Duck dive

I love watching Billy paddle out into the line-up. He gets on that board, and it appears so effortless to me. His arms stroke the water evenly and his board seems to move as if it is being towed by a boat.

In the photo above, he is about to “duck dive” under the breaking wave. He raised up on his arms, pushed the board underwater and “dove” through the wave. When he got to the other side, he resumed paddling just like that 10 foot wave he just plowed through was never there.

It was a long paddle to the line-up. The images that you see above were shot with a 70-300mm telephoto lens, and I took them from the T head of a 1,240 foot pier. The man is going to be 51 years old in less than 3 weeks.

Sure, it looks effortless to me. I am standing on the pier watching. The reality is that it was hard, and by the time he got to the line-up he was tired and it was difficult to paddle hard to catch each wave.

Still, he made it look effortless.

That day he paddled out there for 3 different sessions. I imagine he burned somewhere around 34,000 calories. He was exhausted, and eating everything in site. I gained weight just watching him eat. It was spectacular.

This summer the kids went to their grandparents for a week, and Billy and I were able to do some things alone that we normally cannot with small children. Surfing together was one of those things.

I had forgotten how much fun he is out on the water. He is so at home there….like a seal. For every wave I caught, he caught 5. We laughed and horsed around, and…..well, I just can’t describe it. It is a different culture all in its own, and we connect there. Billy is the fun, blond, blue eyed surfer boy I always knew I would find.

Ike is making his grand entrance into the Gulf in the next day or so, and as we watch anxiously to see where he will make landfall, as surfers, we just can’t stop thinking “I wonder what kind of waves we will get this time?” A babysitter just might be in order.