Me, decompressing (Bud foto)

Stressed out from work once again. It was time to decompress.

When I called Buddy to hook up, I found that he already was planning an afternoon sesh. Shoots!

We drove out separately to our secret eastside spot, finding it quite crowded with mushy, wind-chopped waves. Not a problem, since all I wanted to do was to step out of the rat race for a little while.

This time, my board really revealed its weakness. The rocker was not as pronounced as I wanted it, and in the choppy conditions it was pearl-city as I couldn't keep the nose up during takeoffs. It was frustrating, having to worry about keeping it above water all the time.

Buddy brought his new toy--an ultra hi-rez digital still cam. We took turns at the helm behind it, with of course me nearly breaking the darned thing, as I almost did with Buddy's digital video cam way back when.

Buddy was complaining about having a poor session, but some of the snaps he got on the gutless lefts belied his actual performance. Makani was using a different fin config on his board and also complained about having an off-day, but he was going more mental with harder turns.

But the best rider wasn't from our crew. Local boy Peter Miller was absolutely killing the place, going straight up and down in thigh-high mush. Makani and Buddy were just in awe at how well he surfed. Me, I've seen Pete and his brother dominate the contest scene ten years prior, so I wasn't too surprised. Still, I don't think I fully appreciated the skill necessary to pull maneuvers like that. Think I should take up shortboarding and get a better feel for the difficulty factor.

Anyway, surfed for a couple hours, rejuvenating my soul before heading in for dinner back home. Decompression sure feels good.

Aloha from Paradise,