This is a face of glum.
There often is a debate in my head about surfing.
Will the surf be good today or not?
The question revolves around hulking my board to the beach or not. It can be cumbersome when calculating in everything my family needs, from the cooler to the windbreak and the tent and the bags of toys and the towels, the sun block and the boogie boards for the three kids.
On a late morning recently, I made the call to leave my board at home. The wind was switching to side shore, no longer the ideal offshore wind that keeps the waves clean and better. And it had been small the day before.
So we drove to the beach without my board.
My eldest daughter was rather miffed at this. The eight-year-old, a budding surfer herself, said, “Dad, where’s your board?”
“Aw, I left it at home,” I said. “It won’t be any good today.”
“We’ll see,” she said.
She should have said, “You’ll see.”
For when we reached the top of the sand dunes in Pinamar on the coast of Argentina where we spend the summers, we looked down at the surf and saw that it was small but cranking. Appealing little waves raced down the beach.
My daughter turned to me and smiled. “I knew it was going to be good,” she said. “I could feel it.”
We walked down the dunes and to the shore and she bolted into the waves while I put up the umbrella and watched and thought I should be out there – now!
Then I vowed to myself to always consult my daughter on the surf.
