Spring

Spring is slowly beginning to edge in its way into our consciousness over here. It's still not very warm - plus 3 or 4 at most - but it's still warm enough to melt the snow so that now there are more bare, brown patches than there are expanses of frozen white. Time enough then, I decided, to resurrect my long dormant surfing career and catch the first waves of 2011.
And it was shite.
Well, I was shite. The waves were fine, my friend Mike (or, to use the jargon, 'mu surfing brah'), rode one wave after the other as a decent, shoulder high swell rolled through all morning.
Me, I was floundering around in the white water like a geriatric seal, all gasps and curses and lots of very cold water. And man, was I ever out of surfing-shape. Spindly arms flailing away as I got tossed around like a big, old splintered stick. An hour in the water and I managed to 'ride' all of two waves before exhaustion and embarrassment got the better of me and I got out of the water.
Naturally, I blame my wife and son, whose constant demands for paternal/husbanding attention are ruining my chances of capturing this year's Edie Aikau Big Wave Surfing Contest in Hawaii.

Me, prior to marriage and becoming a father.
!