Body surfing and other vacation bliss

Thursday August 6, 2020
7:28 am
Atlantic Beach, NC

Yesterday was a perfect day. I woke at 6:00 and went for a run; I borrowed my son’s earbuds (which he threw out into the hallway for me so I could get them in the morning while he slept) and listened to a new playlist while I ran along a beach-house-lined street and smelled ocean air.

After my run, I joined my husband for a morning walk along the sandy shore. We talked about our kids and their dreams and the future and our dreams. Later in the morning we were out at the beach again to play in the waves with our 14 year old daughter. They were perfect waves to dive into and bob over. We all stood in chest deep water facing the ocean. We watched the swells as they came in, and we reacted however we felt like, and the waves were spaced enough and even enough that they didn’t knock us over; we could recover between them.

The best part of the day was the afternoon, though. Once our 16 year old son was up and we’d all eaten and lounged around and watched Spongebob together, we piled into the car to go to the beach at Fort Macon State Park a couple of miles up the island from where we stayed. There was hardly a breath of wind, the tide was out, and we walked down the beach to grab a spot all to ourselves. There were no people within 50 feet of us. We slathered sunscreen on, then all four of us were out in the surf for hours. We laughed and talked about the kids’ college, and we jumped over and dove through the waves, and my husband disappeared underwater and scared us all because we thought he was going to grab our feet and we never knew which one of us he was coming for.

We also body surfed. I had forgotten how amazing body surfing is. It requires no equipment, just timing. When you catch the wave right, you can ride on it with your head and shoulders out of the water like a figurehead on a wooden ship. After the first time I got it right, I didn’t ever want to stop. The ocean lifts you up out of itself like a deity emerging from from the surf in a myth.

When we got home, I showered, poured some cold white wine, and started a light dinner. My husband played Protoje on our portable speaker, and I stirred risotto and sipped wine while aloe cooled my sunburn.