¡Team Perez!

On Surfing for the First Time*

As soon as the central California water rolled onto the shore and over my feet and ankles, I was convinced that I would be an embarrassment. Wetsuit be damned, there was no way I was going to be hold my own in the water while literally freezing. Ten minutes and I would be throwing in the towel, pun intended. I would be too cold to think coherently, yet alone paddle, stand up, and ride the waves. This wasn’t going to work, and my cousin would be out there, pumped and ready to catch waves, but inevitably called out of the water to tend my hypothermic corpse.

Chris had brought me to Santa Cruz to take me surfing. I have been asking for some time since returning to California for an introduction. I still can’t run or do many other activities on account of my ankle injury, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle surfing: but the mellow nature of longboarding seemed like it may be way for me to get out there and be active without causing risk or further injury to my ankle. But I digress. For the few days before Sunday it was raining hard. Unusually hard for California, but then again, this is an El Niño winter. Sunday, however, greeted us with sunshine and low winds. The wind mattered more than the sun. Too much wind would kill our plans because the waves would be too choppy for a novice.

Chris already secured a board for me to use. We stopped by a friend of his who loaned me a wetsuit. Total cost: nothing (though I did buy Chris lunch later for the lesson). That others would be willing to lend me equipment merely on account of being Chris’s cousin speaks volumes both about my cousin’s character and also the culture of surfing. Surfers always pay it forward. Help your neighbor and the kindness will surely be returned.

Saddled up and ready, we first surveyed a few locations in Monterey area. After determining that the waves either lacked the push necessary to surf or were breaking to hard for a novice, we headed to Surf City, USA.**

So there I am, just off 41st Street, down the man made steps on the side of a cliff thinking about the first surf explorers who must have either climbed down with ropes, or swam into this cove from the main beach. As I laid down on my board and started paddling behind Chris, the wetsuit worked as advertised. Suddenly, I felt more warm in the water than I did on the shoreline wearing jeans and sweater. Now my primary concern was keeping up. I’m a solid swimmer. My parents enrolled me in swim lessons as child and I have always enjoyed getting in the water. Now was different. Laying on a board and paddling changes the dynamics of moving through the water. Each stroke moved my body ever so slightly on the board, which moved the board’s position in the water, and most of the energy that would normally move me forward was lost in side-to-side rocking. Chris and the other locals glided across the dark glassy water. I was flopping around like a drunken seal.

After about 30 minutes of barely managing to stay on top of my board, I saw a wave that looked as though it would break in just the right spot for me. I turned, paddled, and felt the wave begin to push me up and forward. It felt like I was floating, weightless, for just a second. I began to stand up, trying to get my feet on the board quickly. Then, just as quickly as began to float, I was in the water with my board going in another direction. Without the leash, I may never have been able to get it back. Pulling the board back to me, I climbed back on it, and continued to paddle and wait for another wave, but it was not to be. That was the high point of my session. Some may see it as an exercise in failure, but I don’t. It was a beautiful experience. It isn’t a question of if I’ll try again, but when.

—lmp

* I say “first time” although I went once in Australia way back in 2003. I don’t count that. It was too long and too short a session to have any meaningful impact.

** Don’t get mad if you’re from Huntington Beach. I don’t take sides in the rivalry about which city is the ‘real’ surf city. In my book, they’re both in California and that is all that really matters: California is Surf City

New Year’s Resolutions 2011

Personal Goals:

1. Climb rocks, do more Yoga, and ride my bike—aim to a combination of these several times weekly (ankle permitting of course).
2. Complete the CrossFit Beginners Routine (12 week program, no crazy shit).
3. Keep a food journal
4. Complete levels 1 & 2 of the FSI Basic Spanish Course
5. Read the following books:

• Enchridion by Epictetus
• A Grammar of Assent by John Henry Newman
• Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (Joe Sachs translation)
• Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics by St. Thomas
• Thomism and Aristotelianism by Harry Jaffa

1. Travel abroad (Spain, Latin America, or Australia are the preferred destinations).
2. Keep a food journal
3. Take a photograph every day

Underlining themes:

It’s pretty basic, sound mind, sound body. Being hit by a truck last year put a serious damper on a budding return to healthy living. I still can’t run, and although I can walk, it is not without discomfort—especially in the morning and even more now in the cooler winter air. But as I maintain my optimism, I have a growing list of things that I took for granted and only begun to appreciate when it became painfully obvious that I may not be able to do certain activities ever again. I’ve held off the ones that are still too intangible as to merit consideration (::cough::surfing, hiking Mt. Whitney::cough::). But as I slowly begin to regain muscle strength, flexibility, and balance this year, I hope to see what my body is capable of doing.

As far a sound mind is concerned, the reading list speaks for itself. I have the moral philosophy and theology books listed that I have been meaning to read for a long time. In the case of The Ethics, I’ve read it before, but the three book sequence of The Ethics, Commentary on the Ethics, and the study of the commentary is a project that has been in the back of mind for a while.

I’m sure the list may be too big to complete, especially considering I have a professional list of new year’s resolutions also. But like the meaning of philosophy, it is the journey that is more important than the desination.

On a lesson learned

When I began my Master’s thesis, I wrote the following on my now abandoned WP blog:

One of my colleagues pointed out that the thesis is that it is not some random jarble [sic] of musings that one slaps together because it is the end of the term; rather, it is about taking the step into the next level and becoming a writer in the process.

After nearly two years of research, delays, a lost committee, active duty, resuming the project, and countless draft revisions, I am not surprised that the lesson stated at the outset has endured. What does surprise me is how through it all, I never took the time to step back and reflect on this lesson sooner.