Realization in the Ocean

I've been in California with my husband all week. He's been taking me all over the coast from Moro Bay to Monterey showing me places his family went when he was growing up. Moro Bay had the amazing Shell Shop, great sea food and so many otters! When we went to Monterey Tim insisted on teaching me how to bodyboard. We went to a surf shop to rent a wetsuit for me and then found a beach with plenty of waves. We squeezed into our wetsuits, grabbed the boards from the back of the truck and walked the short path to the ocean. 

I grew up in Seattle, WA where the coast is cold, the waves are huge and the sun rarely shines (at least whenever we were there). We never put on sunscreen and were usually the only ones on the beach in our swimsuits, jumping over the waves as they pounded the dark sand that made up the shore.

The beach Tim found looked similar to the Washington coast I was used to, but I could tell it was different from the moment we pulled up. There were people in the water, and they weren't just wading in their rolled up jeans and Tevas. These people, also dressed in wetsuits, were surfing! This was the first time I had ever seen someone in the ocean like that! I was amazed at how they knew the movement of the ocean so well. I immediately became a little self-conscious at my own naiveté towards the ocean. I had played in it as a kid but never really tried to take part in it's movements, I just tried to stay standing as the waves hit me. 

For the first half-hour I reacted to the waves the same way I had as a kid at the beach. I just tried to stay standing. With a foam board in my hands that seemed to want to pull me through each passing wave, this was a little more difficult. I did enjoy the small rolling waves that the board floated me over but the big ones seemed to crush me every time! I couldn't keep up so I floated, then swam and then walked to the shore. 

I sat there for a while, again in awe of the surfers on the bigger waves I couldn't imagine facing. They seemed so calm and so sure of themselves. I watched how they chose a wave to follow and the moment they connected with it and let it take them. They weren't out there to stay standing, they were out there to make a connection with the wave. 

Once I realized that (and caught my breath), I decided to try to join the ocean instead of just resisting against it, trying to win it over. I got back in the water and swam over and through the waves to Tim. I recognized the roll of the waves now. They were more predictable to me now. I knew to join a wave when it was still smooth and open, and not when it was rolled over into itself. 

I finally understood what people were saying when they talked about feeling the ocean! I found my own wave, turned parallel to the shore, held on to the board and started kicking. I felt the wave start curling behind me and pushing me forward towards where it met at the shore. The wave pushed me all the way up the shore and then, just as quickly, fell back. It left me laying on the beach, still clutching the board, still out of breath like before, but this time knowing where I fit in with the ocean.