MOMENTS ALONE, BUT NOT

Many years ago I would travel down through Baja alone.  I preferred traveling by myself for the peace and uncluttered silence of rolling down the road with just my thoughts and my faithful dog Boojum.  Should anything happen it would be up to me alone to figure out how to fix the problem or get us out of a situation, that’s the way I liked it.

When it came to camping and surfing it was best when I was solo, as pure and simple as it gets.  I never card for babysitting anyone and I have never cared for crowds in the line up.  Surfing solo is a unique and special act.  There is no one to give hi 5’s or hoot, it’s just me and mother ocean, no ego.  She has her moods and a lot of the time if there are people around it distracts from tuning in to her moods, for we wind up thinking of the other people around us instead of the present moment.  Aside from all that, I had a special moment alone in the ocean a while back.

It was October.  No one was around and there was a nice head high swell running that day, it was morning and this is what went on that day.

Today is a perfect morning, the sun is just coming up over the mountains to the east.  The wind is calm and the ocean is glassy with a real nice swell running, the air was warm, 75 degrees.  There are no campers, I am the only one here, just the way I like it, pure peace.  My mind is at peace and my spirit runs free.  I am excited to ride some uncrowned waves.  I will be surfing in trunks for the water is around 72 degrees.  There are huge flocks of birds diving everywhere and I can see huge schools of fish being dove upon, should be an exciting surf session with all the activity in the water.

As I make my way down to the waters edge I can see a coyote off in the distance cruising the waters edge, slinking along in his stealth mode.  Off near a tide pool I see a great blue herring in a deep trance.  I make my way over the rocks and step into the welcoming ocean, it feels good.  I wade out about 10 yards and slip out through the waves.  The birds are everywhere, the ocean is alive all around me, the bait fish are in a frenzy to keep away from the pelicans, seagulls and terns.  There are so many birds it must be a thousand or more.  The bait fish are so many and so scared that they are running into my legs and jumping on my board.  Pelicans are diving so close to me I swear they are going to dive right on top of me and the sound of them hitting the water by the hundreds is like being on the battle field of mortars hitting all around me, boosh, boosh, boosh, and all the little terns are flying at the pelicans grabbing what they can from the beaks pf the pelicans.  The energy is so intense I am getting a high just being amongst it. 

As I sit outside rising over each wave as it comes to me, I’m looking around and back to shore and there is not a sole around, I am the only one witnessing this whole thing.  As far as the eye can see it’s only me and my dog Boojum, and the frenzy of natural selection.  Through all this action I see the wave I want.  A nice head high perfect wave, I turn and paddle into it.  I drop down and make my first turn off the bottom.  As I rise up the face I am almost hit by a pelican diving into the face of the wave in front of me, then a seagull almost takes me out and so it went on as I rode this wave another 100 yards while gazing down into the clear clean water at all the fish swimming beneath me.  As I kick out and drift down the back of the wave I see a few seals having a day of feasting on all the bigger fish feeding on the smaller ones.  The seals toss their half eaten fish into the air, then catch it on the way down, barking in joy.