In Too Deep by D C Grant Read Free Book Online Page B

Hayden said eagerly, taking the scraper from him.
    “Don’t go too hard,” Josh warned him, “or you’ll put a ding in it.”
    “Okay.”
    Josh looked towards the road. The breeze was in his face and beyond the dunes he could hear the waves crashing on the sand. Surf was up.
    “Where is everyone?” he asked.
    “My mum and your mum went shopping and they took your sister with them. They went in my mum’s car. Your father went somewhere in his car. He said it would be alright for me to wait until you woke up.”
    ‘Great,’ Josh thought. “I’ll grab some breakfast,” he said as went inside.
    After breakfast, Josh changed into his boardies and put on a rash shirt. When he went onto the deck, Hayden had just finished waxing the two boards.
    “Good job,” Josh said as he picked up his board. “Let’s go.”
    Together they walked across the road and up to the sand dunes. The wind was in his face, a cool southwesterly, the waves were over 2 metres, a bit messy but some good rides possible. The tide was on its way in. He descended to the beach with Hayden behind him.
    “Where are we going?” Hayden asked as they walked.
    “Over there,” Josh said, pointing south with his free arm. “Where the other guys are riding.”
    “It looks rough.”
    “It’s fine if you know where to go.”
    “Do you know?”
    “Sure do,” Josh said as he walked towards Pakiti Rocks. When he’d figured out where the rip was, he put down his board and began his stretches. His muscles were still a little tight, but a good day in the water would put that right.
    “What shall I do?” Hayden asked.
    “You can watch,” Josh said. “You might pick up some tips.”
    “I’ve been watching since I got here. I won’t learn anything by watching.”
    Josh wound the new leash from his board around his ankle, securing it with the Velcro strips. “You need to watch someone who knows what they’re doing.” He picked up his board and began to head into the waves.
    He felt Hayden’s hand on his shoulder. “Wait, aren’t you going to help me?”
    “Not today,” Josh said as he pushed Hayden’s hand off his shoulder. “Surf’s too good.”
    “But I waxed your board,” he said, disgruntled.
    “Yeah, thanks,” Josh said as he made for the water.
    Hayden called out something that Josh couldn’t hear over the sound of the waves. He assumed that it wasn’t pleasant. He didn’t care. The guy had been pushed onto him and he saw no reason to be friendly. Let him go crying all the way home to his mother.
    He used the rip running towards the Camel to get him out to the backline where he greeted a few of the surfers that he knew.
    “What’s the rides like?” he asked the nearest surfer.
    “Well, the waves have closed out, but you can still get a good ride if you time it right.”
    Josh nodded and straddled his board to watch the sets come through. As a good wave began to build up behind him he started to paddle, ready to catch it. Some of the other surfers were paddling too, but he was up and riding first. It was his wave. The white water foamed around him as his board sliced through the shoulder and he picked up speed, feeling the strength of the surging water beneath him. He turned and curved upwards, slashing through the lip, then cutting back to carve the face again. At mid-break he kicked out, falling onto the back of the wave which carried on towards the shore without him.
    The ride exhilarated him. There was nothing that could beat the thrill of surfing, the ability to stay on his board and manipulate it like it was an extension of his feet. He loved to feel the power of the wave beneath him as his board carried him to shore at speed, with no time to plan a move too far ahead because the wave constantly changed and it was only possible to react with instinct. Any mistake resulted in a wipe out which was instant and final, but after a wipe out there was another wave to catch, one that would be uniquely different to the one