the bottom rung of the ladder

So we got our nuts out yesterday and paddled out to Sunset.

To us, it was big and scary.  But, to those who know it well, it wasn't big at all and apparently not worth paddling out for as we were the only one's out.  It was very much entry level stuff, and so a good point to start off there and get a feeling for it.  There was slight onshore blowing which gave it a bit of a lump, but the wave tends to be so big that the face sits in the lee of it, and so is relatively smooth.  It's also better than a howling offshore trying blast you off the back.  As I was on a longboard (that's how they used to do it, right?) this is even more of a problem.

I caught two nice ones - a left and a right.  It was really peaky so there wasn't much of a wall, but the drop - particularly the left - is always a thrill. 

I also took a proper beating on my first attempt.  It just dropped out from under me and I splattered into the trough and got sucked back over for a second thrashing.  It rolled the cuff of wetsuit sleeve up past my elbow.  Such is the power.

It felt about this big.  In reality, it was probably about a third as big, and a 20th as heavy. Incenditally, I can remember the day that this photo was taken.  I was nowhere near it, but was making my own tentative steps on waves that seemed enormous at the time.  Simon Lowe, by Nic Bothma

We came back in with whole boards and a feeling of further ancipation.  There are no real claims or bragging rights.  It was confidence building but we are wary of biting off more than we can chew.  If you push yourself slowly in increments, you get somewhere.  We're climbing the ladder one step at a time.  If you try to leap upwards, you risk falling down badly.  Each step up is progress.  A bad experience is regression and can set you back month, years or make you walk away entirely.  It's a mental game as well as physical one, if not even more so.  To have confidence shattered remains our greatest fear.