After fooling with those project boxes (15+ trips back and forth stacking them on the shelves, going up and down a ladder) I decided I'd not do any packing last night.
Yesterday I changed my radio station from NPR to KPFA which turns out to have talk during the day and such treats as the "Ralph Nader Radio Hour". Nice! I've only ever thought of turning to them in the evening when NPR can be repetitive, and then I get their usual selection of quirky music.
Another recent discovery is something called a "surf mat". This is a sort of specialized inflatable mat you surf on. I've done every form of surfing there is, and I always thought that what really flies when you're surfing prone is what we called a paipo board which was just a bellyboard made of plywood. No flotation but when you got on a wave you could fly. Well, these surf mats, ridden with skill, can go faster than a stiff board and I watched videos of mat surfers staying on waves it'd normally take my 100 lb or so 1940s special long board to ride.
What intrigues me the most about the surf mat, though, is that it's just a small glorified air mattress. Easy to roll up, take on the bus, blow up at the beach, put on fins, and go. When I'm back in Hawaii I'm not assuming I'll have any more expensive transport than the bus system, walking, and maybe a bicycle. I've thought about folding kayaks but those can be kind of bulky.
How can a modest little mat go faster than a conventional stand-up surfboard? I think I get it - when I used to bodysurf a lot I learned ways to sort of "form" my body for super speed and I'd go into and shoot out of, some nice barrels. The hand boards I made helped too, but a lot of it is body feeling, maybe what dolphins use when they ride waves (from the inside!)
But there's more. I'd have no problems swimming with a mat out to Chinaman's Hat, to the sandbar just a bit south of there, etc. So there are not just a ton of nice surf breaks I'd have access to with one, but some other fun stuff too. That's something to look forward to.
I packed the packages I'd normally have packed last night, and at 2:30 walked out to the lunch truck and for $4 got this plate of 3 breakfast burrito things. Really it was a lot of food but I guess I was hungry because I made short work of them. My temperature today was 97.9 so maybe my metabolism is coming back around to normal.
I headed out with the packages at a quarter after 3, and things went OK but going out in the afternoon even as early as 3 is quite a bit different from going out in the morning. There are already lemmings driving like maniacs home from work and it's just a lot less friendly. Plus a sun angle that makes it hard to see, and for drivers to see me. It's just not as good. Tomorrow I want to try going out at 9AM and see how that is.
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