Wednesday morning after attaching the rigging to my board, I headed out for Short Beach. When I got there I went all the way down to the far end of the beach where I didn't see anybody swimming, and after unloading all of my gear I walked the short distance across the sand with my 11 foot board acting like a sail in the wind. The swells were coming in consistently around knee-high, and as I strapped everything to my board and attached my leash to my ankle I prepared to launch into the breaking surf. "You can't use that here Sir!" I hear from behind me. I spin around, and a young blond lifeguard is approaching me, hands on her hips. I asked her why, and she said all boards and crafts had to be launched from the other side of the jetty as I was in a "designated swimming area." There was nobody swimming, but I relented and trudged down the beach. The wind wasn't making carrying my board easy, but I eventually got to the other side of the jetty and was able to launch into the incoming tide.
As I paddled out, the sun broke through the clouds. My shoulders got burned the day before, so I was happy I was wearing a light colored t-shirt under my inflatable pfd. As I paddled out through the knee-high and occasional waist-high waves, I grew accustomed to paddling up the front of the wave, using the paddle as a brace to increase the stability of my already very stable board. I quickly got out past the jetty, continuing to paddle out through the swells. As I looked back, I realized the incoming tide was carrying me up river into the "swimming zone" - although I was very far out, I didn't want another encounter with the wannabe-beach-police, so I turned around and started to paddle in and downstream. Having never dealt with following waves before, the first waist-high set that came along caught me by surprise with my paddle out of the water, sweeping my board out from under me on the backside of the wave. I quickly jumped back onto my board, but quickly realized the downside of wearing a t-shirt: The howling wind was freezing! I paddled in and ditched my t-shirt in my car, swapping it out for some sunscreen. I burned one on the beach then had a quick conversation about the local sealife with a good looking mom and her two boys. "No sharks here, but I did see a man-o-war the size of a garbage bag" I told them. Not entirely true, Long Island Sound is home to a variety of shark species including sand tigers, browns, and threshers, although it's entirely safe to swim at least in the daytime.
Heading back out into the growing swells, I could feel the sun beating down on my back and shoulders. While I had put sunblock on my neck and shoulders, my back was exposed and quickly started to burn. I paddled in and out a few more times, getting used to the feel of paddling through the heavy chop, especially with following waves on the way in. After about 3 hours out, I packed up for the day, content with my day at the beach.
That night I realized my big mistake in not doing something about uv protection on my back. Even my shoulders which had a generous helping of sunblock were burnt to a crisp, but my back especially was lobster-red and very painful. Fortunately after one night of sleeping on my stomach it felt somewhat better, and after another night the pain is almost completely gone. Definitely have to get some kind of surf or swim shirt that is made to get wet then dry quickly, because sunblock just is not effective enough.
Next time out I'm going to try fishing off my board. I'm going to launch from Birdseye again, and go to the marsh-side of the docked boats and troll from there out towards the Sound. I made an interesting setup for fishing which I will show pictures of next time!
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