquatic puppy dog.

I drove down a twisty jungle road, with a wall of lush green to my left, and the open sea to my left.  I saw slate grey water sliced into sheets of turquoise blue by jagged black rocks.  We hiked across a cooled lava field, and saw molten rock pour into the ocean like a river of orange fire, as a massive plume of white smoke filled the  sky.  Then, we drove home in darkness, through sudden rain and cool night wind.  Above, the stars filled the sky, unhindered by stifling city lights.

Then, dinner, beers, and sleep, lulled into a trance by the crashing ocean outside my window.  I don’t mean for this to sound like a travelogue.  I simply don’t have any other words to describe how this place makes me feel.  These experiences are important to me, they define a large part of me, a part I never want to lose.  as our trip winds to a close, I already wonder when I will be able to come here again.

But for right now, I’m back.

(PICTURES COMING SOON!)