Mr. Pragmatic 070713 - 26th Street

Surf Report: 2-4 feet

Water: Warm

Atmosphere: Sunny!

Winds: None

I forgot to mention, one of the errands I had to do yesterday was to buy Khang’s Neck Beard.  It’s a custom shape for him, but he was looking to sell it.  He willingly let it go for me at a steep discount, no doubt he wants a brow-job from me later ;-)

I wanted to go to a point break to test it out, and was gun-ho about going to Zero’s.  However, I couldn’t recruit anyone to go with me, so I stayed local instead… which turned out to be a great call.

Mellie Mel texted me at night, saying that “it was time” for her to return to the salty bastion we call home.  She said she only had about an hour of surf time but she will try to paddle out.

Matt said he had to stay local too, since he was tired from yesterday, which included a BBQ at his sister’s place in the Valley.

Khang was surfed out, and was not paddling out before work. 

I get to the beach, and see a girl with a longboard on the sand.  I see an outline of a figure approach her, and try to convince her to come out.  From the way the figure walked and carried himself, I knew it was Shan.  Shan and I used to be best mates, but I say used to for a reason.  We had a falling out years back, and we talked it out right then and there.  I told him that if I ever see him in the line-up, he needs to paddle away from me.  Yes, it was that bad.  I think it all went to shit when our company hired him to fix our computer.  My computer had been infected by a virus, and so we hired him to reformat and retrieve the uncorrupted data.  Unfortunately, he didn’t make a legit back up of our files, since he assumed that the files were backed up already.  He reformatted the computer… and all our data was lost.  Years and years of work, all gone in a matter of seconds.  My boss was pissed.  I was pissed.  I had to tell him off.  But, at the end of it, I told him, “If our friendship suffers from just a few thousand dollars, then I guess our friendship wasn’t really worth it, but I don’t want anything between us to change.”  I sincerely meant that, but I guess he didn’t hear it. 

Things between us changed from that point.  He seemed to have this lingering chip on his shoulder.  He and I used to hang out – hell he’s even slept over my house a few times.  But all of that changed, and he stopped calling me or picking up my phone calls.  In the end, our relationship deteriorated, but he still kept in touch with others in the DRC.  Fast forward a few years, and I see Shan in the parking lot of 26^th Street.  My dad had shot some photos of us and was present.  Shan just quietly gets changed, doesn’t even mutter a hello or anything, pulls out and stares at us, and drives away.  My dad said, “What the heck was that? He couldn’t even say bye to me?”

I explain to my dad how Shan doesn’t like me, but that doesn’t excuse Shan for the disrespect towards my father.  So, I talked to him that day over the phone on why he was acting that way.  Long story short, he was still holding on to this monster between us, saying that I singled him out, and that I would drop racist jokes on him and would chastise him all the time.  “I’m the victim here” is all I heard from him.  I questioned him on how he was the victim, saying he dropped racist jokes all the time, and he would call me “asshole” and “jerk” but I never let that bother me. All he kept saying that he was in no way wrong in the way he disrespected my father that day.  I gave him my two cents, and we parted ways by me telling him not to be in the line-up when I am surfing. 

Now, my boss, I like to call Mr. Pragmatic.  He has handled million dollar business deals all his life, and at one point, he had his best friend and his other best friend’s (who passed away in his arms) widow bickering over who gets what.  Those two, we shall call A and B, do not see eye to eye, even till this day.  However, my boss was able to keep them both happy and structured a business deal so that the widow got what she deserved from her late husband’s work, and the surviving partner got his share of the action too.  And, they are both still our clients.  Again, millions of dollars at stake (and millions of dollars offered as a bribe, no doubt), and my boss was able to do all of this.  Hence, Mr. Pragmatic. 

I want to be greater than this man.  In order to achieve this, I have to emulate what he does, and do it a hundred times better.  It ain’t easy though… but I figure, I have to start somewhere. 

Enter Shan.  I see him paddle out, but I don’t give him a hard time about paddling out where I paddle out.  In fact, I cheer him on to a wave.  I mean, the waves this day were pretty darn fun.  However, I do not go out of my way to talk to him.  Perhaps it’s because I cherish my inner circle of friends, and I do not want to have him in my inner circle of friends. 

First wave, I catch one right in front of Shan.  It was a nice take off, and the board worked great. 

Tom was out and he was catching a lot of waves.  On a right, he threw the board out so hard that he came unstuck.  There was a lot of spray that came out, and his tail was even showing out the back.  Man, this guy can really surf. 

I see Matt and we have our broment.  He and I split peaks.  We are all having a ball. 

Mellie Mel comes out!! She says that she was planting in her garden in the morning, and saw my text and headed out to the beach.  So glad she made it – it’s been over a year since she surfed with us.  She is one of my cherished inner circle friends.  Her sea arms are way out of shape, and she gets her ass handed to her a few times by Mother Ocean.  She does manage to catch a wave, though, and I cheer her for it. 

I see Shan paddle for a left… Matt pulls out for him, and Shan… well he hasn’t progressed at all.  I think that’s something that I would never understand.  His surfing is the same as it has been for the last five or six years.  He stays crouched down on his surfboard, letting out a loud “Woooooo~” as he makes the drop, and that’s it.  Nothing has changed.  No pumping, no carving, hell, not even a few steps forward on the longboard. 

I think that’s another reason why our personalities clashed.  I’m always about refining and improving any skill – whether at work or at play.  I think progression and the sense of achievement is a great joy and rewards oneself intangibly. 

I laugh out loud at this.  Here I am, doing what I despised about Shan – holding on to some monster between us.  Holding on to this “thing” that doesn’t exist and that has deteriorated a relationship between two humans.  There’s no reason why two people can’t co-exist in the same environment.  So, if he wants to surf 26^th Street, fine, he’ll surf 26^th Street.  But I’ll tell you one thing – the 26^th Street Ohana does not stand for the way he surfs.  Just because you can catch every wave, doesn’t mean you should.  

This Neck Beard.. it feels like it was made for me.  I love the dimensions, and how easy it is to get from point A to point B.  I would drop in to the wave, and then eye the section I want to be at.  One quick pump, and I'm at the section I just eyed.  The board felt so great under my feet, I couldn't help but feel good all morning.  So, thank you Khang for hooking it up!!! 

Matt takes off to get his morning started. 

Mellie Mel and I stay out until 930.  We make plans to have dinner together that night at her house.  Her roommate, Cara, is about to leave for Denver, so we cook up a feast of Quinoa salad and Branzino for the three of us. 

Mahalos Mother Ocean!!