From Right to Left at 6:23pm

By Haley Welsh

Sep. 8th, St. Augustine Beach

The little air bubbles popped and hissed as my fish feet ran into the waves. Alex, my surfing partner and better half, waited on shore a while before starting the fight against the long-arriving swell. He waited for me to get about halfway out, due to my struggle during the intense paddle out the day before. A little north of 11th Street, we sat in awe and anticipation for the next wave. Glassy rollers steamed in. Nearly the whole town was out. Looking toward the pier, I saw a few people on some waves, flailing arms, legs and boards with the white water ready to knock them on the shoulder. The waves had pretty good size, a little overhead on average and then there were some larger sets. Everything was pretty much perfect for a St. Augustine surfer.

Alex and I tried to avoid the crowds, but we occasionally got a little boxed in. The birds were soaring by, stealing a few good waves just to let us know they could. A slight breeze ran across my skin and I looked toward the horizon of the ocean to notice some old fishing boats. Alex was signing as he paddled back out from a clobber bombing left, “I use to be a solitary man…oh I believe in miracles, for me and you…,” it was like surfing with Eddie Vedder himself.

I caught my first wave, made the drop and cut through the teal right face, gaining some speed and as I flew past the end. I hopped back on my board, digging fast like a dog’s first time to the beach. “This is my escape and I’m finally free,” I thought to myself. This is what surfing is about. That careless feeling, that empty mind, the release from all other stress while you focus on the only thing in front of you, the pure shimmering water rushing past your board. Its not about how much you spend on your board, or how many times you can fit Nar, Nar or Agro into your sentence. It’s certainly not about how many surf stickers are on the back of your vehicle or how many surf contests you’ve won. Surfing has been so skewed in the past 5 years by MTV Surf Girls, Blue Crush and money-making contests. People used to only surf for fun and now very rarely do I ever hear the words “I only surf for fun,” come out of someone’s mouth from my generation. I think that outlook has been somewhat lost. I feel highschoolers and college students these days surf to either get better and win a big contest or put some silly surf sticker on their board, so they can be a walking advertisement.

The sun started to go down, turning the sky into the most vibrant golden sunset I could remember. It was just like a pastel colored crayon box, shading from orange, to green, to blue, to purple going from the horizon to the sky. The mist made the palm trees a dark grey and the outline of surfers on the beach were in perfect view. It reminded me of the North Shore, though the sun sets into the water there. The waves rolled in deep blue with the light blue sky reflecting off the top of the water. When they reached me the water turned a forest green. The orange sunset reached out across the water. “I’ve been waiting for nights like these my whole life,” Alex shouted to me.

Surfing is a dream, a dream I step into every time I paddle out. It separates me from the rest of the world. I wish more people of my generation, of this generation, would appreciate surfing for what it really gives us. All the beauty and all the opportunities it gives us to experience things some people can’t even fathom. It’s not the surf industry’s greedy outlook on what you need to do, buy, say and wear to be labeled as a surfer. It’s like magic to flip that stress free switch every time I paddle out.

The sun faded from the sky and the stars got a little brighter. We caught some of our last waves and headed in, excited about our early morning dawn patrol the next day and in appreciation of the significant session this earth had just given us.