Dawn Patrol! I wake up and the camp is quiet, a peaceful morning in paradise. All of sudden the howler monkeys go off and it sounds like a dying cow. A quick cup 'o cafe con leche and I am off to the beach. Rounding the corner to the beach a rainbow blesses the waves for the morning. The waves are uncrowded and fun. Nothing special, a bit unorganized but some good hollow inside waves. When I get back the crew is not all up yet so i start making some noise. One thing I immediately notice is that the case of beer i bought yesterday is gone....well there is one beer left. Someone got drunk last night. I make more coffee and write in my journal. Over the next few hours we work on the surfboard for Vijay; putting handles on the deck and rigging up a double leash for both ankles to stay together. We get geared up and head to the beach. Vijay takes the quad down and we walk with all the boards. Getting in the water with Vijay consisted of driving the quad up to the water line and then carrying him to the water. The beach chairs with the huge wheels are the way to go for getting into the water. You can get people all the way in up to about knee level. This is a luxury we do not have and resort to the carry. Once we get him in the water and on the board I quickly realize that a 7' 8'' gun is not the board we want to use. Christian (the first para to visit Shaka) designed this board for the camp but it is an intermediate to advanced surfboard. Vijay had a hard time just staying on the board much less surfing it. You live and learn! The session went okay. We pushed Vijay into some waves and he got a few good waves. He was starting to get some skin sores on his legs from the stomp pad....another feature that is not needed. He is not a stand-up surfer so he has no use for the stomp pad.
Later that evening we sit around and talk about all the different things we could do better. This is how the adaptive world works....try stuff, learn, try more stuff, learn. So we are always on the learning curve which is always interesting.
