Essay: Sessions

Sessions

Sessions, like surfers come in all shapes and sizes.  There is that session that you get in before work – a rekindling of those before school, or in my case, ditching school sessions. Your are escaping- doing something that “normal” people do not do. The receptionist at the office certainly did not go out this morning and watch pelicans flying overhead, see the sun rise over Huntington Cliffs or walk farther up the nose then she ever has before. I love the feeling of getting up just before dawn and running to the beach to see what is there. It is like Christmas morning every morning – what will the waves look like? Who will be out? Did the swell actually arrive this time?

The session is the heart of the day, it can define what the rest of the day will be like- how tired I will be and how good the breakfast burrito will taste? Each has it’s own unique face and voice. They all start with the same opening line “this one time…” or “I caught this one wave”. But they are all special to some extent. Some for good reasons, some for not so good reasons. I read in North Shore Chronicles about Darrick Doerner’s session after “Pops” Aikau died. He got to ride huge Waimea all by himself during a swell Pops called two weeks prior.  Just reading about that session moved me; or as Darrick would say, it was a “chicken skin moment”.

There was the session I had the day of my wedding. I had big plans to surf Malibu for the first time in my life. I have always wanted to surf that spot and had it all planned out. I would wake up at 4:30am meet up with my few remaining surfing friends and we would go on this epic journey making it to the church by 2:30. Well, no one wanted to go. My epic road trip turned into me getting up late – driving to Torrance Beach and plopping into 1 foot blown out waves on the biggest longboard I owned. No one else was even out. But I rode waves, smiled and while loading the car thought to myself – “I just surfed on my wedding day”.

I know friends who skip out from their offices at lunch to jump into the ocean. One is a partner in a CPA firm – even during tax season, if there is a swell his office is mysteriously vacant with his calendar blocked out for “client appointments”. It is funny to think that as a surfer, I sometimes have to “steal” for a session. Steal my own time that is. I will work late if it means I can get a two hour lunch break or come in at 10. I know some golfers who are just as bad as we are. They take long lunches, leave early and come in late just to hit a few balls. I tried golf. I suck at it. I would much rather put on my 3/2 and sit in the ocean shivering then chase a ball through bushes. (when you golf like me, you spend a lot of time that way). Golfers are stoked though; they have driving ranges where they can get in a quick doses. For me to get my dose, it requires a wetsuit, commute and an hour just never seems like enough time.

Sessions rule my life. Some of my best and worst memories are of session. My teen age years-  hanging out the beach with the fellow delinquents eating red vines, looking at girls, getting food at the snack shack, and talking about parties. My 20’s -rediscovering the ocean and surfing, making new friends, getting clean, changing my entire life and in the process- re-discovering myself and who I am. Those sessions are really powerful. They are the ones where I was completely alone save for a pile of non-surfing friends. They are the ones where it was just the sunrise, the dolphins, the ocean, and me. I sat out there and talked aloud to my dad, to my friends, God (or whatever you call it).  But it felt good. Each wave in those sessions had meaning behind them. Those sessions were a privilege. I never got barreled like I did when I was 15, I barely was able to ride the nose, but there was a connection there with surfing that I had never experienced before. Like back when I was 11 and started to ride waves – those sessions changed my life and the direction it would go.

I have come to realize that I can use sessions as makers of my life. Of people I have known, places I have been. Sessions are everywhere – everyone has a favorite one and for me – each one is special.