Aloha Tribe,
The massive storm coming, is racing a bit ahead of schedule, it now looks like, driving big 28 foot waves toward me to arrive on this coming Sunday. Yesterday, it looked like it might be Monday, but now, it is coming sooner. Or, if I wanted to go for a couple hours extra drive, I could find some 35 footers (Triple Overheads).
Now granted, these waves will be tough if not nearly impossible, and, dangerous beyond all reason, mostly because of the fact they'll be Closed Out, but also simply because of how the waves hit here. Perhaps a few might dare them, that'd be awesome to sit in the Line Up with you and meet you. But, if this is like it was last Winter and early Spring, I'll be the only one out. Dangerous and foolish, by the way to do that, so, please, don't anybody else try something like that. You truly need to know how to survive in that kind of sea, how to swim it, how to take the beatings, and here, how to even punch through it.
It requires a special kind of move that I've worked on all Summer and Fall, getting ready, for that time when you do find yourself in the sea beneath a mountain about to destroy you. It's a way of using Chi Gung, as a form of swimming, to guide yourself through the inevitable spin cycle to survival.
Helpful too, of course, is breath control, in fact, it's vital because, unlike the beautiful waves on the North Shore of Oahu, for example, with their long periods and perfect faces, here, the biting cold water will tear at your soul and the short periods will be more than you ever imagined as you are hit by wave after wave after wave, held under, at times, for an eternity. If you can hold your breath under such circumstances for 8 minutes or more in such situations, it can save your very life. If you can't, you really shouldn't be out without realizing the risk you're taking.
Waves like this, in the Wilds, happen. And, when it's all you have, you have to learn to live with it and more so, to play with it, for, it's all there is. But it takes a certain way of looking at the sea to long to step up and dance in dangerous situations like this.
Sunday, Monday, whenevers, when this storm comes, the sea will be a monster. And all who dare her embrace will be in for a thrashing. So, respect is vital. The sea, she is alive, she has a spirit, a soul, and, this must be honored as Watermen and Watergirls know.
Oh, and, leave your watercraft at HOME. The wilds is for, primitive surfing, wild space, the embrace of nature in her fury and in her primal feral darkness. If you want it, really want it, then, learn to paddle out in this kind of set. Let others play with their gasoline toys in other lands. Here, there be beasts.
One of the exercises I will be doing out there, is working with my Swiss Ball. Darrick Doerner (DD), the famous big wave surfer and my surfing and Watergirl mentor, has taught me how to do some very special exercises with it in seas like this. So, I'll have my board, my Swiss ball, and, my Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Rocket fins for some serious Coastal Swimming. As a Watergirl, there is so much for me to do and train in wild seas. So, such storms make me smile. Which is, by the way, one of the secrets in this kind of sea, for if your smile is genuine, you can understand yourself and have a loose body. Fear will make you tense, so what one needs instead, is to respect the sea in all of her teachings as she talks to us and shows us all, as members of The Tribe, to understand her language and to speak with her in her own tongue, in her own way, in her own time.
In the meantime, until this weekend comes, I shall be back to the Basics, again and again and again. Studying the sea and surf science, training my balance, my endurance, my strength in various ways, (roughly 28 or so that I mentioned way back in the Fall or early Winter about a year ago or so. My training, as always, will be intense, all day and most of the night, every day and night. It's about 2:15 AM or so right now, on a night with a near full moon, I am up, and, I am training. My day ahead will be long and brutal and necessary and it has me stoked. In the next few days ahead, I'll sleep only an hour or two a day, and eat only water, bringing my body as close as I can inside and outside to her natural watery state. And, after I surf, on Sunday or Monday or whenevers, when the seas lay down a bit, I'll get some rest and revitalize and restrengthen my body, mind, and spirit doing Chi Gung and of course, honoring the sea by having a fish taco and some fruit (a very watery food - much yin).
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley
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