I’m The Ocean’s Rag Doll

Posted on 06. Jun, 2011 by Dan Zelikman in Surfer

Every so often, the ocean reminds me how insignificant I really am.

Living in Hawaii – it’s easy to take the ocean for granted. I mean look at her. She’s a gorgeous combination of blue’s and is always warm to me – even on the stormiest of days.

Today, the ocean gave me a small glance of the first real summer swell. Nothing crazy – I’m not talking North Shore here – but definitely significant enough to make me feel like I have no idea what I’m doing on a surfboard.

After a winter of surfing ankle and knee high biters, I paddled out in head high waves. It wasn’t the first time, but it sort of snuck up on me. A winter of borderline hibernation (one to two surf sessions a week instead of four or five in the summer) left my body in not exactly game-day condition.

I was a mess. I was flipped, tossed, held under and exhausted from getting stuck on the inside again and again. On a few of the bigger sets where I was ready to show the sea who was boss, the bottom fell out before I was able to stand up. Instead of cruising down the line I was falling through the air – praying that my board wouldn’t fall on top of me.

I was exhausted, defeated and a little embarrassed – then Kimmy signaled to me that she was ready for the last wave. I saw mine in the distance, but I was nervous to even go for it.

It built slowly and I was in perfect position. Even still, I was expecting to get clobbered like all the times before. At this point I had only caught a handful of waves where I actually made it out alive. But not this time – I earned one.

I paddled hard and stood up on a wave that was easily over my head. I took a clean drop that seemed to last forever. My legs were shaking the whole time but I managed to stay up. I even pulled off a couple of decent turns.

After what felt like minutes, I finally sat back down and realized that I was only a few feet away from where we originally paddled out. At this particular break (which is about a football field out) I had never taken a wave in this far.

After losing 14 rounds to the ocean, the judges finally gave me the points in the final round.

Rocky would have been proud.

Tags: Hawaii, surf, surfboard, surfing