Scituated: Wild Life and the Ocean

I am now in my second month of teaching 7th graders and living in Scituate, MA. Scituate is considered "the Irish Riviera," where a fella like me fits in pretty well around here. I'm the sole winter rental tenant in a beach house, and I'll only be there until June. After that who knows??? So I'm enjoying my time here as best I can. It'd be nice to stay in Scituate somewhere, but I may have to live elsewhere. I'm four or five houses from the seawall, and you can look out from several windows to see the ocean. We have possums and coyotes, too. Neither animal do I have a desire to meet up close. The ocean however is something completely different.

I am now a kook. In some ways you already knew this to be true, but in acquiring a 9 foot Challenger surfboard, I'm taking my kookiness definitions to a new level. Yeah, a blue striped longboard. But wait, isnt the water up there cold, even when it's scorching hot in August? Yes. YES it is. I went down the street and out in the water ten days ago in my swim trunks. Just me, no gear, only white and blue Hawaiian floral print swim trunks. I thought I should know the waters and ho wcold they are before investing in a board. It took three or four cautious minutes to wade out waist deep. Putting my hands in the water was brave, but dropping under a wave and completely submerging... was ... exhilarating! The most awake I've been since April! I was disrobing at the beach, swam, redressed and was back home in fifteen minutes.

Yeah, so I bought a wetsuit. It's blue, too. I picked blue, because black is harder for the divers to see when searching for my corpse on the sea bottom. Just kidding, Mom. :D I won't drown. You can go out to surf in this fall suit, and not be cold until November. That's when you buy gloves. Later, you buy a winter suit. Normally you'd expect 'winter suits' to be a grey tweed, not grey neoprene. You're warm, not fashionable. Current sea temp is about 59 Faherenheit, and will drop ten degrees over the next month. Apparently guys in New England like to send their Californian and Hawaiian surf friends photos of themselves in the water, on their boards, while it's snowing. We'll see what I can post for you.

In my suit, I feel like Mr. "Hero-in-Training": not quite competent enough for the cape, not yet deserving of the cowl or mask. My accesories are booties. Split toe. They insulate and protect your feet from cold and rocks. Walking out onto the land, the sealed-in water drips inside of my suit, pooling at my ankles. It's sealed in, so I feel like I'm wearing some grandma's ankle-bunching pantyhose. Again, one is warm, not fashionable.

Then there's the kids who think you are Kelly Slater or Jack Johnson. Both are great surfers, surf heroes even. One is also a national recording artist. One kid asks in genuine amazement, "How do you guys do it?" Really, I'm too embarrassed to tell him the truth: I'm lucky if I get a wave, and then luckier if can kneel or stand on it. Some day I'll learn how to turn. Yes, yes... how do I do it? Then there's the creepy kid who giggles and stares at you, standing at your car, peeling off your suit. His aunts chime in, "Leave the man alone. Don't bother him. He doesn't want to ride in your stroller."

Ahh ... the wildlife I have met up close though have been jelly snails. I dunno what they're called for real, but they are clearand have snail-like antennae. I was sitting atop my board at Nantasket this past Columbus Day when I noticed the funky feeling water had thousands of some transparent, snot-looking, shell-less snails floating. Everywhere. They must be spawning. And of course there's the Cohasset Sevvie. So much, really, of why I am here. I am learning as much about these odd creatures as they are learning from me. I'm saving the best bits to share with them for last. Bits like, I'm learning to surf, and I have removable teeth. Save something for later in the year. The teeth must wait until after Christmas break...