July 4th 2017: Empty perfection

You have to be careful what you wish for. After a week of slog in the edit room for a series of jobs I was looking forward to a sneaky mid-week surf on Thursday. I'd heard how I'd missed the dream session on the North Coast earlier in the week, so had that nagging in the back of my mind – you know that resolution – not to let work get in the way of an epic surf session again. It's a tough resolution to deliver at times.

But I'd made the call and was slithering down an icy road towards my early morning destination. In my mind I had perfect peaks just lightly brushed by the offshore winds and comparable to the bounty that I had missed a few days earlier on a different coast. As the ocean came into view I could see perfection – blue lines marching in and folding into perfect white triangles like something from a dream. It wasn't until I pulled up to get some shots that I realised no one was out. The heavy frost had turned the sand as solid as concrete and the wind cut through the air with such savage intent that it made the thought of getting into my wetsuit a miserable undertaking. Then as I watched I realised it wasn't just the icy cold that was putting people off paddling out. As perfect as the peaks were they were also very big and had that type of top-to-bottom hollowness that would test the fitness of even the best.

Perfect? Yes. On the edge of my fitness level? Possibly. It was one of those sessions where you don't want to go it alone. Just in case a set squares you up. Tail between my legs, I slipped back to work to "get ahead" on next week's workload. Leaving perfection behind is a terrible fail.

See you at the beach ... Derek

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