We woke up nice and refreshed. Sunrise in Jake’s backyard:

I did a lot of work on the blog–it’s amazing how much time it takes to upload pics, record all your thoughts, and then make it somewhat readable.

Then we decided to make the trip east to Satellite Beach. It was supposed to be onshore and small, but no matter what, it’s better than not surfing. Jake spread the word we were going, and within 15 minutes, we had rallied about 12 surfers to make the 45 minute ride.

We were the first to leave, and Evan joined us as the scout team. We made the rounds at High Tower, RC’s, Second Light, Hangers, and even debated Cocoa Pier (Kelly Slater’s home spot). Again, December:

At the last second, we decided to try the little spot they had been surfing recently: “Our Spot.” We pulled in and ran up the stairs. It looked like fun and we decided to go for it.

Turned out to be A LOT of fun. The other kids were ripping; I even got a few fun ones, and that’s all I needed. Unfortunately, surfing is not like riding a bike…in more ways than one: you use your arms a lot more, and when you’re on a vehicle that’s not your own,  it doesn’t come back to you like second nature. Either way I still caught some waves, barely wetsuit conditions, in December in America.

Outside of solving the world’s problems, a few other topics of discussion in the lifeguard stand tend to revolve around women. I guess you could say that this is a world problem, too. Advice and psycho-analysis are incorporated a lot, and sometimes people even talk about their feelings. There are up days and there are down days, and we do our best to keep each other on an even keel, but it can be pretty stressful.

One thing I’ve learned: when we go surfing, we forget about all of those world problems. We also didn’t worry about finals, about where we’d sleep that night, if we’d run out of food, the weather overnight, how my bike felt under me, etc. We were released from everything but the water we were in.

Then, all of a sudden, this massive rain cloud formed above us and it started pouring. Cats and dogs. We could barely keep our eyes open at the waves coming in. But then I looked over at Jake and we smiled, laughed, stretched our arms out and soaked it in.

We were surfed out, and we refueled at their favorite post-surf grub spot, Dakine Diego’s. It definitely hit the spot.

We headed home at sunset, wiped, but happy.

Somehow we found a second wind and hit the town. UCF was pretty wild–it reminded me of my alma mater, except it’s virtually impossible to get frostbite here. The bar we went to was called, “The Library.” I was definitely out of my element and not used to staying up past 9, but somehow I found a way to have a good time.

In the morning, I groggily prepared to head out. We got breakfast and went back to Jake’s place. Even though my legs felt pretty recharged, now my head felt like I was wearing my helmet and my GoPro, but I wasn’t. We flopped on the couch, and next thing I knew, it was 3 o’clock. I felt much better, but there was no way I’d make it to my next stop before dark. It was also Sunday, and I hadn’t watched football in forever. We agreed that I should probably stay for one more night. I definitely didn’t complain about it.

We decided to get off our asses at the tail end of the afternoon, and we strolled around campus as I tried to fit in. They like to have fun at UCF. The local campus Ferris wheel:

I even stopped in the library to continue working on my blog. Here’s the more classic college scene at, “The Library”:

The rest of my time was spent relaxing, cleaning my disgusting gear, and enjoying the company of good people. I had my bike fixed up–there were some pretty ominous noises coming from that thing at this point, and I couldn’t fix them with all the grease in the world. We fell asleep to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” two nights straight, but I finally finished it the last morning. I also re-affirmed that Jake is the man. And here he is, on that incredibly comfortable couch, with the only thing that reminded me it was December.