Bearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera wrote a book published in 1984, called The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

But sometimes lightness is to be savored on the journey.

This moment from a brisk April 2007 day is one of my favorites caught on film, and it captures a moment where some of a different kind of "lightness" I was seeking, lifted the burdens of injuries, bronchitis and sinus infections, and too much of a long winter spent indoors.

The fading sunlight illuminates the spray of the carved jibe on a small peaking swell.

When you start the turn, drive the rail of the board into the welcoming face of a "wave" or steep swell, or whatever slope you have beneath you, it's all there to be sensed perfectly —translated from the board through your feet, and in the sounds of the water sluicing and billowing behind — and even in all that wind, and you become lightness in that spray.

I think I'd been sailing with George and Jill Marr that day. This was the first time on the water in 6 months, so it was a very welcome return, even if it proved to be a brief return.

OK, so maybe looking at it as a purist, maybe the knees weren't bent enough, and the PFD is fugly, but that's because I was still in recovery from the resipratory illness, but it all felt pretty good first time out there that day.

Photo -- tbd... Pete Roesch, Steve Domjan, Jeff Tanenbaum, someone else?