Beauty No.4: Sitting on the Outside

Now I'm improving and can paddle out through the waves I have discovered how nice it is, after the battle out, just to sit on the board for a short while and catch your breath. To make it through the whitewater, slap your way over the final peaking waves and then just sit quietly on the board feeling just a little bit 'out at sea'. It's the contrast of the relative calm after getting yourself through the whitewater that is so good. The contemplative nature of it: under the sky, half in the ocean, waiting for your wave.

I still have to concentrate because, while sitting, I still fall off the board sometimes (totally kookish behaviour!). The guy next to me the other day, a little overweight, just looked so relaxed: with his hands on his knees he looked like he was sitting on a barstool waiting for his next pint to waltz up. Sometimes I have seen people sitting on the nose instead, getting a wax comb out of their wetsuit and roughing up the wax a bit while waiting. I'm going to have to think of something more impressive: maybe whipping out a sandwich!