"No I'm not afraid of sharks!" This being my repetitive, but firm answer to the continues question " You surf? Aren't you afraid of sharks?!" Please! When you're out surfing 10-15ft., you don't need to worry about sharks, you need to worry about the waves that are coming at you, or should I say coming FOR YOU!
If you know me, you know that I am first and foremost a surfer. Upon catching my first waves in Santa Cruz as a body surfer, I quickly evolved from body, to boogy board, then finally into a full fledged surfing animal! I've only been surfing for about 5 years, which in the surfing community is small, but consider this. I would surf 4-5 days a week, all averaging 3 hours sessions. Thats 60 hours a month I'm out there paddling my heart out! In this time I've had my share of tubes, wipe-outs, shark encounters, jellyfish encounters, Asshole encounters, and there's even been a few times where I thought I was going to drown! I've only had 3 boards in my Quiver, 2 of which are pictured above. Ive surfed in Santa Cruz, Pacifica, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Hawaii, and almost in New York and Florida if it wasn't for the damn waves being flat!
Flatness, the Surfer's enemy! Surfers need waves! We get sooooo depressed! Laird Hamilton puts it best " It's like if you were a dragon slayer, and there were just no more dragons to slay!" It always happens, typically in summer time. This is when everybody and their mom decides to rent a surfboard and stand on it in 2 ft. of water and say they went surfing. Um, no! You want to know what a real wave feels like?!
Imagine this: Picture a 10ft. Wave. If you need an example, the average ceiling height in a bedroom is roughly 10 ft. tall. Doesn't seem too big right?! That is until you lay on the floor as if lying on your board. Now look back up to the ceiling. Not so small is it! Now by the time this 10ft. wall of water reaches you, ( which is moving pretty fast mind you!) one of two things are gonna happen. Your either gonna haul ass and paddle into this wave, or your gonna eat shit and get chucked forward like a sock in a washing machine! If this isnt your first BBQ, then your gonna be a bad ass and carve that wave ( like yours truly of course!), but if it is, then your in for one hell of a ride. In the worst case scenario ( which seems to happen all the time when your just starting out.) the wave is going to pick you up, throw you forward, come down on you, and drill you to the floor! Finally when you get your senses back, you come to the surface to only find that the next wave behind it is barreling down on your head, and back down to the floor you go! As an example imagine your being held underwater for 10 seconds, you come up, and you have about5 seconds to catch your breath and duck under the next wave. This will happen for about 5 or 6 times before the waves set stops.
Sucks doesn't it! Keep in mind, this is on big sets,and on big days. More people have died because of big waves alone than getting bit by Sharks.
The biggest waves I've surfed I swear were about 20ft., but in actuality was probably 15ft. I don't get to surf as much as I used to, but It's like riding a bike, you never lose it! My good buddy Alvin knows that when it gets Big out there, I get crazy! He's called me a mad man before because of how I charge some of those monsters, but he's no joke himself. But every so often, ( and every surfer knows this!) there will be that freaky set, those rogue waves that just barrel through. THAT my friend, is what makes me quiver!!!!
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