I have wanted to blog about this for a while...What is the greater fascination every surfer seems to have with the word stoke...Why are all surfers so "Stoked" all the time? And what the hell does that mean? Is it like a psychedelic euphoria surfers get from huffing sex wex on their sticks? Stoked...its kind of like being "Psyhed...pumped...wired...freeking...rushing...stoke....Its the holy word of the holy experience that is at the center of riding waves...It is the one word that keep coming round like a big set wave on the head....If you watch any professional surfer being interviewed its all quite similar. Usually its like bla bla bla...got tubed...bla bla bla...and I was STOKED.... As long as they are stoked...its all good.
So the stoke...I was thinking about this because in early August I found myself at a little uncrowded beach not too far from the big beaches of surf school mania. I was tired, but I had my long board and the waves looked okay, small and clean. So I paddled out to an empty line up. Amazing, just half a kilometer up the beach was a crowd...Anyway, I had a couple of decent rides, but I was still feeling low and the ride was not so bitching. I was about to paddle in, but alas... a chest high wave came through and suddenly I was on a reeling right that took me about one hundred and fifty meters....I was kind of befuddled. Suddenly, I was not feeling so tired. In fact, I was starting to feel pretty good. And then it happened again. Talk about a blessing. I was all alone and all of a sudden in August in the Algarve I was scoring long glassy empty waves. It was like a wonderful dream where the fairy godmother waved her magical ocean wand. U know, I was stoked! Truly...I became envibed...happy...energetic...vibrant...colorful...My energy got completely turned around. I had one classic amazing leash free longboard session. Magic. I was so amped up, and the waves kept getting better and better. After 2 hours finally another couple of surfers came out. U know, they too got stoked... We were all stoked. I rembember seeing schools of fish swimming around underneath me. And man, I swear they were stoked!
Okay...And in other news. My photographer friend Lucy Le Brock came to visit the Holy Shack. We hung out, and
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| My Magic Quiver... |
