After Hurricane Philipe delivered the goods in early October, I decided to sideline all of my surfing activities for the remainder of the month, to rest my shoulder. I had aggravated an older injury in my rotator cuff holding onto my rail in a backside barrel down in CR last April. And then I made things a lot worse by loading and unloading furniture during my move, followed by 20+ days of surfing in September.
So I needed a break. Which wasn't totally easy because there were plenty of opportunities to paddle out. But there was a lot of wind associated with October's waves, so technically I didn't miss out on anything super clean or rippable... at least not in my immediate neighborhood. I started to work out my shoulder the first week of November with a few short paddle-arounds. And then a decent day of crumbly surf arrived on the 8th to give it a real test. So far I've put in four more sessions without any major pain, outside of a little tendonitis when I sleep at night.
Here's a quick edit from my first surf session back. I didn't really push it, just surfed a half-hour and got out. I did manage a couple of weak lipsmackers as well as a few poorly executed turns, but i'll take it! Shot on a GoPro, Edited with FCP. Riding a 9'2 Gee Rainbow HPLB rounded pin with 7" Kai Sallas single fin (I'm in the process of reproducing this unique shape... stay tuned!)
Below is a couple of shots from my only session in early October. Once November ends, I'll post a gallery of those photos as well.
Man, I've missed surfing. We need to get some clean waves here really soon. Until then, the chopfest continues... I hope you're surfing where you are!