After a 40 year hiatus from surfing it was the third fall I’d been SUP surfing, 2011. My husband Ed and I had only planned to sit on the beach at Pacific City (Oregon) with a coffee while we watched the brave “dawn patrollers” heading out. We strained our eyes to peer through the light fog. Almost like a mirage, about 1/2 mile offshore, a set of big fat and beautiful glassy waves wrapped around the point at Cape Kiwanda and solidly marched through the deeper water. Rather than crashing or closing out, they simply diminished before re-building on the more shallow reef closer in. We couldn’t miss conditions that rare. Ten minutes later, wetsuits donned, we paddled out.

Have you ever been schooled by a wave just a degree or two (or 3) above your skill level? One that held you down, knocked the tar out of you and was fodder for stories for weeks after? For some, that wave is calf high, for others a triple overhead at Pipeline.  I found my personal limit that cold October morning doing dawn patrol with Ed, and our buddy Randall.

As much as I love the ocean and am thrilled by surfing – I am a bit of a chicken. My imagination tends to go a bit wild.

Holy cow – heart in throat time…I wondered what was lurking under the glassy beds of seaweed out by the haystack rock? Would I have the nerve to really go for a wave that seemed to swallow up Ed and Randall as they disappeared behind the overhead walls they took?  Then, the third swell of a set loomed up. I was bit further in than the “safe” zone – having tentatively tried for the first wave of the set.  My location made the wall and takeoff a bit more steep then I would have preferred – but something made me dig for it and GO!

My skills at the time were very limited and bottom turns – not so much.  Yet something clicked on that wave, I dug my KIALOA paddle hard into the face and powered a nice right that lofted me up the face at a speed that  I’d never felt before. The board vibrated under my feet with a shuddering sound that serenaded with whistling wind, and filled my ears. “Wooooohooooooo!” Yeah! There was nothing but an amazing rush. In a few seconds when time stood still that was a ride to remember. Then the shoulder flattened out in a deeper water channel close to shore and I cruised over the top and paddled back out. I caught two more waves before reaching the edge of my “courage envelope.” I went back to the beach way before anyone else – but the experience had been both brilliant and – enough.

My SUP surfing has consisted of knee to shoulder high waves for the most part. Once on Maui and once in Punta Mita, Mexico I was fortunate to catch some overhead waves. But none were ever as perfect, glassy and magical as the few I caught that day off the Oregon coast. anything like that since.  

In spite of my relative inexperience, it is cool to have some understanding so when I see someone tackling a nice sized wave, I I have a small sense of what’s so incredible.  Surfers everywhere and at every ability level share a common set of awe and love for the waves they’ve ridden and waves they’ve been thrashed by. 

One aspect of our innate connection to the ocean is that we explore it. It’s our source and where we’ve evolved from — it’s spectacularly beautiful, and it’s really, really powerful. Whether we ride the big ones or live extreme moments vicariously, we share a common energy.

Respect your skill and respect your ocean – love your moments and your abilities on your waves. A very wise surfer, one whose spirit of aloha graces all he does, is Gerry Lopez. In his book, SURF IS WHERE YOU FIND IT, he shares five rules. The fifth and final Lopez rule, “The best surfer in the water is the guy having the most fun.” Like Gerry, we can all try to remember that one.

Okay, grab your paddle and your board – have some fun and dream of waves! Then share your stories with us – via e-mail or on Facebook.