England's Finest Rebel

Chapter 15

By nightfall that day, I’d mastered surfing; I was using the short board and I was beginning to learn the turns and a few jumps. It was safe to say I was pleased with myself. I told the boys about my progress and they found it hilarious how excited I was about surfing again, and of course Carter made a sarcastic comment about me being a good girl already to which I responded to with a hard punch to his stomach.

Dinner was uneventful and quiet, but you could see on Lau’s face how happy she was that Dave was back and her family were together again. After dinner I went straight to bed to get some sleep ready for another day of surfing whilst the rest of the family went into the living room to watch TV for a bit. But I figured that it was good for them to have some family time without me there, so I didn’t feel bad for disappearing up to my room. I soon fell asleep, looking forward to tomorrow’s prospects.

I awoke to blinding sunlight again, streaming in through the crack in my curtains. Quickly I got out of bed and out another bathing costume on, but this time I remembered there would be other people in the house, so I pulled on some shorts and a tank top to cover myself up. After tying my hair back, I strolled downstairs ready to meet Dave outside in the surf shed. But when I got downstairs he was sat at the breakfast bar, so I joined him whilst sipping coffee.

“Slight change of plan today kiddo!” he chirped. Clearly, like myself, Dave was a morning person.

“Oh. What’s that then?” I asked, feeling disappointed. Naturally I’d assumed the worst and thought that surfing would be cancelled today.

“Well, instead of surfing the wave out the back of our house, I was going to take you down to Huntington Beach if you fancy it?” he asked me, with a smile plastered across his weathered face.

“Yeah! That would be awesome!” I replied. I couldn’t wait, Huntington Beach had some of the best and most reliable waves in SOCAL, it would be so much fun.

“Well, the boards are in the car, and everything’s been organised, so let’s go!” he exclaimed, seeming as excited as I was , even though I was sure he’d surfed this wave many times. That was something I admired about Dave, he was so passionate and committed to his job; I think I would struggle to stay so passionate about one thing without becoming bored. We briskly walked to the car to see the boards we’d be needing strapped on top of the roof.

I hopped in the car, almost hitting the roof with excitement, and I was soon followed by Dave who started the car and pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. It took us about half an hour to get there, and all the way there Dave sang along to the radio at an obnoxious volume and pitch; it was painful to say the least.

We eventually arrived at the beach, and Dave pulled straight onto the sand, ignoring all of the car parking bays around us. Clambering out of the car, I sighed under the sky which was slowly starting to warm up, thanks to the Californian sun. By the time I had finished taking in the long pier and the sandy beaches that seemed to stretch for miles, Dave had taken the surfboards down from the roof and had begun to rub wax on them.

After what seemed like forever, we hit the water and began to surf the waves. Dave was right; it was a lovely spot and the waves were perfect, so I could start to practice doing some jumps and turns. All too soon the sun was at the top of the sky, and Dave pointed towards the shore, so I caught a wave in and carefully waded through the shallow water and sat on the golden sand, waiting for Dave to come in.

“Fancy some lunch, kiddo?” he asked me, sounding a bit breathless from his morning of surfing.

“Yes please, I’m absolutely starving!”

“All-righty then!” he cheered and pulled me up off the sand. We took our boards with us to the restaurant he was leading us towards because I assumed it would be a beach front place. We soon came across Woody’s Diner, it was a small place, made to look as though it was built from wood, and there were plenty of boards lined up in front of it, so the two of us followed suit and placed our boards in front of the diner. W Dave led the way and strode into the restaurant as though he owned the place, so I followed his actions and walked in behind him.

“Hey man! How are ya? The waves were rad today!” one of the waiters called out to Dave, he nodded in response and bumped the guy’s fist, which I learnt was a simple of respect between surfers.

“Yeah bud! They were pumping out there! I’ve just spent the last few days training up my niece in surfing” he hollered back, although it was only a small place, most people in the restaurant were surfers by the looks of them, and they were all yelling over the room to each other. Clearly this was a tight-knit community of people who knew each other well.

“Have you seen John-John yet? He was out today, in fact I’d imagine he’ll be coming in any minute now” the waiter yelled back, it was then that I noticed Dave had found us a table and sat down, so I quickly followed him and plopped down opposite him. In response the waiter’s question, Dave merely nodded and smiled, he clearly wasn’t listening to him.  

“No need to look at the menu, I’ve been here so many times I know it off by heart, so I’ll order the best thing there is!” Dave announced and went to place our order at the counter in the corner of the room. After he’d gone I occupied myself by watching what was going on in the bustling little restaurant, from the people who all knew each other and thought everything was ‘knarly’ to the more subdued people, who ate their food and left.

The lively little bell rang, signifying that someone had entered the diner, glancing up at the cherry red door I could see the shadowed silhouette of someone entering the diner, unfortunately their face could not be seen as the sun was shining through the glass in the door right behind them.