No pain, no gain

I got out for my morning surf a little early today, and I was lucky that just as I headed down to the beach, Ru was also heading down for a short session of his own and offered me a ride. This turned out to be serendipitous on two counts, since it not only saved me a 10-minute walk, but once we got to the beach and I realized that the repair shop had forgotten to reattach the leash on my new-to-me 7'10" board when I picked it up yesterday, I was able to borrow a leash from Ru.

Anyway, as we waded out into the water, Ru said something interesting. To wit,

You'd think that when you're surfing all the time you'd get to a point where you don't wake up every morning feeling sore. But you don't. Instead you wake up pretty much every morning feeling like shit. The funny thing is, you're probably in the best shape of your life.

I've surfed every day for two weeks now, and I can vouch that I'm as sore now as I was on the second day. And that's not even counting the various cuts and scabs, the jellyfish stings, the jammed toes, the lump on my head, the bruised rib...

Still, every time I get in the water I feel great.