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beachwise
by shaun robbins

      Walking from the beach toward the ocean a few years back, I watched as a group of pelicans flew gracefully on the face of the wave, just inches above the water. Momentarily, I let myself enjoy the pelicans showing of their surfing skills before paddling out into the lineup. While I was paddling, I thought about how cool it would be being a pelican–with no worries, surfing any wave or bump on the ocean’s surface.

      As I caught my first wave, my random thoughts fell to the back of my mind, and I turned my focus to the wave at hand. Working my way up and down the wave, I hit the lip, sending a violent spray into the air before the wave died out. Paddling back out, I was no longer thinking of the pelicans; I was thinking about how fun that last wave had been, and how quickly I could catch another.

      With no other surfers in the water, I had my pick of any wave I wanted. Waiting patiently for just the right peak to come, I picked off the best ones as they approached. I dropped into wave after wave, racing down the line while doing my normal snaps and cutbacks, and then paddling back out to do it all over again. While all of the waves I encountered blended together in my memories, one wave stood out in particular that day.

      On the horizon I could see a little bump, which continued to grow bigger and bigger. I turned my board around to catch the wave, and something in it caught my eye. I could see something coming out of the wave coming straight at me. Freaking out, and thinking the worse, I froze. Looking back at the thing in the water, it leaped out of the water a second time, and I soon realized that it was a dolphin.

      Composing myself, my fear turned into excitement at what I had just seen, and I wished someone else were around to share this with. Instantly reliving the moment, I was blown away by how effortlessly the dolphin looked flying through the air. I could vividly see every muscle rippling down its body as it flew through the air, and I wanted to see more, but it did not reappear.

      Walking down the beach to my truck, I continued to look out at the ocean in search of the dolphin. As I did so, my eye was caught again, but this time it was by the pelicans I had seen earlier. They continued to fly into the waves, and my thoughts wandered off to how blessed I am to be able to experience something so amazing as I had that day.


forecasted conditions

      It looks as though Friday and early Saturday will be on the small side with an occasional set, but you may be able to expect some slightly larger sets filling in by late afternoon on Saturday. The rest of the weekend and well into the week we may get some rideable waves. Keep you fingers crossed for more activity in the middle of the week. How big is difficult to say, but they should be a little stronger than last week. As is always the case with the weather in Florida, anything could change at any moment, so don’t take my weekly word for it, call or log onto your local report daily to find out what the present conditions are for your favorite break.

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