Chasing Surf

The surf has been elusive and small, but Darin and I have been chasing it up and down the coast during his three days off. Evenings have been the best, when the tide is high, and watching the sun set while it reflects off the water, bobbing a stream of light right in front of you is an amazing way to spend an evening.

I'm getting better, more able to read the waves for signs of a good break, better able to fight my way back outside the whitewater surf to wait for the next set to roll in. The waves are supposed to get better over the weekend and into next week, the perfect reason to extend my trip into the end of next week.

It's also nice to be amongst strangers, leaving my anonymous footprints for the surging waves to wipe clean with each strike up the beach. I could get used to this lifestyle. Reading, writing, riding my bike to check on the sultry waves, reading and writing some more, eating dinner on a little sand dune knoll overlooking the miles of coastline. Paddling into the sunset. Even when the surf is not good, it's still good to be out on the water. It's calming to sit there atop a floating board, undulating with the rise and fall of the ocean, waiting patiently with the sound of waves slapping the shore behind you.

Here are a couple of pictures of my adventures so far. I have not taken a ton, as I find myself so transfixed in the now that I forget to take out the camera, and that's okay with me.

 Posing on a rock at "Shorty's", an amazingly-beautiful surf spot that is a fifteen minute walk through an old growth forest to a hidden cove of beach. My favourite spot so far.

 We totally look like beach bums.

Darin's usual morning routine: jar of coffee and a cigarette. I had to take this picture because he looks like some kind of rock star or something.