Over the past few weeks I have been feeling a bit nostalgic,
so like any dad who feels like reliving the past, I went out to my garage. Now,
why would I go to the garage you may ask. Great question! I went to the garage
because, if you know me for any period of time, you will know that, no matter
where I live, I have a magic garage.
Side Note: I have a reputation for keeping things. I’m not a
hoarder, but I could be. My garage holds some of the most amazing treasures. I
had a friend that used to say “Whatever you need just ask Butch to see if he
has it in his garage.” Yes, sometimes I did have things that people needed or
we needed for ministry. I didn’t get the title of Kid Ministry MacGyver for
nothing. That, my friends is another story itself, for another time.
So, I went to my garage and found a box of old video tapes
that held our family history. Looking though these tapes made me realize that
we could have had a video on America’s Funniest Videos every week for an entire
year. It also jogged my memory of our first video camera and the time we took
it on vacation.
Our oldest son, Ben, was just turning two. This would have
been our first real family vacation. So, Chrissy and I decided to go back to
the place where we spent our honeymoon, Assateague Island, in Maryland, close
to Ocean City. Since we enjoyed the area so much, we wanted to go back to the
place where we created some very special memories camping on the beach.
Side Note: Honeymooning on the beach sounds super romantic,
and we thought so too, when we planned it. Let’s just say, sand plus newlyweds
in a small pup tent on a beach teeming with wild horses while a hurricane heads
inland creates a situation that could test even the strongest of marriages. I almost
forgot about the pesky state bird, otherwise known as the mosquito
Back to the vacation. We made plans to vist Assateague Island
for a day while camping on the mainland at a nice wooded campground in Ocean
City, that sprayed for mosquitoes.
Packing for our big day at the beach, I kept in mind that
this was our two-year-old son’s first time to the ocean. All the things that my
mom had warned me about ran through my head. “Watch out for the undertow, when
you were a baby you got rolled so bad that you had sand for days coming out of
you.” And Chrissy’s Nanny, “Don’t forget to put a lot of sun screen on.” With
all these voices in my head, I could hardly hear myself think. The biggest
thing in my mind was making sure we had the cameras, the regular one and the
video camera too.
On this special day, I thought to myself (louder than all
the other voices), “I want my boy to have a great time at the beach. He needs a
boogie board! Yeah, he’ll love a boogie board!” I really don’t know why I
thought that. Still, we stopped on the way to the beach at a small store to buy
the cheapest styrofoam boogie board I could find because things were tight on
this vacation. Once I had boogie board loaded in the car, we were set to go. Whoo-hoo
off to the beach! On the way into the beach area, we saw the wild horses, this
was a plus. They just roam anywhere and everywhere they please; it’s very cool!
We even have a picture of one sticking its head in our car window!
Finally, at the beach, we grabbed all our stuff and headed
down to the water to pick our spot for the day. It was great, the sun was
shining, temperature was perfect with a nice cool breeze blowing. As the wind
blew off the waves, it picked up salt that you could taste from the mist of the
crashing waves, it was a gorgeous July day. The best part was that the beach
was not very crowded.
We did all the things you would imagine parents doing with
their child at the seashore for the first time. Ben loved playing in the
lapping waves of the ocean. Chrissy took pictures and occasionally, we would
use the camcorder to capture some priceless moments for our little family.
After a while, I took the boogie board down to the water for
Ben to ride. I placed him on it, sitting down. I don’t know what I expected to
happen, but here’s what did happen. A wave came in and knocked him right off. Epic
dad fail on this one, I thought. So, I marched my sand-covered, squalling son
up to his mother, so she could comfort him. After all, I had just let him get
tossed around by the ocean tide.
So then, me being me, I decided to show my son that boogie
boards could be fun. I said, “Ben, watch Daddy do it!” I grabbed the boogie board,
and ran down to the water. I waded out into deeper water and waited for just
the right wave to roll in. I looked out to see if Ben is watching, and I saw
Chrissy getting the camcorder ready.
And then it was now or never; the water sucked back and I
knew it was going to be a big one. I readied the board and jumped as high as my
short legs would take me and landed on the crest of the wave! I remember
thinking, “This is awesome! I’m riding a wave! Yes!”
I jumped off the board just before the wave crashed down onto
the sandy beach. I ran up to Chrissy and Ben, out of breath, and exclaimed “I
did it! Did you see that! I was great!
Yeah baby!”
