Not a fish

My brother and I drove out to the beach, met up with this an instructor named Al, swam out into the ocean and hit the surf.

I had never surfed before. Al's advice seemed fairly clear: mount the board, maintain balance, bring left foot to right knee, pivot right foot and stand up.

Oh, yeah. And paddle. Paddle paddle paddle.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, and I'm not a very good paddler, but I was able to stand up and ride out the baby waves until they fizzled.

Surfing is a hell of a good time. My arms are sore, but the feeling of standing up and floating on the board is awesome. The wave propels the board, the fin keeps it in line and somehow I was able to balance. My brother also did pretty well for our first time out.

One time, when I fell off, I instinctually braced myself with my left hand. I scraped it on a rock just beneath the surface. I got up and paddle paddle paddled back to the next wave, hand bleeding.

Now my muscles are sore, I'm tired and I feel good. I'll have to hit the beach again soon.

I didn't think about poker while I was out there.