I'm currently tired

Just give me two minutes to get changed. But wait for me, Ok?

I snap the boot open and pull out my board, slide the cover off, lie it on the ground. I wrap a towel around my waist, rip off my clothes and tie on some swimmers (new ones too!). A vest? Yeah, why not. Grab a legrope, slam the boot, hide the key and ready...

I run over to his car,

Let's go!

We walk down to the water, chatting and laughing.

The swell is wrapping around the point, breaking behind the rocks and further down the line. The wash is big and the rip is very clearly strong and wide. And it's not that small.

Oh my God! Am I even going to get out?

(Of course I will.)

Haha. Yeah, you might struggle a bit.

Yeah. Haha. Crap.

(I can make it out. I'll just go straight across.)

I've been coming here every day and been going straight across it, Bec.

(No way he's been going across. He's been going out near the rocks. I know that. He's being kind. And supportive. Bless.)

Yeah. That's what I reckon I'll do.

Shit. I haven't been surfing much the past few months - just every few weekends - I've had other stuff going on. My body is tight and stiff and lazy. And weak. And unfit. And I'm not sure if it's up to the challenge of that rip. Screw it - I decide I'll be fine. I know I'll be fine. I look again at the line of people, stringing back towards town but straining towards the horizon as a solid-looking set approaches. Shit.

I attach my legrope to my board and then my ankle,

I'm so unfit! This is going to hurt.

Ha ha! That current looks killer!

We walk together into the water that immediately pulls at my legs, my hips, my waist, trying to sweep me off my feet and drag me under. Whatever. He wades out, chest deep, next to the rocks but I'm not strong enough so this is where we part ways. As soon as I see a break, I lie on my board and paddle. Hard.

Harder.

Hardest.

This board is still too buoyant for me to duckdive so I move through and over and under waves the way I would with my mal. One wave, two waves, the third sucks the board up and knocks me off. I look at the fourth, beginning to pitch. I decide that I'm definitely getting over the back of that thing. I look at the shoulder and see nothing else and drag myself across the surface and make it over into the clear water of the rip and the paddling masses.

Wow.

No stopping!

I paddle. I paddle. I paddle...