Photo: Jon Masters, living with East Coast waves.
So I went surfing again yesterday at Nauset Beach, on the Cape (Cod). It more or less worked, although the surf was hardly West Coast, but it was still fun nevertheless.
I advertised on Facebook in case anyone wanted to come along for the ride, and my friend Kara was interested, so we headed out around 9am. I had wanted to leave at 7:30, but was dragged to, shall we say “a venue” by some friends celebrating a bachelor party last night…and that went longer than planned. I didn’t drink (I’m not really drinking much alcohol at the moment), but I was tired first thing and didn’t want to be exhausted before I tried hitting the beach. In any case, we got the beach before lunch.
After dropping my friend off, I went over to Pump House to pick up a board for the afternoon. This time, I was able to simply stick it in the passenger seat, and strap the board in using a tie attached to the headrest. Thus I achieved my long-desired goal of driving around in my convertible with the top down, playing cheesy music, with a surf board sticking out of the passenger seat. As long as you don’t need the full range of the hand brake (US: park break) – and goodness knows nobody here ever uses that anyway – and drive carefully, it’s safer than attaching it to the soft top, and less noisy. It also looks cool.
Once changed into my swim shorts and full winter-safe Atlantic rated wetsuit, I discovered the water to be much more pleasant than the last time. Not warm exactly, but not really cold either, and the sun was out too. It was a nice afternoon to be on the Cape. There were waves, few and far between, and not as powerful as one would like. But I was able to catch quite a few and just about stand a few times. I’ve concluded that bodyboarding is pretty easy, but full-scale surfing on the Cape is a skill that I’m going to really have to work on. Some people were able to make a lot more of the waves than I, however, so I know it’s possible.
Jon.