Sharing a Surfboard | Florida Enjoy this piece, and grab my book for stories you won’t find online. *** They make it look easy as a dream. Riding green, foamy curling waves on a surfboard. I rented one while I was back in Florida for a wedding. Now, in the water off of Cocoa Beach, I’m getting chafed red by a giant, oblong, wobbling blue surfboard that wants to tilt, dip, and pitch me under the water at every second. I can see other beginners not having much luck on their own tropical colored boards (yellow, pink, key lime green). The board is twice my size. Squeaks and slips right out from under me. The water is cold, but it’s clean. No seaweed. Cocoa Beach both sounds nice and is nice. After getting swamped by a few more waves, I swim the board into knee-deep water. The new plan is to catch a little wave and just stand on this thing for once. It works. I ride the board standing up for maybe ten or fifteen feet. Feels like being a billionaire. As I’m sinking down into the now ankle-deep water, I see my small success has not gone unnoticed. “Can I try that?” a young voice screams. It’s a bunch of kids. Maybe five of them. Three girls, two boys, and a mom. One of the girls is asking. “What’s your name?” “Gemini,” she says. “Ask your mom.” “She says it’s OK!” I need a rest anyway. “Sure, give it a try.” I un-velcro the strap from around my ankle. Gemini, her brothers and sisters swarm the board in a flash. They’re screaming and fighting over it like a game of King of the Hill. I have thrown an entire family into chaos. Gemini secures the strap around her ankle. While this may sound like snatching the crown, it’s a serious tactical error. The weight of her three siblings carries the board into shin-deep water. She’s being pulled along as it surges up and down in the water. I have thrown an entire family into chaos. The blue board seems as alive as a giant eel, bucking and chucking brothers and sisters into the water. They’re trying to stand on the sinking board. Look-amme-momma-look-amme. This doesn’t last long. In under a full minute, they figure they’ve got my money’s worth. They shove the board back to me. It floats towards me in the water. Their mom calls, “Thank you.” I return to trying to do short standing rides on the board in shallow water. I can pop into a standing position and ride the board ten or fifteen feet at a stretch. Tomorrow I should do even better. The sun is setting. The water is lighting up warm orange. It makes a shimmering, blurry reflection of the sky. Cold water wipes me out. After one more standing ride, I figure I can’t top that this evening. Tuck the board under my arm and return to the shop as the sun goes down. End
Master the Death Touch: A Guide to Middle School Martial Arts If you got a chuckle out of this story, grab my book for stories you will not find published online. Many cultures develop their own martial art. Some are ritualized and traditional, some are field-tested and highly practical. One collection of non-lethal yet crippling techniques is taught and practiced beginning in middle school in the US. Its practitioners diminish, but do not disappear through the college years. In adulthood, the artform is often all but forgotten. This martial art is yet unnamed, but recognizable by a few consistent techniques replicated in schoolyards and above-ground pools everywhere. The Five-Star Technique: The assailant opens his hand with five fingers spread (hence the name Five-Star) and delivers a whip-like smack across the back of his target. Outcome: A bright red five-finger mark and fire-hot pain. This technique takes on a particular brutality in aquatic combat. Expect a pool noodle lashing in retaliation. Notes: What makes the Five-Star insidious is that if delivered the proper distance from mom, the telltale red mark on the victim’s back will vanish completely before any tattling can be completed. It is a crime that disposes of its own evidence. The Wet Willie Technique: In this maneuver, the assailant wets his index finger with saliva and uses it as a poking weapon. Outcome: Useful as an intimidator, the Wet Willie can clear a room with a single, threatening pointed finger. Notes: In our pathogen-conscious era, it could work on full grown adults. If you try this, you might get arrested, or you might feel like you have the Force from Star Wars. This is not legal guidance. The Purple Nurple Technique: The assailant grabs and tweaks the nipple of the target. Outcome: Revulsion and recoil in the victim. Notes: As with all techniques, this typically a man-to-man maneuver. Guaranteed to be obnoxious. The Noogie Technique: The assailant executes a headlock, then rubs the knuckles of his free hand into the scalp of the victim. Outcome: Red face, temporary hair loss. Notes: If the Noogie is happening to you, the raid is over, your cabin is burning, and you are being scalped. The Sack Tap Technique: Assailant delivers a quick flick to the crotch of the victim. Outcome: Victim doubled over. Notes: A brutal technique, known to end friendships but also entire bloodlines. The Sack Tap is Old Testament warfare. It is against all Geneva Conventions. The Defecator Technique: Assailant makes blades of his hands by joining his fingers. He approaches his target from behind. He jabs the target just above the kidneys with his fingertips. Outcome: When the target turns, the assailant explains the maneuver is supposed to result in the target defecating himself. Notes: Ineffective by most credible accounts. The Death Touch Technique: Not recorded in detail by any credible source. The theory describes a nerve cluster in the foot which, if smashed with the end of a bo staff, will result in the instant death of the victim. Outcome: Instant death. Notes: The Death Touch is preached by the one kid with a rattail hairdo. The one who carries a bo staff whenever he is allowed to do so. Though mouthy, he will never demonstrate the Death Touch, despite pleas and extended sneakers from brave volunteers. He will swear up and down he took a life at his last school, yet here he is, walking and breathing freely among you mortals. Foolish doctors can not identify the Death Touch as the cause of death in autopsies, after all. Now you are armed and ready for your life’s true calling; to fight with middle schoolers. Go forth; avenge yourself of the old wounds.