Catch a wave and you'll be hacking all over the place...

This past Sunday I decided that it would be a good idea for me to start surfing again. The last time I was on a surfboard was sometime around May and I have been dying to get back on a board since. We hit short sands beach around noon just in time for high tide to roll in. At short sands high tide is the greatest time to surf but the swells were coming in at 11ft at 13 seconds, which basically translates into a good time, so high tide was not affecting the waves much. I climbed into my wetsuit, put my booties on, stretched the gloves over my hands and shoved my head through a neoprene hood. I was ready to go surfing in the frigid waters of the Oregon coast.

I grabbed my board, strapped on the leash and headed for the water. The lineup was in its usual place several hundred feet offshore and my battles with the waves began about 40 feet offshore, about the place where the water drops down to a depth greater than 6 ft. It felt good to duck dive beneath the waves and my paddling was almost as strong as it was before I left for the summer. I was quickly making my way to the lineup when...

I started coughing. Uggh, the sinus infection that I have had for the past several weeks is still with me. The problem is not just a cough it is that when I cough I can't stop coughing. The intense coughing causes me to exhale all of the air in my lungs?and eventually I get to a point where I am gasping for air. This is not a good thing when you have an eight foot wave about to crash down on you forcing you underwater for a good 20 to 30 seconds. Salt water tastes great but I don't want it in my lungs.

Still coughing I reluctantly turned around and grabbed the first soupy wave back to shore. It took a few waves but I eventually made it safely back to shore and sat there, still coughing, pissed off that I can't breath.