by Charles Newbery
Posted in: Surfing
Go on, take it up. Surfing is good fun.
Endurance came to my mind the other day.
I’d just ridden a long wave into the beach after nearly two hours of surfing. The winds were blowing offshore and the waves pushing in from the South Atlantic, big and powerful. It was one of the best days of summer.
I was beaming – and totally exhausted.
I thought about shouting out my joy to a surfer friend and a few of his buddies on the beach, but I just smiled and said, “Hey.”
We spoke about the good surf and I maintained my surfer composure even though I don’t really look the part anymore at 44 and with a protruding belly.
I’ve been surfing since I was 12 and I don’t plan to stop.
Well, not for long. [click to continue reading…]
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by Charles Newbery
Posted in: Surfing
"Yippee!"
My wife got mad at me for dumping all the stuff on the beach with her and our three young children and rushing into the ocean.
Geez! I thought.
She should have known better than to marry a surfer.
Of course, I didn’t ask her if she’d seen the waves I’d ridden. I came in and meekly started to help out with the children and then took the kids into the water.
It is a challenge to find the time to surf when you have three children under the age of eight, and it can be agonizing to stay out of the water when the waves are big and the winds perfect. I’ve had a conversation over the phone with a friend in a similar situation, both of us trying to find ways to wriggle out of commitments or find a place to dump the family so that we can race into the ocean. My wife can tell when the fever takes hold of me. I start racing around the house to get all the gear together and the family into the car because I know that the surf will be killer. [click to continue reading…]
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by Charles Newbery
Posted in: Surfing
"Yipee!"
MY SON IS surprising me.
A lot.
My five year old has autism and that means most other children are different. He’s socially out-of-tune much of the time. He’s less coordinated. Things don’t come natural to him. His fingers move slower and with less dexterity, so too does much of his body. He has verbal dyspraxia so it can be hard to understand him. His words come out in the jumble and we have to key in on one or two to get his drift. The words are up there and he knows what’s going on. He even corrects us when we make a mistake or simplify things too much or take a different route home, or if we try to con him and his two sisters into doing something but don’t come through on our end of the deal. “But you said, ‘We’ll go to the beach in the morning if we went to bed.’” We had. Last night. In a bid to get the kids to bed quickly so Mum and Dad could have some alone time. A chorus of “Me, me, and me” met our suggestion of going to the beach. Well, then, we told the three children, all under eight years of age. “The quicker to bed, the quicker the morning comes and the quicker we can go to the beach.” With my son we’ve got to keep our word – with all of them, really – or we’ll get called up on it. We try. But sometimes things don’t work out as planned, and we scorn ourselves for making – and breaking – promises. And my son frets. [click to continue reading…]
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