Beer, breakers, and bruises...

This weekend started with a fun Friday night debarkation on the Mellow Mushroom World Beer Tour. This pizza restaurant in Fleming Island has 31 types of microbrew on tap. The tour is simple -- sign up, drink 'em all, get a free t-shirt. Now, I will do damn near anything for a free t-shirt (see below post). Andrea and I started off with all the wheat beers and made plans for a one night a week, 8 week completion of the tour. It was a blast to taste some new and different beers and catch up with a great friend. I am quite certain our plan to knock out one category of brew on each visit will play out nicely.
Today I hit the water with Deane for the first time this summer! I am not a REAL surfer by any means, but I was excited last year to learn the ins and outs of paddling, sitting up on my board, balancing, and actually standing up. I can even do a liiiiiiiiiiiiittle turning action when the elements agree.

It didn't look good when I went to get my (still fairly new) 7'6" epoxy Mike Dolsey (I love his logo -- the M with the wave looks much like an MA!) out of its board bag. The zipper was corroded closed with crusted salt and unidentified gooiness. Luckily, Deane managed to work it out with cutting the board bag to pieces (as I was about to do). We waxed it up, applied SPF 45 (UV index 10, burn time 12-15 minutes!) and hit the beach.

The waves were nice small rollers, 2-3 feet about 8 seconds apart, with hardly any wind. I was really excited when I got out into the water (not freezing cold, tolerable and refreshing) and seemed to retain the majority of what I had learned last year. Deane has been surfing since he could walk, so he definitely shows me up on a regular (me and every other surfer in the water), but he is patient and wonderful about helping me pick waves, hollering when I should pop up, and understanding when my arms feel like total butter and cannot withstand one more paddle.

I had forgotten what a total body workout this sport is, and an hour in, I was wiped. My arms hurt, my abs hurt, my back and shoulders hurt, but I was having a really fun time. I decided to take it in for a few and lay on the beach. This was the first incident. I sort of forgot I had a leash on, and when I wiped out, tried to pull my board back to me so I could carry it up the shore. It ended up flipping and the fins whacked the hellllllll out of my leg, then my side, then my back. It hurt (a *lot*), but there were no cuts, so I figured I was ok. I sat for a few, then went back out for a bit more. Second wave deep, I went to recover my board (upside down, again, these fins HATE me) when an oncoming wave sucked it out and the fin cut my finger, gashing it pretty deep. Deane saw me and came in as well, and there were people GAWKING at us walking up the beach. When I set my board down and looked at my hand, it was a gushing bloody mess. After careful inspection, we decided it didn't need stitches, but we did need to end the surfing for the day.

Deane has been a total champ nursing my cut finger and waiting on me hand and foot, as well as changing my bandages (don't worry Mom, I swear it is FINE), and my earlier run-in with the fins has left me with a softball-sized purple and red bruise on my thigh, but all in all, it was a fun day in the water. The only bad thing is I can't really bend the injured finger (index, right hand, most important digit) and haven't been able to knit all day, which I planned on doing while spending some QT with the DVR.

Hopefully, my finger will heal pretty quickly, and I can make some knitting progress this week, so we can get back to what this blog is supposed to be about!