King of the Groms

Dillon has been spending his saturdays at surf club getting as much practice in before they had a local surf competition.  The Saturday before the competition Dillon and I headed out to Windy Reef and arrived to find out that the boat that takes all of us out to the reef was out of commision for the day.  SO - what does this mean - well it means a long paddle out to catch some waves.  I knew Dillon would not want to make the trek out on his board solo - perfect - I will go out on a SUP.  Well -  not so much - they were all being used (as the earlier group was already out there and those parents had snagged the boards).  Well - that only left one option- I guess I was paddling out on a board with Dillon - maybe I will even catch some waves if the conditions were right.  We slowly made our way out to the reef - we kept looking at each other and wondering if we were getting any closer.  Distance out on the water can be very deceiving and not in a good way.  As we got closer Dillon was excited to start catching some waves so he took off ahead of me......This was just fine - I wanted to take a step back and watch the action for a bit before I decided what I was going to do.  It was a very calm day - no wind, the water was very smooth and still, the waves were not big at all - which made it more of a fun longboard type of surf session.
This is where I really wish I had a camera of some sort - but did not - I have not really figured out a good way to transport one with me on a board.  I am working on it though.  So  - this is where between your imagination and my "ok" writing skills a decent picture will be painted.  We arrive at the reef - which is out in open water but there is a buoy that is a good marker of the edge of the channel where you can paddle out without going through the waves - plus about 20 kids gathered on boards and a few adults/parents paddling around on SUP's.  It is almost like transporting a playground to the middle of the ocean - the sun was out, wind was just a little breeze and the wave were fun and mellow.  As Dillon made his way into the group of kids and picked a spot to scope out the waves I sat on my board and took it all in.  The kids were hootin' and hollering for waves, screaching with delight if they were caught by a bigger one after they hopped off their board.  Then you would see three or four catch a wave and ride it right next to each other - sometimes trying to topple one of the others off their board.  From my spot on the outskirts of this ocean playground I could not help but smile - it was so heart warming to see all these kids (Dillon included) having so much fun on their boards catching waves.  They were having an absolute blast.  That innocent, carefree childhood fun.  Just watching the kids would be more than enough to make me happy that day - but I was lucky enough to catch a few waves that day.  Dillon and I were so tired from the long paddling - we sat silently in pain the whole car ride home - definitely an experience - Dillon claims he is never paddling all the way out again.

ocean play ground

The local surf competition was going to start with qualifiers on weds and then continue on the following saturday with finals.  To us and Dillon it was simply an opportunity to have another experience and have a blast catching waves.  It was all about the fun -

a sweet bonus was the cool t-shirt

soon there were lots of kids and you could feel the excitement in the air - the boat was going to be full of kids so Mike was going to take a paddle board out and I was going to hang out at the surf shack with Ro. 

it never ceases to amaze me how brave and independent he is - heading out to the reef

there were about 30 kids - with 6 heats of about 5 kids - each heat has about 15 minutes to catch waves and ride them the best they can

I was able to watch Dillon from the beach with my zoom lens  - he did a great job and caught 4 or 5 waves - we were super proud - this pic and the next few are a series of his first wave of the day

nice ride Dill

patiently waiting for the next right one

off he goes again - this I believe was the best ride of the day and since he started surfing on the island - he has started to get his turning down

the rest of the ride

we were so happy Michael was able to take a break and come and watch Dill for the afternoon - as only one of us could go out on the paddle board Dill had said " I think Dad should go out and watch since he does not get to watch me surf very much" - such a sweet heart.  After some reading on the internet we realized King of the Groms is a Quicksilver surf competition that is held all over the world for kids 16 and under.  The top qualifiers from each region or country are invited to qualifiers in England and then finals are in France.  So we may just have a chance to participate in it again next year if we move to England like we want to.

Lucky Dill was able to hitch a ride with Dad once he was done - they towed his surf board behind them

we deemed Dill's first surf comp a success - it was all about catching some waves and having fun - Congrats Dillon - Love Mom, Dad and Ronan