Shuffle Your Feet

By Parker Olenick

     All I knew is this wasn’t going to be an ordinary surf trip. We were eating breakfast when we heard on the radio, “This is Bird from Bird’s Surf Shed. I’m here with the FM 94.9 authentic surf report. Today’s surf is waist to chest high at most beaches. But La Jolla is running in the double overhead range, which is strange. It hasn’t been like this in years, so good luck surfers!” My Dad and I looked at each other excitedly. We were going to go right after breakfast. We slipped on our wetsuits to stay warm and got in the car. My Mom came running out with her underwater camera ready to take photos.

When we pulled into the parking lot I literally got the stomachaches looking at the double overhead waves. They were gigantic. You could hear them crash and see the spray in the air. I saw another kid out there and I just knew that when he was going to take that wave, he was going to get smashed. After seeing that, I kind of wanted to go back home. But I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

My Dad and I excitedly ran down the beach with our short boards. We put on our leashes and paddled through the white water to the sweet spot. A couple of waves rolled by. We didn’t take them. Then, finally, I caught one, a really big one. I rode it all the way in to where my Mom stood with her camera in the white water. I really hope she got a photo. My Dad caught the next wave. He did a bunch of cool tricks. I yelled, “Surf’s Up, Dude!” He looked over his shoulder and winked at me. I jumped back on my board and paddled out to join him.

On my Dad’s next wave, he got roll-oed and I yelled, “Wipe Out!” When he stood up, he jumped strangely. So, I paddled over to him to see what was wrong. His foot was bleeding badly. I looked down and saw a huge spotted stingray hiding in the shadows of the wave. Just then he swam away. My Dad was in a lot of pain; it was the first time he had been stung by a stingray. So, my Dad and I took one more wave in, to get some help.

When we got to shore, we waved over a lifeguard that was driving down the beach. Up rolled a giant red truck with the word LIFEGUARD on the side. Out jumped an overly tanned lifeguard ready to help us. My Dad explained that he stepped on a stingray. The lifeguard made a face when he looked at my dad’s foot and said, “Yep, that looks like a stingray sting. They happen here during the summer months. We have a saying, that when you enter the water to always… Shuffle your feet!” He said we shuffle our feet to push the stingray away and not step on it.

The lifeguard said we needed to clean the cut first. This would prevent it from getting infected. Then he told us the pain would go away, if we put the foot in some very, very, very hot water. The hotter it is the faster the pain will go away. We didn’t have any hot water with us, so we quickly drove home and did what the Lifeguard said. On the drive home, I could see my Dad was in a lot of pain. After an hour of soaking his foot, the pain was gone. We were so thankful that we learned from the expert how to treat a stingray wound.

While we were treating my Dad’s foot we talked about what an awesome session we had; the humungous waves, the epic rides, the gnarly wipeouts, the spotted stingray, and finally the overly tan lifeguard. In the end, we both agree that it was no ordinary surf trip.

The moral of this story is…

If you go surfing, always

SHUFFLE YOUR FEET!

JJ