Summer's End

Autumn is here as September begins to wrap up. The north coast of California keeps on experiencing it’s delightful 70 F degree days. Julie and I vacillate in our tolerance of van life on the streets of Arcata. (I put it nice and mildly for all our sensitive readers.)
We were invited surfing the other day and for the first time a surf invite corresponded with Dolores being drivable. We met our friends at the beach and I got a brief on shore instruction session before making my way out into the surf. Covered head to toe in 5 mm of neoprene the Pacific Ocean was merely refreshing at 55> F. It was by some accounts small surf but for me it felt big and scary. I barely had the arm strength to paddle out between sets. After tiring my arms out, I was rewarded with a bright afternoon float in the ocean while I rested and waited for the right set to come in. Huge (to me) waves were rolling in and the famous Humboldt fog was creeping in on the horizon. I paddled round awhile with our friend Shannon and watched her catch a few waves. I would paddle for some waves to get the feel of what I was getting into and then back out (or miss the wave completely.) Finally I worked up the nerve to bid for a smaller wave and caught it but my arm strength was completely sapped and I never even got my feet close to the board. But I did get a fast fun ride and on my way in realized that the reforming waves closer to the beach were much more my size. I did play around a little more on these “inside” waves before I admitted that my arms were spent. The fog rolled in and our beach party turned from a hot sunny day to cool damp evening in 5 minutes. We packed it up and headed to dinner at our friends house. Yumm!
The day before I did a 40 mile bike ride 2/3 of which was down hill. That is fun! Jumped in a cold creak before the big uphill section. There were 2 sections of 7 miles or more where I was coasting faster than I could pedal with big long turns winding me down the mountain side! Yes mom, I had my helmet on. love and light Zach