Learning to surf was so far off my radar for so long. I just never thought of being in a place to learn. Never thought of being so fortunate. Not only now am I in this place where I can learn, I'm in good enough shape to learn, and if you've read any of the rest of this journal/blog you would know its the hardest thing I've ever done.
On a side note....when I came back from surfing Saturday evening in the work truck in my shorts around 6:30pm, I parked the work truck at the man camp. When I got out to walk to my miniature apartment two Marshallese guys were leaving someone else's apartment and saw me. They asked me for a ride to the dock/ checkpoint. It was raining and had been since 3pm. The safety guy came out and said he couldn't take them because he had been drinking. Abi and the other guy whose name I can't remember had been drinking too. Abi kept saying stuff like "Ben ...you are batch plant boss, bring me to batch plant, I want to work for you, I respect you" to which I replied "I'm not the batch plant boss, I'm just putting it together for James" Abi denies me that I am the boss several times and tells me to promise him I will bring him out there.
On Kwaj, especially lately, you are not allowed to use work (government property) vehicles for personal use. So I knew taking them up there would probably earn me a ticket and possibly a driving suspension from San Juan, but it was raining, and I love the Marshallese guys.
Halfway back near dusk the rear view mirror showed headlights. It had to be the cops. I was only a half mile from the man camp where I could hide truck amongst the others and duck into my place before they would know who was driving. A half mile at fifteen miles an hour, the islands top speed limit, is an eternity to get thru. I sped up to 40mph. It was risky. I made it. I saw the little square cop suv drive past.....
Next time copper....next time!!
Ok, so that was a long side note..
The thought that originally started this thought was Guiness, the great dane I had the pleasure of being best friends with for 11 years. When she was 4 she would run like a gazelle for an hour, then rest for half a day. When she was12 she would run like a gazelle for two minutes then rest for several days. I seem to be her at 12. The surfing wiped me out. I spent much of the latter half of Memorial Day weekend chilling like Guiness.
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| I started wearing the high visibility orange shirts after the 4 or 5 guys got lost Oceanside for 5 hours. |
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Apparently, I'm not worried about the advertising space of my forehead getting sunburnt. This picture was taken by Chris Rice...thank you
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| This is a church on Ebeye. Bilwa told me it took 3 guys seven years to build it. |
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so we can get pretty close to things with my Hobie....I do love sailing by Ebeye with it
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| Patrick and Tom's boat ...the Geneva. |
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| This picture taken by Steve Davis....shows the size of waves I love out here. Too much bigger and its scary. I didn't really catch this one right and ended up riding the white water as opposed to turning right.and heading down the face of the wave |
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Kiteboarding at Bigej......beautiful place...
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| Bigej....around 40 folks live here. great people. |
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