Beat, sore but ready for more

After a tremendous dinner last night, the conversation turned to our injuries. I don't think anyone on the team DOESN'T have an injury, and some are actually quite severe. The general consensus was that if you don't come home from a vacation feeling more tired and beat than when you left, you didn't take the right vacation. Heck, my office mates used to take bets on which body part I'd injure while off on a trip.

Breaking gear is one thing - you can always get more gear and keep hammering away, but when you're body takes a blow, that's a whole 'nuther story. The close calls on the trip have been Dave Combe's knee (done while chicken fighting on the beach - yeah, that was a silly idea) and Ray's knee that was impacted on the steel decking of the Red Rhino while he was doing his worst Tarzan impersonation. And while its bad, it could have been a lot worse and Ray is very thankful for that. There's Heather's massive bruise on her thigh, her husband Chris has a tremendous abrasion on his left hip, right where his board shorts and harness come together and I bet that totally sucks when sailing. Everyone's feet are cut, scraped and sore and the reef rash on my right foot is perfectly located such that my flip flops and footstraps cause maximum irritation and pain at all times.

There's been a lot of duct and medical tape on the team, mountains of Advil consumed, hydrogen peroxide scrubbed onto wounds, and Chris has been producing all sorts of weird European solutions to our ills. (some which cause more pain than the actual injury) And if nothing else works, alcohol is applied to deaden the senses.

All in all, we're beat, sore but ready for more. The trades are coming back today en force and the first big winter swell is coming with wave faces in excess of 15 feet on the north shore.

Bring it!