IT"S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

No not Christmas or even back to school!! It is time for the "Stingray Shuffle". SO I got to meet one up close and personal yesterday..Luckily it just swam right between my feet..but I felt the fluttering of its "wings" on each of my feet..it was soft. I really thought it would be slimy.. ANY way as that happened I held my breath anticipating to be stung..BUT it just swam through gracefully..HOWEVER one of the girls I surfed with was not so lucky...Later that day, as we were cleaning up,she went whizzing by in a golf cart type vehicle with a state ranger, yelling "STINGRAY" as she pointed down, I think her foot was already in a bucket of water. SHE is a friend of a friend, so I am not sure how she is doing today...I hope she is Ok! BUT since May she is about the 4th surfer I know who has been stung. Just heard someone got stung at Blackies too, so make that 5th. SO as I say..the Rays are coming back to take over THEIR beach.. so be careful out there.

WELL on now to some surfing stories.. I HAD 5 days off in a row for this Holiday weekend. =).. I surfed 3 of the 5.. 2 of which was most excellent.. Yesterday not so much. SO lets start with Sunday! WATER IS WARM!! (hence the stingrays) Wore my shorty..Kills my knees, but worth it!


BOLSA ON A 4TH of JULY WEEKEND AS SEEN FROM THE RESERVE

SUNDAY - It was decided to surf Bolsa Early. I was dreading it..nothing good ever happens to me there...and as mentioned in the beginning.. Sting Rays are out in force. Bolsa is their playground. I now know 2 people in less than 1 week stung there. ANY way I was not happy. BUT since that is where everyone else wanted to go.. who was I to argue...There ended up being 2 other girls from the club their, Cynthia and Irma and her family and out of town guest. So we had a good pack heading out there.

WAVES were fun, ankle to knee slappers with some 2's.. GLASSY..NOT breaking on shore. Everything was perfect. But as I was still shuffling out, Irma rode right past, jumped off her board and said "stingray" right there! She jumped right back on her board, and I mine..and I don't think my feet ever touched the bottom since. Easy paddle out..still longer than Blackies but the small easy waves and glassiness? <-word? made it enjoyable. I caught so many waves MOSTLY LEFTS.. LOVE THEM.. and I snaked a friends wave..and as I stood up yelled sorry..after paddling back he said.."thought you only went after lefts". I said.."I "LIKE" lefts"..haha..but will go after what I can. ;-)..It was all good! THAT is what is great about surfing with peeps you know, you can snake each other and laugh about it..as long as it does not become a habit. FUN day and new found appreciation for Bolsa. MY first happy time there!

TUESDAY...another great day at Bolsa, a lil smaller and we moved closer to the jetty which had a little more pick up. It was me and Irma and we had sooo much fun! I am really getting good at my lefts. Trying to go right,I am trying, BUT seem to wipe out when I try. I will get it. SOMETIMES when I go right, I get up..but not all the time and usually not all the way up! So we surfed about 2 hours. I rode my last wave ALL THE way to shore where my fin was the brake in the sand. I am so paranoid of the rays. I don't get off my board till 2 inches not feet of water. I would have surfed longer, I had the stamina, but I did something to my shoulder/and it was burning. I don't know if it was from surfing 2 days in one week, or also I had been babysitting and holding my 6 month old "teething" Grandson for hours at a time. I have a "bum" shoulder already from previous accidents. So I was not too happy. But I still had fun surfing! I went home and slathered Thermagel all over my neck, arm, shoulder. OH but wait! My right leg is sore too. I realized that is from my stance I use going left. I did a lot of those the last couple times surfing. It is a new "good" pain I guess. So, I slathered Thermagel there too. Took some Advil, went to bed so I could get up early and surf again the next day.

WEDNESDAY- got up early, to do it ALL again. Went to Irma's and got a pass, Met a few of the club girls at Bolsa. Was our friend's B-day so we had a Birthday sesh!

Waves were not as big, and it was WINDY and very choppy out there. We went out anyway. There was about 10 of us I guess? Including the Birthday Girl's friends. It was a hard paddle and very bumpy and swelly due to the wind. NOT enjoyable at all.

I got out 2 times past the break. I only caught 2 waves, the whole 45 minutes I was out. One outside and One inside. MY arm was too sore to try and paddle out again. I was almost in tears it burned so much. I tried to paddle mostly with one arm. NOPE can't.

As I tried to get out with all my pain. A group of teens with soft boards came stampeding by and some of them didn't have leashes. One of the girls boards came flying at me and hit me on the head. I was great, She said sorry and it was a foam board THANK GOD! I don't know who the group was but there was more teenagers, than I could count. Then I decided to try and catch a wave or two inside. I caught a nice left and jumped off in about a foot of water and as I was picking up my board, I felt the ray go between me feet. I don't know if I stepped on it or just missed it. There was a mom with 2 lil kids about 3 years old right there, and I told her a sting ray just went between my feet. She said oh Thank you. They didn't leave. But I would hate for one the lil ones to get stung. They were right in the vicinity.

So I take my board and walk along the beach and try to get out to my friends again. I got out one more time..then I took a wave in and was done. I just could not paddle any more. WAS NOT worth it.

AS me and My friend Tracy were cleaning up, Shannon, who I didn't get to meet, but was surfing with us, went by with the Ranger and her foot in a bucket. SO rather eventful 3 days surfing. JUST wish my arm was not in so much pain.... any way I have 9 days to rest up till I get out to surf again...SO I am sure I will be fine!

I also have a new found "friendship" with Bolsa.. but am still weary of those Rays!