More Water

When I was little, I was a pain in the ass. One day we were at my Gram and Pop’s beach house and I was told to sit in the hot sand alone and think about what I did, oddly enough I can’t remember what it was.. Anyway, Pop came up and sat down with me because he felt bad for me. He started to talk to me and thought that I wasn’t listening, so he went on to tell me some tall tails for his entertainment: that he was the general of world war I, II, and III; that he was best friends with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abe Lincoln. Eventually he asked me if I’d like to build a sand castle. I was so bored I would have done anything, so I said yes.

Pop told me to go up to the house to get buckets, shovels, and anything else we would need for a sand castle. I ran up there as fast as my little legs would take me. Once I came back down and dropped everything in front of him, he said “Okay, I’ll dig and you fill up those buckets, bring ‘em back and dump ‘em out.” I did just that. When I was that young low tide was about a mile, felt like it anyway. By the time I got back up to the hot sand where Pop was, the buckets were half full. I stood there holding the buckets looking at Pop and he said, “dump ‘em”. I did, then continued to look at him for my next orders. He said “More Water” so I grabbed the buckets again and ran down to the shore line, scooped up two buckets full, waddled back up to Pop again and dumped ‘em out again. I stood there waiting to see what we needed to do next. Pop looked at me again and said “More Water”.

That day, I ran up and down the beach I’d say 50 times.. probably not that many but it was a hell of a lot of runs for water. Every time I saw Pop after, he would say “More Water”. It was always our thing, always has been.

Anyway, the phrase More Water has always been a big part of my life. I have always been very lucky to have grown up at the beach, and that’s because of my Pop. I dedicated my life to the ocean at a young age, and spent every penny I ever touched on plane tickets, boards, and the cheapest food edible to survive and be able to surf some of the best waves in the world. I wouldnt change a thing. Worth everything, and I would do it all again in a heart beat. There’s really no place I’d rather be than sitting on a board, staring out to the horizon, waiting for the next good wave to come to me. I find myself doing just that a lot, and I laugh to myself and say “here I am again, sitting, waiting, wishing, starring off to the horizon... ” I guess only a surfer knows, maybe a fisherman does too… maybe a kayaker, even. There’s just something so magic about the ocean and all it does for us. I can’t get over it... I guess I’ll stop yapping now...