Cape Cod Diary 4: In Which Ian Learns His Freaking Lesson

We (me, Love of My Life, and offspring) returned to Head of the Meadow again, this time with my NSP 11 on the roof of Kirsten's Routan. Tide was pretty low and I spent the first hour or so boogie-boarding with my now expert son Gabriel and gathering rocks with my girls for a... Well, whatever that mound of rocks was. I saw a coupler of SUPers on the water, and begged Kirsten to go out. She looked at me askance when I said, "Come on. All the cool kids are doing it." Then again, she's good at looking at me askance.

I finally did get out with almost identical conditions as yesterday. This time the surf-style board made a huge difference. I had to get pretty close to shore to catch anything, but catch the little waves I did. 

I also met a firefighter named Aaron who was on a red 10'6" Surftech board. He asked me a few questions about surfing, and I had to tell him that while I was a good flatwater SUPer, I was mostly a beginner in the waves. 

We surfed and looked at the large school if baitfish beneath us. The seals were passing right by us. Of course, if there's any recipe for a shark encounter, this was it. I would have been pleased to see one, actually. It would have been a story I could tell for the rest of my life. We then paddled back to the beach together through the channel between the huge sandbar and the main beach. I showed him a couple of paddle-handling tips, of which he was very appreciative.

Kirsten took my board out afterward. She didn't enjoy the waves much, but she liked paddling in the channel. Kirsten also declared my board "tippy", even though it's wider and floatier than hers. Maybe the increased height got her -- her Amundsen 11'3" is thinner than mine, so maybe was it.

Dawn patrol tomorrow, as long as there isn't fog.