Waves When it's Flat and Wakeboarding Beatdown

It's flat.
The long range forecast shows no sign of any swell in the water as summer is officially upon us. Bring on the hurricane swells! I was thinking recently how the inlet here in New Smyrna Beach almost always has some waves that you can ride even when the forecast says it's flat like the past few days. Last week for example, most computer generated forecasts (i.e. MSW & Surfline) showed poor conditions with 1-2 foot waves, but in reality it was waist to chest high at the inlet with offshore winds every morning of the week. Sometimes you just have to go surfing and forget what the computer says!

Sunday was my first experience wakeboarding. A couple friends just got wakeboards. I just happen to own a boat.

"What a great thing to do when it's flat," I thought to myself upon checking out these snowboard looking things called wakeboards! Before I ever knew how to surf I was water skiing, knee skiing and being pulled on just about anything that floats behind boats. This was basically my entire childhood. I immediately gandered up a romantic notion that I'd be an instant pro on the wakeboard doing massive ariels and 360s across the wake behind the boat in no time. What really happened was the best and most humbling beat down I've had since my childhood. There was no instruction available. I got in the water, hung on to the ski rope, the boat took off and Sylvan proceeded to take about a gallon of saltwater in his mouth and out his nose. This happened about 15 times before I figured out I was supposed to bend my knees, brace my elbows upon them and twist out of the water (pop out), but by this point the muscles I didn't know I ever had in my arms that give me the ability to hold on to things were completely useless rendering me helpless to hang on to the rope any longer. I must say I didn't submit to complete destruction as I did get up once. Once up, I knew what to do and was comfortable and adjusted quite well to the shorter (if any) fin set up of the wakeboard. So the past few days I've been sore as all hell. A friend of mine told me it's just weakness leaving my body. Yeah.... I'll just keep telling myself that until it goes away!

So to try and curb the soreness I opt for a longboard session at the inlet after work yesterday. It was fun. The forecast said there were no waves, but alas, there was something to ride at the inlet! The current was sucking in the inlet with the tide causing a slight paddle fest in order to stay near the one area with the peakiest waves, but what the hell... weakness leaving the body!