Ride Waves, it’s fun

I’ve got a few pairs of Yucca Fins and a few DaFin fins. I’m on a run of wearing the DaFins, mostly. But I keep a close eye on Yucca Fins. They make killer bodysurfing fins. They recently released a video with some folks wearing their fins riding in a Palm Springs wave pool. Some bodysurfers, bodyboarders, and matsurfers. Riding waves is fun.

The Bodysurf Blog quoted John Papa ‘Ī’ī a few months ago in their history of bodysurfing post:

Body surfers use their shoulders like surfboards. When the surf rises before breaking, it is time to slip onto the wave by kicking hard and working the arms. The contraction in the back of a surfer causes him to be lifted by the wave and carried ashore.

That quote is from 1870.

People still bodysurf. I do. Animals do too.

Every ocean wave is a sum. A sum of water and wind. It’s the shape of the sand and stone under the waves, that’s bathymetry. It’s the phase of the moons and the tides. It’s the sun, the sea and the results of forces that have travelled thousands of miles. Some places the waves break evenly and predictably because the tides are predictable, and reefs seldom chance. But I still don’t believe any two waves are the same. And they’re breaking right now. They’re breaking whether it’s day or night. They’ve been breaking for millennia and will break for millennia more. California won’t exactly tumble into the sea, but in thousands of years waves will have worn away more of our coastline.

A few weeks ago Kelly and I went down to La Jolla Cove. We sat a while, watching the waves break and watching the seals. Sometimes a sea lion rode a breaking wave. I’ve seen them do that at South Mission Beach just 20 yards away from me. It feels like cheating the universe. I should not be allowed this close to a sea lion having that much fun. I’ve seen dolphins do it even closer, and in groups. I am exceedingly lucky to have been in the water when they’re waveriding. I’ve also seen them just going by.

I watched the sea lions in the same way I watch the BEEFS TV videos. With rapt attention. Watching a wave be ridden is mesmerizing. I know part of it is I am trying to learn from each wave. How does it work?

Two women, tourists I think, walked and paused to watch the sea lions too. They took a few photos but mostly quietly watched. Then they began noicing their behavior. The sea lions in La Jolla are fun to watch. They lay all over each other, snuggle, bark at each other, and do whatever they hell they want. They noticed the sea lions occasionally riding waves. I felt surprised. I thought as a wave-riding obsessing only I would notice that. I suddenly started to monologue at the tourists about waveriding.

We all ride waves! The sea lions are real good at it. Dolphins do it too. And of course we humans ride waves with and without boards. And in their way pelicans ride waves too, they fly just at the peaks of breaking waves and harness the air coming off the top of them. If there were any birds out here today you could see that. You can find good videos of dolphins from Blacks Beach on YouTube.

Whatever middle aged man pontification part of my brain had gone off. The tourists nodded, smiled politely.

I felt embarrassed for myself. Shut up, Crawford.

They were done watching the sea lions. They thanked me for my little speech. I told Kelly maybe I ought to come down here regularly and be a docent. Telling people about the wonders of waveriding and other ocean facts and opinions.

A few months ago my friend Al took a great photo of me riding a wave. And I’ve captured a few good photos too.

These look really cool. Bodysurfing doesn’t always feel cool. If you’ve been to a city you’ve probably seen skateboarders practicing street tricks. When you watch skateboarders you’ll see a lot of failures. They don’t land the trick. They do it over and over. Tony Hawk practices like mad to be excellent at what he does. Do a kick flip! Rodney Mullen, same deal. Bodysurfing feels like that looks to me. I don’t care if it looks great to you. For every wave I can tell you what I think I got wrong. Now, part of deep reflection is that I can probably also tell you what I got right. I could tell you how a year ago it would have been much worse. And two years ago, impossible. And that’s all part of the fun of it for me.

I said before I’ve seen birds do it. sea lions do it, even educated dolphins do it, ride waves. Those are rare to witness. More predictable? I often am present when young kids are taking surfing lessons. There have been times I have seen children stand up on their first wave. The sound they make. That sound is one of my favorite sounds in the world. It is the sound of that pure joy of discovery and success and accomplishment and relief. It’s an incredible sound. And I’ve heard it at least a dozen times in the past few years.

There’s no wrong way to ride a wave. I read that somewhere once. I can’t remember where. But I think it’s true.

Now I grew up before the Boogie board existed. It’s a bodyboard. The Morey Boogie Board was invented about a hundred miles from here. Before that we had inflatable rafts. They were made of canvas and tougher than the kind of mat you might have experience of meant for the pool. Anyway here’s my grandma riding one in about 1975:

At the end of the month there’ll be an event where folks ride surf mats. I plan to be there.

Follow @4thgearflyer, @packrattrecords, and @lowerpowered for more info on that event. It’ll be here at OB on October 26, 2024.

I’m mulling what kind of costume I might want to wear. I’ve never done cosplay in the water. At the last Meeting of the Mats I gave out some sparkly matsurfing California bear stickers. I still have some more left over.

Thanks for reading.

Now go surf.