Sunrise & Shine: A session served cold with a slice of humble pie

Written By Will Buehn

Nothing like a good beatdown by the ocean to remind you that—despite your best mind surfing—you don't actually glide like Gabe, Mick, or John John on the face of a wave.

The surfing gods held up that reality-check mirror for me a few days ago during my first session in a couple months, and let's just say I wasn't super stoked with what I saw in the reflection.

By most standards, conditions were pretty crap on the day. Total victory at sea with what seemed to be 6 foot seas at 0.25 seconds. It was a mess, hardly worth the paddle, but we went for it anyway to justify the 2-hour drive.

I was hoping to just catch a couple and call it a day, but after 30 minutes, a marathon paddle, a few gulps of seawater, a dozen slams, and a totally humbled ego, I'm not even sure if I can say I caught one wave.

There were definitely a couple times where I fell down the wave for a pretty long time, but I don't know if I'd call that wave riding.

Upon sorrowed reflection the next day, I realized I had let myself get grossly out of touch with my surfing. My conditioning couldn't keep up and I paid the price.

It was humbling, but that's ok, humility is good, and I needed that reminder. Now I've got something to work towards. I've convinced myself it's an opportunity to put in some effort and find my feet again.

So, the billion-dollar question is, should I buy one of these things or move to Abu Dhabi to train every day on Kelly's latest wave pool?

I'm sure membership fees are reasonable, but I'll compare prices just in case.

If only training was as simple as they make it look in Hollywood montages. Kate Bosworth and that girl from the Fast and Furious make it look so easy in Blue Crush.

A little running on the beach, some swimming, an easy-going walk along the sea floor dragging my besties, and I could be dropping in at Back Door by Black Friday.

I'm of course slightly skeptical any of that's in the cards for me, but I CAN tell you one thing: I'll be damned if I get skunked again during my next surf.

With the holidays right around the corner, the last thing I need is another serving of pie—humble, apple, or other.

That's all I've got about that. Here's what's good:

Mind if I join?

The biggest weekend of the year is finally here, now it's time to make decisions:

Space Coast Boardriders Grom Fest Dec. 16th at Pelican Beach park. Looked like a good time last year!

Let it snow...in Sarasota. Compound Board Shop might need a cat scan because they're throwing a snowboarding competition and pizza party at their store on Dec. 2nd. I'm told both the pizza and snow will be delivery, not DiGiorno.

Worth a watch

This is how I envisioned my session going, but reality had other ideas…

1000 words are worth a picture

Laura Enever just set a Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever paddled into by a female. Surprisingly, it wasn't in Florida.

Talk surfy to me

Is the surf biz having its own moment of self-reflection right now? Stab’s asking questions and pitching thoughts on how things may look in the future.

Pre-shredded

Thought it was Shane Do’ at first, then thought it was Joe Ro’, then back to Shane. The verdict is still out on who surfed this wave, but I can conclusively say that Shane Dorian and Joe Rogan look a lot alike—and one of them surfs pretty good.

Live longer with a little weekly laugh

I could probably use a friend like this to keep me motivated.

Pumpkin pie or pecan? What’s your pick?

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is highly un-edited, so if a link takes you somewhere weird, just hit the back button, clear your cookies, and refill your coffee. And if you find there’s too many Step Brothers, Old School, Wedding Crashers, or any other core millennial movie references in here, then you might want to consider parting ways now. If that's all good with you, "Did we just become best friends?"

Will Buehn
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Sunrise & Shine: A couple of "Tin" anniversaries
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Sunrise & Shine: "It's beginning to look a lot like...Thanksgiving."