the CREW's LAST WRITES: Time Flies - Summer Of Shorebreak, notes from the Watt.

And I'm free, free fallin.' Yeah, I'm free, free fallin.' -Tom Petty
Shorebreak floater...nuthin' but sand. Holidays break, 8/19/2021.

It had been a couple weeks. August was a month full of visitors for myself and LWatt, however we were looking forward to getting back. And, we were sure that the Target was feeling a bit stir crazy himself, waiting...patiently...maybe. At least until we finally showed up. I had watched the surf reports, checked the cams. At low tide, nice, clean waist high rollers. Hurricane Henri (pronounced Anrey), was creating a nice bump to our wave selection. Coming up over the 66th Street dunes we could hear the waves crashing against the shore.

No aerials today.

When the break came into view, my worst fears were realized...high tide, and waist-plus high shorebreak. This has been the summer of shorebreak. That and the fact that our timing as of recent seems to coincide with high tide. Regardless, I still insisted there was potential, so I charged in, sitting about 20 yards out. Water was a comfortable 75F, with light winds blowing onshore. Air was in the mid 80s. The wind kept the bugs away from LWatt and Target, but not the humidity. The only cure was for me to finish up the jam time so we could get our posteriors off the beach. I managed to slip into a floater but backed off before landing it on the hardpack, and while that gave me hope for an even better ride it was not to be. Time flies when the waves are breaking on the beach- much to LWatt and Target's relief. We called it a session, and headed inland.

This evening's haunt was the new Tex-Mex Tequila Frogs replacing Ky West, a former Asian-American restaurant on 54th and Ocean Highway. Our last visit was in '13, eight years ago. Like I said, in this summer of shorebreak, time flies. As we saddled up to a high-top table we noticed the one big difference from previously was the place was much more crowded, which seemed to throw our waitress for a loop. She was dropping receipts, spilling salsa, losing track of our orders. We found ourselves keeping as much track of where the next beer was as we were eating and judging the food. Speaking of, after Target and I got our first beers from their very limited selection, the three of us made our selections: Spicy Queso and Chips (which we asked to come out first), Shrimp Quesadillas, and Chicken Fajitas.

Our chips came out as asked (it was here the waitress spilled the salsa/pico). We made quick order of them and ordered a 2nd basket of chips. Soon after the fajitas and quesadillas came out with one of the bartenders. We were still waiting for the refill of chips and asked the bartender to check which he quickly brought to us. The chips and queso were average...what else can you do with chips and queso? The fajitas were fair; the chicken had good spice, but was a little dry. The shrimp quesadillas were the night's winner. Cheesy, and loaded with shrimp. The TVs were loaded with preseason football (finally!), yet loud "South Beach-Miami" overshadowed them. And when we finally saw our waitress again the tab came, whoa...lemme just say, it was a good thing the beer was cold. It will be a while before we pay this frog bar another visit...that is if it's still around. We survived another week...our Journey continues.