Endless Summer
- Dave Vanderveen
“Too much of a good thing is wonderful.” Mae West.
Sometimes life is too good in Laguna Beach. When the water is in the high 60s and low 70s, I really wish I could grow gills or at least fur and flippers. Now with the massive kelp forests growing on the outer reefs, the combination of calm water and sea-life creates non-stop Jacque Cousteau moments.
It’s too easy to slip away between conference calls, emails and meetings to sneak in a surf session or ocean swim. Between multiple surf sessions a day, standup paddling to private coves and almost having a head-on collision with an eagle ray, my body had had enough.
After what seemed like two weeks of non-stop swell, ocean swimming and tennis, I had to go to rehab. But here in Laguna Beach, even rehab can be wonderful.
Saturday morning, my shoulder and lower back were in knots, so my wife Sarah and I headed down to Yoga Works for a an hour of Geo’s power yoga. The music is always a surprising new mix. Last week it was all jazz. (Sarah has blogged about doing yoga to Lyle Lovett in one of Geo’s classes.)
I keep promising myself that I’m going to write down Geo’s affirmations…something about “it’s not the goals in life, but the life between the goals” and “as you watch your breath, remember that you’re special.” My favorite is how he closes, “Let the light in your heart guide you from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real and from fear into love.”
Apologies to Geo if I’m not getting his words exactly right, but when you experience his positive energy, all the negative of the week washes away.
As wonderful as power yoga is, I ended up paddling my 7-year-old goddaughter, Catherine Herrick, into her first waves at Hakama on Saturday and Sunday as well as sneaking in an ocean swim with Peter Davidson out through the blow hole with a hot lap around Moss Point. I was in knots again by Sunday night.
So on Monday, I took a day off and headed to Life in Balance to see Drs. Gary Arthur and Cynthia Costa (yes, it took two of them to fix me). After a series of pneumatic hammering and adjusting, I’m looking forward to getting my gills wet again tomorrow, although at a slower pace. Sometimes surviving the good life is work too.
David Vanderveen is a Laguna Beach resident, husband, father and energy drink entrepreneur. His email is [email protected].
