Pounded By the Waves -- Tell Me Your Beachside Tales

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Wow, it's been a long time since I've been pummeled by the ocean like I was yesterday :) I grew up near the coast, in California (Santa Cruz, the San Francisco bay area, etc.) but moved (with the family) inland for a number of years. Moving to Florida last year finally brought me closer to the ocean again and I've actually got friends now who enjoy hitting the surf here and there. We snagged our boogie boards and headed to Cocoa Beach for an afternoon romp in the waves, and even though I'd done this a couple months ago as well, I'd already forgotten just how powerful the water is. The waves were strong yesterday -- lots of people were commenting on that -- but I still wasn't expecting the beating :) I'm sunburned, but that's fine (and basically expected -- I use sunscreen but it is rarely effective enough to prevent a burn entirely), but the *bruises* are new to me. I'm very new at boogie-boarding, so I completely suck at it. I got knocked over, tumbled, flipped upside-down, etc., plenty of times, but I managed to catch a few waves here and there (it's frustrating when you try to grab one and get knocked on your backside, but it's exhilarating when you get it right and you're carried along the water towards the shore) and I had a blast. Thanks to the powerful waves yesterday, I've discovered places that can hurt that I didn't even know about before, and I realized that the water doesn't care if that hard hit shoves that boogie board somewhere painful or not. :) That's how I spent much of my Sunday, folks -- let's hear *your* tales of public humility on the beach :)