Frosted

Wow. I didn't realize it when I took that picture... but the Bluepath looks totally frosted in that shot. I assure you, it's the angle-- while I'm often guilty of over-waxing, we're looking at only one application of wax on top of a basecoat. The wax was flaking off in a big way yesterday, probably due to the insufferable heat in my car for the past two days... so since I wasn't in desperate need of a nap after work today, I stripped it and rewaxed it. It's an interesting experience... the deck has many, many pressure dings in it. I wondered which ones were from my feet and knees and which were from my skull. While stripping the board, I also accidentally scraped off part of the sticker. Since this sort of thing is likely to happen again, I considered not putting a sticker on the deck, and maybe have it on the rails or elsewhere... but I decided that I wanted it exactly where it was before... and I still had 5 more stickers for replacement before I have to re-order, so I stuck another one in the exact same place.

It was already around 8:30 when everyone was checked-in and I was ready to go. So despite reports saying that Cox Bay was crowded and messy, I decided to go there anyway. I didn't have time to mess around with surf checks... and I didn't even really have time to get to Long Beach even if I did commit myself (besides which, with the current sea lion situation, I'm not comfortable surfing alone there anymore... and the likelihood of being alone at that time of night was considerable). When I got to the parking lot, I realized that I was still wearing my glasses. Oops. I wasn't about to lose more light by going home to put on contacts, so I went out blind.

Blind. Seriously. Either my vision has deteriorated in the past couple of years or it was just really difficult to see tonight. I saw nothing. I paddled at suggestions of waves and caught some good rides, which I rode by feel, because I couldn't see where I was on the wave or what it was about to do. I wouldn't do it again, but it was quite the experience. At one point, as I was paddling for a wave, someone yelled "Go Dorothy!!!"... after not catching the wave, I looked over and apologized for having no idea who she is, because I was almost completely blind... it turned out to be Kate.

There was also some guy in the surf who yelled out my name to get my attention, presumably to say hello, but I looked around and could not identify any particular figure as the origin of the call, and didn't feel like randomly yelling at no one in particular to inform everyone that I cannot see. I must have seemed pretty unsocial tonight.