Chrissy said, “Sorry, I didn’t get it you’ll have to go do
it again.” I now believe she secretly knew what would happen next and just wanted
to egg me on to make sure it happened. I was, oh, too willing. I was like a dog
playing fetch with his favorite ball. You know right before the dog’s master tosses
the ball, he’s so excited to get the ball. Yup, that was me.
So Chrissy readied the camera, ben sat playing at her feet.
I galloped down to the edge of the ocean with the boogie board over my head
like I was some champion surfer ready to rip some gnarly swells. I made my way
through the crashing waves out quite a bit further than before. I positioned
myself, and waited for the perfect wave.
I could see Chrissy recording as I waited for my dream wave.
I waved to her with a thumb up. I was ready for this epic moment. Just then the
water powerfully pulled quickly past my legs sucking my feet into the sand. I
looked over my shoulder this was a huge wave! It was quickly rolling towards me,
building momentum. Higher and higher it went.
I bent at my knees and with all I had jumped into the air at
just the right moment to be caught on the top of the wave. Cowabunga dude! I
was riding on top of this wave! The rush of water around me was exhilarating,
the adrenaline was pumping though my body. It was like the rush you get when riding
a smooth roller coaster, but a 100 times better. The wave was accelerating, and
with every foot it got closer to its crashing destination.
Then, just before I could jump off the boogie board, the
wave took me by surprise curling under me only to drop me, fast and hard head-first
onto the shore. I hit the sand with an audible crunch. I was involuntarily
rolling through the water, gasping for air. I could feel my heart pounding. I
clawed at the shifting sand to get my balance and pull myself up out of the
water. I shook off the water from my head and wiped the salt from my eyes. I
could feel sand in places you never want to feel sand.
What seemed like an eternity only took seconds. I crawled to
my knees. Still being pummeled by aftershock waves. The tide rolled out enough
for me to get to my feet and somewhat get my bearings.
I desperately looked for my wife on the beach. I thought to
myself well, that was definitely spectacular! Though blurry eyes, I saw Chrissy
laughing hysterically all the while frantically tring to get the camera lined
up with where I was now standing. I waved to her laughing all the while trying
to get some forward motion going.
There are those times in life when things happen, and you
know you just came through something that could have had disastrous results,
only to realize the worst had not hit yet.
That is when I felt it. The cool breeze and water lapping
bare skin in a place, well, a place that should have been covered. I looked
down and terror struck me to the core only to realize that my swim trunks were
gone. I quickly threw myself down into the shallow water. Fumbling around like
a fish out of water. I was flopping around as I tried to grab my shorts that
had luckily got hung up on one of my feet.
I quickly maneuvered my other leg into my swim shorts and
pulled them up, filling them with even more sand in the process. I
embarrassingly looked around to see who else had caught an eye full of me in all
my God-given glory. To my surprise, I didn’t see anyone running in horror or
pointing and laughing, well, no one except Chrissy.
Side Note: Thinking back to this experience, all I can think
of is the You Tube song, “Pants on the ground, Pants on the ground, look’n like
a fool with your pants on the ground!” That was me. I was a naked fool!
My attention then turned to retrieving my white Styrofoam
boogie board. After paying good money for it, I wasn’t going to lose this
thing. Right at that moment, I felt something smack me in the back of my legs.
I turned to see what it was-- it was a piece of Styrofoam. I bent over and
grabbed it for a closer examination. It looked like a piece of someone’s boogie
board, I wondered who broke their boogie board. As I look down the beach, I saw 2 more white
pieces being pushed up on the beach and it sadly occurred to me that it was my
boogie board.
I gathered my wits, picked up what was left of my pride, and
retrieved the rest of what was left of the board. I than sheepishly slogged up
to Chrissy and Ben. Chrissy was reviewing her newly captured footage of my
major wipeout. She looked up at me, snickering all the while and said “This is
going to get us 10,000 dollars!” Then she disappointedly said, “Oh no! I missed
you losing your shorts! I guess I just couldn’t find you in the camera. Darn,
that would have been awesome,” she said. We both laughed, and I sat down to
nurse my wounds.
Not only did I lose my shorts, demolish a boogie board and
hurt some of my pride, I also had bright red welts across my chest and under my
chin where the board had hit me when it exploded under the impact of the wave.
I was a washed-up man.
Life has always been an adventure with the Hunter Clan-- even
at the very beginning!
