what was i thinking?

It had crossed my mind on the drive out to the beach that I may have set my alarm a little too early for the time of year. But it wasn't until I arrived at Bore beach at 07:01 and turned off the car ignition and headlights that I realised how very very dark it was.

A quick Google search confirmed that sunrise was some time after 09:00 with first light at 08:20. What was I thinking, getting up this early on a Saturday?

Even though it was too dark to see anything, I could hear the waves dumping so to kill some time I drove to Sele and stumbled around in the dark for a while, listening to the waves; they sounded cleaner than at Bore. Still way too dark to see much at all so I drove to the nearest petrol station for coffee and some empty calories.

By 08:00 visibility was nearly good enough so I drove back to Sele. As I pulled up to the car park I noticed a couple of cars on their way out, leaving just one other car besides me. Out jumped a surfer and asked if I was planning on going out. She mentioned that she had spotted me earlier - must have been when I had my stumble in the dark. On returning home later in the day, I found out that Elisabeth knew her as they studied teaching at the University in Stavanger. So if you are reading this Ingy: "hi from Tim and thanks for the words of encouragement"!

We were in the water by 08:30 and a few minutes later, several others turned up, The waves were quite small, very clean and fairly easy to catch for a beginner like me. As the water began to fill up with more and more surfers, I moved away from the group to another spot about 50 meters further South. I was glad I did because I could soon hear angry noises from the Northern spot as several surfers caught the same wave and tried to claim it as their own.

They mentioned the "right of way" on the surfing course, but I find it easier to find another spot rather than fight it out with the others.

As I was thinking about calling it a day, I spotted a familiar group of four surfers on their way down to the beach: it was Esben with friends Magnus, Petter and Emil from the Jæren Folkehøgskole! With the promise of some tips from the "experts", I decided to stay out a bit longer. Glad I did too as the advice given helped me to catch my best wave of the day; no, the bet wave since I bought my surfboard!

I finally managed to drag myself out of the water at midday, leaving Esben & co. to it.

Note to self: check the calendar for estimated time of sunrise the night before getting up for an early morning surf.