I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had. I have had plenty of opportunities.

I’m thankful for a loving family that provides you with the roots to travel. When you come from that strong rootstock you can grow, you can blossom. There are a lot of people that don’t have that and then they can’t blossom. They’re into pure survival; all their trying to do is survive.

I’m thankful for that strong rootstock and all the love and support that keeps us moving through bad times and everything else.

Today I went from being a foam rider to being a big-wave rider with the encouragement of my husband. I spent days riding the foam, working on changing positions and putting foot forward, then the other. I was doing some cross-stepping.

Alan encouraged me to go off today. He said the waves were soft. He put me in the line-up and showed me where the sweet-spot was.

Finally he said: “Bequia, this one is it! Turn around, scoot forward on your board and paddle, paddle, paddle!”

It was amazing how I could tell how big the wave was by how much water was sucking up in front of the wave and into the vortex. All that water was moving towards the wave. I knew it was big, and not by turning my head and looking back. If I had I probably would’ve gotten freaked out.

But I knew it was going to be a big ride. So I paddled really hard, I rode it for a little bit on a belly just make sure that I was stable, and then I popped up. I took it to where it petered out, turned around, and paddled back out. I wanted two more, but none of them showed up.

Oh well, manana.