Worth The Risk

When I was a kid my family along with several other families would go camping on the beach in Ventura County. This was by far my favorite place to camp. To this day, I have never seen better tide pools. It was here I saw the only baby octopus I have ever seen in nature. It was also here that I saw the aftermath of a surfing accident.

I was playing in the sand with my friends, getting buckets of water for the moat we built around our sand castle. Two surfers walked by with their boards and went into the water. I watched them paddle out, but they went to a point that was out of sight. I got back to working on the castle.

I don't know how much time passed, but I remember hearing the sirens growing louder as the ambulance got closer. One of the two guys that paddled out was pulled out of the water with blood on his face and head. I was in shock. Later, I learned he wiped out on a wave and his board popped out of the water and hit him in the head, knocking him out cold.

I remember being afraid of surfing after what I saw. To this day, I still have a fear of getting hit in the head by my board.

After growing out of building sand castles, I used to lie back on my towel and prop myself up on my elbows so I could watch the surfers. I loved the way they would use their upper arm and back muscles to propel themselves and their board forward in the water. From the shore, their energy seemed boundless.

I would daydream about sitting on a surfboard out in the surf line, squinting in the sun as I watched and waited for the perfect set.

I don't recall seeing any girls surfing, but that didn't stop me from wanting to. I knew I wasn't ready for a surfboard, so I decided to try the next best thing, a bodyboard. I begged my mom for a Morey body board. It seemed like such a logical place to start. Looked easy enough, plus I considered that I was a small kid and I just might be able to stand up on it. Don't try that one at home, kids. They don't call them bodyboards for nothing.

I paddled my new bodyboard into a wave. I got tumbled. I stood up, feeling my head. I had a fair amount of sand pasted in my hair and a permanent crease in my body board, but no blood anywhere.

Getting in the ocean with a body board was great practice for what was eventually to come. There is something truly motivating about fear, and something truly exhilarating about conquering it.