by pedalling_faster » Sun 09 Dec 2007, 11:52:46
i think when we were taught in public schools that "human beings have 5 senses", that the teachers were simplifying things.
the last time Thanksgiving was on a November 22, was in 2002. it happened to be the biggest day of the year, in terms of wave size, 10 feet @ 17 seconds rolling into Torrey Pines. surfers remember these things.
i was out skin-diving at La Jolla the Tuesday before. it was one of those weeks when you try to escape from work but get drawn in for some project, so it's almost a week of vacation.
i had done that particular swim a lot, 20 or 30 times, where you go from the Shores over to the Cove and then swim in the kelp beds. there's usually other people diving and swimming, also plenty of marine life. seals, leopard sharks, sea bass 4 feet long, etc.
it takes so much preparation, you never abort a dive. between coordinating one's digestive system so that the essential tasks are taken care of before putting on the wetsuit, to driving to the beach, to enduring the first 10 minutes of discomfort as you immerse yourself in 60 degree water, you know there will be some work before you get to the fun part. usually, swimming through seaweed muck in low-visibility is part of the swim. you get inured to these things.
one other thing. the water is about 20 feet deep right off-shore,then drops to 120 feet about a half mile offshore, then plunges to a canyon 2000 feet deep. Great Whites, we are told, go there to give birth. i always thought a mother animal would be hungry after all that work, but with all those millions of swimmer-hours, there hasn't been an attack since about 1950-something.
while i was still near shore, i got a very strange feeling. Terrified. un-explainable heeby-jeeby feeling, like in a good sci-fi movie when you get really scared. like the first time you see Alien, during the Chest-bursting sequence.
i thought, this is silly, just keep swimming. so i kept swimming, but the feeling didn't go away. i kept thinking, "this is SO silly", but there was something in my body that was quite tangible. so, i got out of the water after a half hour, and went and bought a computer. "coincidental laziness", i thought, though i had never aborted a dive or a swim ever ... in 40 years of swimming.
then, 2 days later, the waves came rolling in Thursday Thanksgiving day. nice big day, wave wise.
on Saturday, there was an article in the local paper. a lobster fisherman was out about 1/2 mile west of the cove, pulling up his lobster traps, working from a boat. he saw a large great white Shark eating a mother seal. and decided to call it a workday.
as it turns out, that was about 2 days before my Tuesday dive.
so, i wonder ... what happened ?
* just got lazy once
* the metallic taste and smell of blood in the water.
* a sixth sense that tells us when a large animal is
nearby, hunting for food.
* the ability to feel the fear of the seals
it gets a little wierder. a year later, 2003, i was at the YMCA in North County, in the pool. i see another guy standing at the edge of the pool. bodysurfer, i knew it. i asked him if he surfed, he said he was into body-surfing.
he went out the day after Thanksgiving 2002, at a beach 2 miles north of La Jolla Shores, Torrey Pines. the waves were a little smaller, but still big, for San Diego. the kind of day a surfer waits all year for.
he also got a heeby-jeeby feeling, and got out of the water. He said that was the only time in his life that he had that happen, cut a surfing session short because he felt inexplicably scared.
anyway, i always wanted to collect the birthdays of the people involved, and give the information to an astrologer. i think it would make an interesting case study.
but, i accept that some things we can feel, but not understand.
- - -
as far as the 11-11 thing, my guess is it means something.