Chris Bickford

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The best photo I might have taken this entire summer is not in this post. It is not anywhere, because I didn’t take it. But I will describe it to you.

A windless ocean, pink like the inside of a conch shell all the way to the horizon. Not a ripple of wind to mar the smoothness, but thick perfect barrels of swell marching to the shore. The underside of the curls tinted deep blue, the backsides a cool magenta. The sky, just after sunset, deep blue with a mackerel-school cloud formation fanning across the southern horizon, reflecting the pink of the water and reflecting it back in an endless loop of sheer visual majesty.

And me, on my surfboard, enjoying a nice summer evening surf, but kicking myself for not being out with my camera. For the few nice waves I caught, it was not worth missing the opportunity to capture those colors and that glorious moment.

Sometimes you gotta just live with the decisions you make. Fish or cut bait, you gotta choose, and your chances of making the right decision, added up over your lifetime, probably average out to be about 50/50, unless you are unusually cursed or unusually blessed.

I had been texting back and forth with local pro Jesse Hines trying to hook up for a little shooting session, as this was the tail end of a much-anticipated summer swell that had all the crew chasing each other up and down the beach looking for the best spot, or a less crowded spot, or one with a little less wind on it, or a little less tide…The day had been overcast, the light flat. Jesse had already surfed down south and said he’d text me if he went out again. I was taking care of business, running errands, doing the Friday mad dash to get everything done before the close of business hours. Driving down the beach road I saw smooth, perfect A-frames loping in as I peered underneath the stilts of the houses in Kitty Hawk. To hell with it, I thought, just go surf.

I ran back home, threw my longboard in the back of my jeep, and headed for the beach road. As I was driving around looking for a good spot, I saw that the sky had begun to clear up to the northwest, where the sun would be setting. Usually a good omen for a magnificent sunset. The sun peeks out as it dips to the horizon, and bathes the bottoms of the very same clouds that have hidden it all day in glorious tones of gold, orange, pink, amber, and sometimes even green, which reflect back on to the water. Probably should have brought your camera, I thought. But I was in an open-top jeep, so I hadn’t brought it with me for fear of having it stolen…and I’d have to put the housing back on, which would be five more minutes, in addition to the ten minutes it would take to get back to my house, and I had about an hour of daylight left. To hell with it, I thought, just go surf.

So I surfed, and cursed my luck, catching beautifully formed pink cylinders, all by myself, until Kayak Joe paddled out and we chatted for a minute about how beautiful the night was and how tricky these waves were to catch.

Life is hard, so hard, sometimes.

It has been an unusual summer here on the Outer Banks. Nearly into August, we have yet to experience 90-plus temperatures for more than a few hours at a time. Usually this time of year, it’s 90-plus for weeks. It’s been downright chilly this year, with a bit of a feeling that summer still hasn’t even happened yet. But there have been good waves, which is also unusual for the summer. Some summers it will be flat for six straight weeks.

And it’s been a mellow, quiet summer. Last night chatting with a few friends out on the deck at Ocean Boulevard, we commented on how it seems somehow auspicious. Things seem to be changing in all our lives, but in a quiet, slow, transformative way, almost imperceptibly. Maybe that’s how change occurs–good change, that is. I read somewhere that only bad changes happen quickly. Good changes take time.

I didn’t make a whole lot of plans for this summer, since I didn’t have the money for a big trip and just had a feeling it was best to leave things open and let events take their course. The few plans I did make have fallen through due to car trouble and other extenuating circumstances, but many good small things have happened in the meantime. I have a feeling that the fates are at the helm of my ship right now, knowing better than I do how to navigate the waters ahead, but keeping true to the course I have charted in my dreams, hopes, and intentions. They may ultimately take a route much different than the one I had mapped out, but it feels like the winds are blowing fair and steady across the beam, and we are riding the swells of a following sea with ease, the weather fair and the air fragrant and spicy with the taste and smell of new adventures ahead.

So here’s to hoping that good change is happening slowly in your life as well. A summer of cool weather and good waves and time quietly working its mysteries out under the surface of awareness. Enjoy it while it’s here, and don’t sweat it too hard if you don’t know what the future holds. None of us ever do. Ever.