Boogie Boarding

End of a day. Broken leash for Peter.

We've been having a lot of fun at Twin Lakes beach this summer.

We haven't gone out as much as I'd like to because Peter's thrice-weekly swim team practice eats into our preferred boarding hours. Our preferred time is late in the afternoon, usually after 6:30 pm. The parking in the area can be very hard even during weekdays, but after 6:30 most people have headed home (although the evening patrons of the Crow's Nest roll in). But we make it out there about twice a week, and that's pretty good.

As we looked at the beginning of the boarding season, around late April, Peter needed a new wetsuit and a new board. I decided that I should go ahead and get myself a suit too. Sammy would get the second child's hand-me-down of Peter's first wet suit, a short-sleeved, short-legged number that gives a few more minutes of comfort in our cold waters than his regular bathing suit. Since Sammy was still obstinate about not getting his head or face wet, this seemed seemed sufficient.

Heading out.

The big advance this season has been getting Sammy to ride. He's not actually riding a board all by himself (the two efforts I've made at that—putting him on a board, standing to the side and giving him a push when a small wave comes in—have both ended in unhappy face plants). Instead, Sammy hops up on my back and we ride the wave in double-decker style. The first few times our rides ended when Sammy got a head-soaking in waves that were a bit bigger than I thought. Once a very big wave hit me so hard as I was walking out to a slightly deeper spot (so we could ride on water rather than sand) that it knocked me over backward, right on top of Sammy. But now that Sammy is taking swimming lessons and has gotten enthusiastic about going under water, our rides have gotten more adventurous. Wearing goggles also helps.

In the churn. The waves are often much bigger than this.

These days Sammy and I try to catch a wave at its crest, rather than in its after-break churn. We have been thoroughly soaked a number of times, but Sammy holds on tight. Some of our best rides have been tandem with Peter. We all catch a wave and as we cruise in toward the beach, Peter and I veer toward each other and we all link arms. More recently, Peter has taken to hitch-hiking. As Sammy and I roar past him in a churn, Peter, who has just completed his own ride and is standing closer to shore, runs in close and dives to catch my bicep to hold on for one more short ride. It is a move made for injury, but I have to admit that it was pretty cool how he has pulled it off a couple of times.

Sammy is also picking up on the dare devil action. These days, as our ride stabilizes out of the first churn, Sammy sits up and rides me like a horse, gripping with his skinny legs, arms raised above his head, shouting, "Yee-haw!"

A satisfied Sammy at the end of the ride.

Usually we ride until the sun goes down. Sometimes, wet, sandy and shivering, we stop off for nachos on the way home. In the car, I dial Noriko, hand the phone to Sammy and he shouts, "Fire up the bath, Mom!"

(Thanks to Mitch for taking the photos.)