Surf: Waist-Shoulder High. Very foggy.
Maria emailed me months ago about surfing Santa Cruz. I was happy to paddle out with her, we’d exchanged a few emails in the past and she sounded like a pretty rad woman.
She mentioned in her email that she had stage four lung cancer and occasionally had a little bit of trouble breathing and wanted to let us know so we wouldn’t worry.
Had she not included that brief line in her email, I’d never have known she was sick. I’ll admit, I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never met her in real life, but here in the parking lot was this tough gal who couldn’t wait to paddle out. She tore it up out there. It was a big day and she was going for some great waves.
When I’d heard she’d passed away, I was stunned.
I’d had been some time since we’d talked, so in my mind she was still that same woman, tearing it up.
I feel pretty fortunate to have known her and even moreso to be able to make it to her paddle out.
The beach was socked in by fog during the ceremony. As we paddled out the sun appeared and there was a huge fogbow over the ocean. What a great way to remember a great woman.
Afterwards we paddled north to catch a few waves in the fog. Big and a little crowded, but fun.
Thanks for everything, Maria.