Three Boys, Two Boards, One Set of Fins

Today I sat in a narrow hammock made of a fishing net hung under a palapa on the beach. There are several palapas and a few fishing net hammocks like this along the this long, mostly deserted beach. 

The hammock wasn’t mine, nor did the other hammocks belong to the couple of teenagers who occupied them. The palapa over my head was fashioned by a person, or a group of people – not a municipality funded by tax dollars.

This hammock, this palapa, and even this stretch of beach, technically “belong” to someone. And yet no one was going to get upset if I was using their stuff, more likely someone would come by and asked if enjoying the amenities and if there was anything else I needed.

Sitting there in the hammock I was catching up with my mom who lives 4000 miles away. As we chatted on the phone, I saw three boys under the age of 12 show up with two beat up surfboards. Both were heavily duct taped and yellowed. I noticed the first board had only the side fins and was missing the center fin. I thought, how sad, and I wondered if maybe I had an extra to give to them. Then I noticed the the second board had only one middle fin and was missing the side fins. I looked again at the first board and realized that between the two boards there was one complete set of fins.

I thought of the spare set of name brand fins I had in my van.

But what if I break a fin? There is no place to buy a new one, plus they are expensive.  Also I have two boards with me that both use the same fins, it is nice not to have to change them out each time I want to use a different board.

The truth is I have a lot of fins in a bag in my van. I have two sets of Futures Quad fins, one large and one small, for different size waves. I also have a set of Futures Thrusters for boards with only three fins as opposed to four, also for a different kind of wave. Then I have a set of FCS 2 fins (a different brand that fits a different board) and a set of FCS 1 fins (for yet another type of fin box) along with plastic FCS 1 side fins, in case I want to ride an FCS board with a quad set up.

I have exactly the minimum number of fins required, no matter what board I want to use in any kind of waves. Each set of fins has a different purpose.

 I really don’t have extra…I mean I do, but don’t.

All three boys entered the water with the two boards and the one set of fins. Two of them surfed while the third boy body surfed. After a few minutes a complete rotation happened, the boy with two fins gave his board to the boy with one fin and the that boy gave the one finned board to the body surfer and the boy who originally had two fins went to the shorebreak to body surf.

I chatted with my mom for almost an hour while I watched the boys surf. My mom caught my up on all the family news. She told me about taking the power boat out on Lake Michigan and floating in tubes. She told me about swimming in the pool with the grandkids. She told me about my grandmother getting lost in a shopping mall between Bath And Body Works and H&M.

While we chatted I watched three boys surf with two boards and one set of fins and kept thinking of the bag full of fins that I “needed” back in the van.

After a while I left the beach and returned on foot back to the village. I passed by a home where an old woman, a young woman and several children were doing something in their outdoor kitchen. They called out to me to come inside the fence and say hello. They said they were making tortillas and asked if I’d like to see how.

One hour later they had fed me fresh tortillas cooked over a fire, avocado, pork rind, queso fresco, bananas and one other known fruit. Finally I grew tired of trying to communicate in Spanish and I told them I was going back to my van to go “descansar” or rest.

“Desonsa” The woman replied.

The best way to translate this is, “rest well”. Because at twelve in the afternoon on a tuesday, when all your basic needs are met – there is a palm frond roof over your head (never mind there are no walls), a belly full of hand made tortillas, and you have plenty of surfboard fins, there is nothing left do but “rest well.”

I’ve seen a lot of interesting things here in Oaxaca. What I haven’t seen is rush hour traffic or people checking email while standing in lines. I haven’t seen any drive through restaurants or people eating while on the run. I’ve had a lot of interesting conversions too which usually last quite a long time and normally end with, “I’m going to go rest now.” I’ve never once heard a conversion end with, “Hey listen, sorry I gotta cut this short, I just have some much to do.” or “Sorry I can’t stay and catch up, I’m just so busy right now.”

Now look, I enjoy surfing on unbroken equipment with the correct number of fins. I enjoy shopping with my grandma, swimming in the pool with my nieces and nephews, riding in my dad’s boat, showering in an actually shower and sleeping in AC. But I’m about to close this computer and close my eyes and “descansar” in a hammock under a palapa at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday after having spend most of the morning building relationships.

Life is always a trade off. I’m thankful I have enough money to buy surfboard fins, but I can see how useless they are in finding happiness.

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