Non-surfing last weekend in Santa Cruz was wonderful.  By non-surfing I mean that the husband surfed while I stayed on dry land.  I did walk so I earned my poppy seed muffin and I got in some beautiful beach time.  The weather was great and the beach was accessible after the tide went down.  I also paid a bit more attention and made some changes to my last blog entry as I had the names of a few places I mentioned incorrect.

So what's going on this weekend?  Well tomorrow is Mark's birthday so it is family dinner night  so we can all help him celebrate...and of course eat cake!  Saturday is crap around the house day and Sunday we will be at Santa Cruz.  And by we, I mean not just Mark and I, but his daughter and my one of my sons will be join us! While I've seen Stef surf many times with Mark, this will be the 2nd time Eric has joined us.  Last time  he joined us, the surf wasn't the greatest for him so I wasn't able to see him ride some waves, but hopefully this weekend will be good and I'll get to see him in action.  Depending on the weather and where the decide to surf, I'll either have lots of photos or have a darker tan.

We will also be picking up Mark's new Stand Up Paddle Board (SUP).  He has rented several different styles from Cove Water in Santa Cruz so he could test out a few before he bought a new one.  The staff there is really nice and knowledgeable and they have some cute clothes there.  In my opinion they could add some hooded sweatshirts in additional colors besides dark blue and grey.  Plus the bathroom there is clean and tidy and they don't mind letting you use it. 

Mark already has a SUP, but this new one will be a bit smaller and much lighter weight.   If one of those days where the water is totally flat, I might actually get out there in the water on it.  I enjoy paddling around on a SUP, I just like to do it on flat water. The new board is an Al Merrick design, which means I have already named it Big Al.  I've lost count of how many boards are in our garage.  I do know that our garage will never see a car in it.  No convertible car for me!

So keep your fingers crossed for me that the beautiful weather we are experiencing holds out for the weekend.  I'd much rather be in shorts than sweats.

A Severe Case of Surfacockalitis

Hello, I am the surf widow.  No, my husband Mark isn’t dead , he is alive and kicking.  I become a surf widow on the weekends.  He surfs, and surfs…every weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  Being a surf widow has its perks.  It is far better being a surf widow than a golf widow or football widow.  Surfing keeps him in incredible shape and instead of watching him just sit in front of the TV totally involved with his sports on the weekends,  we spend the day in Santa Cruz at the beach.  Plus we go on some really great tropical vacations. 

During the day Mark, who has a PhD in electrical engineering, works at a national lab working on all kinds of scientific things that I will never understand.  Occasionally if there is a large swell coming in during the week, he develops this condition we call “surfacockalitis”.   The only known treatment for this condition is to take a day off of work to be submerged in a large body of salt water for a period of 2-3 hours while absorbing UV rays.  When he has a flare up, we head off to the local treatment center…also known as Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean!

This Thursday he had a severe case of Surfacockalitis.  Apparently there was a huge southern swell coming in from New Zealand causing this sudden flare up.  So off to Santa Cruz we went.

It was a day where the ocean was nothing but those beautiful loud crashing waves, coming in one right after another.  No two looked the same causing the ocean landscape to be an ever changing living work of art.  You could feel the strength and power of the water without even being in it. The tremendous waves were accompanied by a high tide making it impossible to get down to the beach.  That was fine with me as Mark had asked me to video tape him out in the big surf on his stand up paddle board. 

A stand up paddle board is a surfboard on steroids.  While it doesn’t necessarily have to be a lot longer than a normal surf board, it is a lot thicker and wider.  Instead of laying down on it, you stand and use a paddle to get in and out of the waves.  He has had a SUP for about a year, and this was to be the first time he was taking it out in really large and rough conditions.   Here is the video footage I took and Mark edited into a video.  Enjoy!