Moonlit Middletown Surfing

I was really starting to lose it.

I hadn’t exercised in weeks. How could I? There hadn’t been any goddamn waves in town in a month! I was getting edgy. Drinking a lot. Gaining weight. Jacking off like a teenager. I needed to physically exercise my demons. You might say “try jogging,” or “perhaps tennis would help,” but if you did, you’d be an idiot. You just wouldn’t know me.

But then it came!

The full moon hit yesterday, on a clear night, and waves came to Second Beach in Middletown, RI. The swell didn’t hit until late. There were less than a dozen people in the water. Clearly word hadn’t spread that yet another drought had ended.

Last night was the first evening session that didn’t end with the sunset. Part of the reason is a new 4-3 wetsuit I have, and another part was the celestial lighting. The moon melted the waves into silver and gems. The stream of moonlight flicked like a mermaids tail, seducing me while I waited for a ride. On top of it all, I’ve never surfed better in my life. And I’m going to do the same thing, sans full moon, tonight.

The experience wasn’t quite spiritual, but I definitely am glad to live in Newport again.

Surfing Newport RI

Finally, after weeks flatness, the Ocean kicked up enough waves for Southern Rhode Island to go surfing.

I hauled my soft pale frame onto Second Beach along with dozens of other desperate surfers, aching to peel down a monster.

At first it seemed like competition would be rough with so many riders in the water, but I quickly realized that there was plenty for all, and everyone had a smile.

I, too, soon stretched a grin across my face, the first I can remember for a long time. It’s a strange paradox: the summer usually makes everyone happy. It’s really everyone but surfers. There are no waves in the summer, and it becomes maddening.

In the winter the water turns frigid but the waves turn mean. You can see surfers carving in December with a nor’easter blowing in, having the times of their lives. They don’t get tan, but they get crazy.

I paddled till my arms could paddle no more and I hit up Vicker’s Liquors in Newport on my way home for a bottle of wine to relax and cook dinner.

“Thank God,” I said to myself. “I was starting to lose it there.”