The Ride of a Lifetime We have all had nightmares. They could be simple things such as seeing a clown or getting swarmed by spiders, but there are the ones that truly scare you, like drowning to death. For me, my childhood nightmare of drowning to death showed up at my front door last summer. It was terrifying, but through my experiences I learned that pain is temporary, memories are forever, and that you need to understand and respect Mother Nature to the fullest before you do anything involving nature. Growing up in Virginia, I learned at a young age to not fear the ocean or water. I lived my entire life on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay so I practically lived in the water on a day to day basis. By the age of eight, I was able to drive a boat and could navigate through the plentiful coves and rivers. By the age of nine, I was able to wake board and drive a jet ski. When I turned 12, I could take apart a boat engine, clean it, and put it back together without getting parts mixed up or lost. The more I aged the more I could understand about the river, and all of its glory. Although I had never been to a beach, I understood what happened with currents and all of that. I was blessed enough to have parents that had good jobs and we could take vacations every year. One year they finally decided to take the family down to the beach and that’s where I found my new passion for surfing. Finding out about surfing was a great thing for me.
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It gave me a new hobby and skill, it was also an amazing way to relieve stress or just have fun. Like all things, however you have to master a skill before you are good at it. I learned slowly like most. Paddling with my hands and feet just coasting through the river in hopes that a boat may make a wave or two for me to practice on. At the beach is was a much different story. Day after day, my brother and I would hit the beach at sunrise and not come in until it was pitch black outside. At first I hated it, I was not patient and I could not hone my skills enough to stand up on the board. After practicing for what felt like months I finally caught my first wave and rode it all the way into the shore line. Now I know this seems like just another superhero training montage from the movies, but I trained like this to get to where I am today. Now whenever I’m bored I can just grab my surfboard and head on down to my favorite surfing spot in North Carolina. Hatteras, North Carolina, a beautiful place. Like the ones you see on magazine covers. Rolling hills of sand and sea grass, crystal clear waters, little to no one on the beach, a perfectly placed sand bar about one hundred yards out where the waves break, and pelicans skimming the water with the edge of their wings. The waves there were great, about four to five feet daily. They collapsed in the perfect curl just big enough for you to fit your body in. This was a true paradise for surfers, however paradise can turn into hell in the blink of an eye. As the pristine paradise became hell we see a major change happen. The tides rise tremendous amounts, the once glorious hills of sea grass and sand become the new sand bar, the crystal clear waters become murky, dark, and clouded with debris and sand. Everyone that was once down on the beach as fled for higher grounds. The sand bar that seemed like it was perfectly placed there had all but disappeared. The storm had arrived. Hurricane Sandy made landfall. Hearing that a hurricane was coming was enough to have everyone packing all of their stuff up and leaving the beaches, but for us adrenaline junkies and seemingly stupid people, this was an amazing thing and this one was looking like the perfect storm. As I started to load my car up with supplies and boards I knew what I was getting into. This wasn’t my first rodeo surfing in a storm like this, but this one was much stronger than the usual. After what felt like a century in my car I finally arrived
It gave me a new hobby and skill, it was also an amazing way to relieve stress or just have fun. Like all things, however you have to master a skill before you are good at it. I learned slowly like most. Paddling with my hands and feet just coasting through the river in hopes that a boat may make a wave or two for me to practice on. At the beach is was a much different story. Day after day, my brother and I would hit the beach at sunrise and not come in until it was pitch black outside. At first I hated it, I was not patient and I could not hone my skills enough to stand up on the board. After practicing for what felt like months I finally caught my first wave and rode it all the way into the shore line. Now I know this seems like just another superhero training montage from the movies, but I trained like this to get to where I am today. Now whenever I’m bored I can just grab my surfboard and head on down to my favorite surfing spot in North Carolina. Hatteras, North Carolina, a beautiful place. Like the ones you see on magazine covers. Rolling hills of sand and sea grass, crystal clear waters, little to no one on the beach, a perfectly placed sand bar about one hundred yards out where the waves break, and pelicans skimming the water with the edge of their wings. The waves there were great, about four to five feet daily. They collapsed in the perfect curl just big enough for you to fit your body in. This was a true paradise for surfers, however paradise can turn into hell in the blink of an eye. As the pristine paradise became hell we see a major change happen. The tides rise tremendous amounts, the once glorious hills of sea grass and sand become the new sand bar, the crystal clear waters become murky, dark, and clouded with debris and sand. Everyone that was once down on the beach as fled for higher grounds. The sand bar that seemed like it was perfectly placed there had all but disappeared. The storm had arrived. Hurricane Sandy made landfall. Hearing that a hurricane was coming was enough to have everyone packing all of their stuff up and leaving the beaches, but for us adrenaline junkies and seemingly stupid people, this was an amazing thing and this one was looking like the perfect storm. As I started to load my car up with supplies and boards I knew what I was getting into. This wasn’t my first rodeo surfing in a storm like this, but this one was much stronger than the usual. After what felt like a century in my car I finally arrived