Lessons of Patience in the Surfing Misadventure

I hadn't been to Los Angeles for five months when I went a week and a half ago for a working visit. I was [image error]looking forward to spending time on my surfboard and catching up with balance in my life. I feel like the water evens me out emotionally and spiritually and something about being on top of the waves on the board brings me a lot of peace.

Unfortunately, the trip didn't quite go as planned. When I arrived, they were expecting ocean swells higher than they had seen in thirty years. That was fine. I wasn't happy but I could wait and did until Sunday, two days after my arrival. I showed up at the beach on Saturday and talked to the guy who parked next to me. He told me it was like a wall, that you could catch a wave but you would thrashed around, I decided I valued my life too much. I did walk down to the beach and could see the wall the waves formed across the beach.

By Tuesday, I decided to go in but the breaks were so strong that I quickly got out. I noticed the ocean was very brown with everything stirred up. I even found seaweed in my hair and wrapped around my ankled under my wetsuit.