Having It All

I did pretty much feel like I had it all the middle of this October. I was going on what I expected to be a bland week at the beach, wondering what toys I should take to stave off the boredom of rainy days spent in a small room at a beach that I spent almost every weekend at for most of my life. Instead, we got a really nice room on the 5th floor, the best weather anyone had seen for months and a swell that would not die. The kicker was that I had a gig on Friday and Saturday night, and we hadn't played for a while, so I found a routine that lasted the whole week: get up before dawn, eat, practice music while waiting for sunrise, and continuing to practice until I saw someone else out in the water. Then I would grab Pam's beach chair and umbrella, plant those things on the beach and head out into the water. It wasn't a perfect swell, long lines, glassy, and a little deep in the mornings to break well on the outside, but with my paddleboard, I was king. I have never ridden so many waves in such a short time in my life. It got to the point where I would take my camera out and have 10 waves recorded before I was even thinking about what I wanted to shoot. I decided to explore and spent two different days working my way down to the pier from our condo, which was about a 60 minute paddle each way. I know that there have been many moments in my life where I wondered if I could surf better if I had more opportunities to surf, and now I am sure of it. You get to the point of where you are sure of what is going to happen next. You don't have to visualize it, you don't have to think about it, you just do it, same as I get up and run 5 miles. I don't wonder if I can make it the whole way, I just go. Life was simple that week. I surfed until I could hardly drag my board back to the car, and then read on the beach with Pam, and would ponder what new place to try out for dinner that night. Every night was something fun, tasty and interesting. Who could ever believe that plain old ordinary Cocoa Beach could hold such thrills. One day, I surfed until lunchtime and finally said, let's go to Sebastian Inlet, as I knew Pam wanted a little change of scenery. We stopped along the way to some of my old surf spots from high school and beyond and finally ended up at the primo surf spot of Florida. Surprisingly, no one was surfing. The swell was coming out of the NE at exactly the wrong direction and the waves were breaking into the jetty. That didn't matter though, because the fishing was going off on the jetty. Only a few times in life have I seen that many people catching fish at the same time. Birds were all around, baitfish hitting the topwater and pole after pole was bent over double as people were getting Jack and Redfish. There were some happy fisherfolks out there and we had a blast just watching the action. You know, I love to travel and see new exciting places, but sometimes, it feels good enjoying what's right there in front of you.