In the past, I’ve alluded to the fact that, as surfers go, the word that best describes me is “polite”. I tend to follow the rules, give up waves, smile, hoot for other people and try keep the tone in the water mellow.

I was not that person today. I take that back. I showed the other side of that person today on one wave in particular.

I dropped in on someone. Blatantly. Unapologetically (which is a lie because I apologized to him later even though I wasn’t earnest when I did so.)

One of my friends chastised me for doing so. I paddled up to her later and told her what led to such egregious behavior on my part.

There is one guy in the home break crew for whom I have no respect. I flat out dislike him. I am civil to him. He has no idea that I can’t stand him. There’s no need to share that sentiment with him since I only see him in the water. For years, he’s taken my waves. He’d see me paddling for one, paddle right next to me and just go. Being the polite person that I am, as well as one who’d prefer not to imagine the physical aftermath of a collision in the water, I would always pull back.

No.

Not today.

It was a left. The shoulder was heading right for me. He paddled and popped up, going left. I then paddled and popped up. All I saw out of the corner of my eye was him crashing and burning.

Good.

When I explained our history to the friend who’d chastised me, she said, “Oh. Karma.”

Yes. Karma. That was payback, James Brown style.

Who’s your mommy now?

[ post by SurfSister from Intruder in the Surf ]