Early alarm and the rumble of surf. I heard the surf arrive in the night and have been excited for the alarm to ring. Coffee and a walk down with Zanzi to the point to watch the waves. It’s pretty big and wild, the wind not yet blowing. There are some rogue sets that clean up the bay but they don’t seem as frequent as the other day.
I run back and quickly eat some boiled eggs on Provitas. Wetsuit, suncream and The Custard Queen. It has to be a rock jump today. I wait on the edge of the ocean and watch. But it seems that right now is actually the time to paddle so I trust my gut and paddle hard. Only one or two waves require a duck dive and I make it out to the back with ease.
I’m tempted by a few smaller waves that come through. Sometimes it’s nice to just get one wave on a big day to bring you into the surf. I set comes through and I’m in the spot. It’s a big drop and I have to squint through the wind as I speed up. It was a silly wave to go for and a big section forces me to jump off and I get tumbled about for a while. I’m definitely feeling in it now. A few big sets catch me off guard and I do some time underwater. Luckily the rip isn’t bad today so gaining ground up the point is quite easy.
I sit out the back all alone, but do not feel intimidated by it. I’m quite proud of myself for getting to a place in surfing where I can paddle out alone in a big ocean and really enjoy myself. A good wave comes through and it lets me on. I drop down around a big section and it almost clips me off my board, but I just have enough speed to shoot through. I do some rather tame cutbacks through the wobble on the open faces and maintain speed the whole way. This wave spits me out right at the river mouth.
I walk around, feeling tired. Two waves don’t really cut it today I think. I’ve got one more jump off the rocks I think to myself. This time I time it even better and basically get out all the way to Whale Rock with dry hair.
Dolphins are suddenly everywhere. Waves of them appear with the ocean swell. The behave differently today; usually they are playful and move past surfers quickly, but today most of them double back for another pass near me and pop an eye out the water to inspect me. It’s almost like they are slightly concerned for me being out here by myself in such a big ocean.
I really want to catch a wave with the dolphins but no opportunity presents itself. I get a smaller one and it’s a nice big drop but not much more. I’ve decided to try kick out early on waves to give my arms a bit of a rest, as I don’t think I can do another walk around and big paddle out. A set appears and it’s full of dolphins. I take off in the lip and somehow manage to set the rail and shoot out down the wall. I can see their forms as they glide just under the surface. Their dorsal fins almost the mirror of my surfboard fin.
I get two more waves and on my last one I decide that it would be an appropriate time to call it for the session. I bodysurf in and see that Marcus from yesterday evening is watching and head up for a chat. We decide that it might have calmed down a bit by this evening so will try and link up then.
I come up to the common room and make a disgustingly big bowl of popcorn. I find myself Googling the websites I find on some of the stickers on the fridges; there are some interesting ones such as greatafricantrek.com
Chilling in the sun room and putting the movie together from the run. The lifeguard named Olwetu arrives and tells me about living here. We put the rules in “rural” - no police here but there is no crime.
I’m feeling tired and the wind seems to have come up a bit. Tuna mayo Provitas for lunch. I get back to the sunroom for some more video editing. 4:30 marks my last surf check for the day and Zanzi joins me with a stick that she chews in between me throwing it to her. Luckily it’s not looking good! My body can rest.
I go up to the roof above the sun room and carry on putting together the video together. Battery and hungry call this beautiful view to a close and I go down to the kitchen to make dinner. Filen is there and the power has gone off. I put on some lofi softly and begin preparing a pasta.
Filen and I start speaking casually at first, but I had some questions that I wanted to ask him and and our talking shifts to speaking about our understanding of the truths to life. He makes an interesting point about free will maybe existing if we have the true ability to direct our attention?
I end up putting the disgusting spaghetti bolognaise in the sauce thinking it was onions and tomatoes. I spend some time fishing out the processed meat and soggy pasta before saving the whole dish with a can of chakalaka. Filen and I end the conversation beautifully and we both seemed to have really enjoyed ourselves.
I come up to the common room and play around with Procreate on Lisa’s iPad which is really amazing.