Yesterday I was inspired. I assure you it had nothing to do with the waist high, slow moving, 73 degree peelers that capped out the back and cruised through to dump on the inside onto the large smooth pebbles.

I like those pebbles. They make a heavy tinkling sound as the shorebreak picks them up and then throws them back down, rolling over and on top of one another. Standing ankle deep with my longboard in hand, looking over my shoulder to encourage the large digital countdown clock to countdown a little quicker, I hear the rocks before I feel them get smashed into my ankle bones, but the wincing pain is forgotten as the hooter blows and all 6 of us colored jersey clad surfer girls hop onto our stomaches and paddle furiously toward the horizon. 15 minute heats with a beach start is plenty of motivation to get going quickly.

I came in to see my two young friends grinning on the rocks, giving me thumbs up that I won the heat. I haven't been surfing as many contests lately, but the competitive fire will always be smoldering ready for a spark to set it aflame. This day it happened in my first round shortboard heat when a random Australian girl visiting the US for the summer to work at one of the many surf camps up and down the coast of California, took off on a mid-size left and threw 4 consecutive backside turns that from my perspective looking at the back of the wave were impressive. She ended up winning the heat, with me in second, and my competitive fire came back 110%. I wanted to win. She inspired me to push harder, surf smarter, and give it all my effort. It paid off and I won both the shortboarding and longboarding finals.

The performance of that Australian girl was inspiring to me personally, but the most moving heat of the day was the Breast Cancer Survivors division. For thirty minutes, about a dozen women paddled out and surfed with all their heart. The spectators watched and cheered as each of them rode all the way in. More than one returned to the beach in joyful tears to be covered in a supportive embrace by family and friends. I was told later that one of the competitors had learned to surf only a week ago in order to be able to participate.

The message of the event was to raise awareness. Give yourself a breast exam regularly, no matter how young you are.

Visit the website for more info:

http://www.b4bc.org