Another week gone by...

let's see...I surfed last sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, friday, and sunday, today, 6 out of 7 days.  maybe i didn't surf monday, it's hard to remember, i need to buy a calendar and a pocket planner to keep track.

Tuesday, Wednesday Friday and today I managed true dawn patrol, being at the beach by first light, waiting for the light to improve then paddling out.  It's nice cause I'm home and beat by 11am.  However, on Friday I was in the water for 7 hours (almost).  It was that good and I brought two boards for the conditions.  My leash came loose with the bigger board later in the day and it ended up on the rocks but with only a small ding through the glass in the nose, nothing that can't be fixed easily.

But most importantly, several realizations.  On Wednesday, a session before work, I felt like I reached a plateau, like I've put enough work in to get myself to where I am being a better surfer in the wave sizes I'm comfortable in...but this plateau.  It presents me with a threshold of sorts.  My ambition, what I think about and feel is right, is to ride bigger waves and to ride better the waves I'm already comfortable in, to keep progressing, in essence.  Now the work and focus that is going to have to go into this next step is going to be as important and as challenging as all the work it took me to get here.  I'm going to have to start pushing my comfort zone, looking at more appropriate equipment for riding at size and commit to ongoing fitness and diet.  Studying more progressive surfers, bigger waves and getting the whole repair/shaping thing going for myself are the keys to open these locked doors.  Staying stoked and getting in the water as often as possible are the only barriers to any of this, really.

I'm getting some materials online, most notably The Boomer's Bible, a wonderful piece of Bible-inspired, punk-anarchist-humorist-urbanite-...whatever.  I'ts cool and i can load up my order with other things I'd like (surf vids, some history).  Just a little something to give me inspiration and to spend some hard earned cash on, give me a sense of novelty in my multimedia.

In other news, I'm rapidly approaching a time where I can purchase my surf shack.  I'm looking at creativeshelters.com because they have a sick design-a-structure software tool that gives you measurements, parts, optional accessories, check it out if you want to put up a steel frame (pipes and fittings) tarp structure.  I don't want to piece it out, I'd rather just buy the whole damn thing after saving and slap it up so I can fix all these damn boards.  I swear, every board in the house needs something.  It'll be good practice to get back in the swing to fix boards professionally again.  In one of my daydreams today I imagined being a glasser/sander.  Not exactly the glamourous position but what am I really going for here?  A poem to leave you with until next week...

Far off, unknown, beyond the range of thought,
scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother,
stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast,
is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses,
the Cave, consuming all things with slow power,
and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours,
the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces,
its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits,
the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely,
and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits.
A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws.
He fixes the number of stars in every constellation,
makes some of them move and others hang at rest.
So all things live or die by predetermined laws...
When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold,
Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent
grey hairs to the proud rays. [1]

Claudian (c. 370-408), Roman poet

Claudian, full name Claudius Claudianus (c. 370-408), Roman poet.

This passage ends the second book of his poem, On the Consulship of Stilicho

(accessed 1/9/10) http://survive2012.com/index.php/2012-the-year-of-the-dragon.html